First Refugee Arrivals

I'm copying and pasting Janel's blog post about the first refugee arrivals. It is so exciting! Burma is a neighboring country to Thailand, where I lived for two years, so I would LOVE to go meet the Burmese refugees who are coming and help them. But, Jason says we have a few things going on here. :) Okay, okay, he is right! For now, I'll just keep encouraging everyone to see what you can do to donate some items and I'll offer to drive the donations to Ankeny. I think they will need donations for the next several months.

First Arrivals!

WOW…the donations are already pouring in!!! Thank you to everyone who is spreading the word about this need and dropping off donations at the gym. We are getting so much great stuff! Just wanted to do one more post on this so that you could see this organization in action! On Wednesday, the first family of refugees arrived at the Des Moines airport. Valerie shared some pictures with us and said I could share them here on the blog.

Here is the little family from Burma. Their total travel time was 22 hours! Their little girl is 10 months old.

And here they are being shown the ropes at their new apartment in Des Moines.

And here is a collage of items that were donated and set up in their apartment (table & chairs, baby clothes, bed frame, mattress, sheets, comforter, pack n’ play, and toys). Just wanted you to see that your donations are going to be used!!!!!!!!!!!

For this family USCRI had to purchase the couch, lighting, toiletries, a few of the kitchen items, and food with their government allotted money (most purchases were made at the Salvation Army). Now that the word is out, I think there will be no problem in getting every single item donated that is needed for the refugees apartments.

Thanks again for contributing to this need and for spreading the word!