How to help

Here are ways you can help:

• Driving to deliver groceries, household supplies, and/or furniture by signing up for our WhatsApp group.
• Housing & Employment Leads When refugees first arrive in this country, they have no credit history or employment, making landlords hesitant to rent to them. Assistance in locating housing and/or jobs is the fundamental way to help them succeed. Please share housing or employment referrals and/or indicate a willingness to co-sign on a lease: https://mcceastbay.org/cosigner
• Donate to Afghan Refugee Support Fund MCC and SRVIC are in for the long haul, and we need your support. Your financial donations are needed now more than ever to ensure we have the funds to support new refugees: https://mcceastbay.org/refugee-fund
• We have quarterly bazaars coming up. Please sign up to give rides to refugees, translate, or help with set-up, clean-up, and bazaar operations.
• Sign up to volunteer with sorting and food delivery at the food pantry.
• Please purchase online household items for apartment furnishing that will ship directly to MCC using our Amazon apartment set-up gift list.
• The primary needed items remaining are Amazon gift cards, unlocked cell phones, and Chromebooks. Message refugee@mcceastbay.org
• Volunteer This form adds you to our leading volunteer sign-up form for updates and future opportunities.

How to receive help

Rental Assistance & Food

Thank you for allowing us the privilege to help you and your family.

To learn how we can partner with your family, please complete our application for:

• Zakat/Sadaqa Fund: This will give us the best idea of how we can help you. Here is our online application: https://mcceastbay.org/zakat-application
• Pantry: Please allow us to deliver food, diapers, or other everyday essentials to your doorstep: https://mcceastbay.org/pantry-request
• ESL: Please contact Las Positas Community College, Pleasanton Adult & Career Education, or email the SRVIC-MCC Refugee team.
• WhatsApp Job Board: https://mcceastbay.org/job
• Vehicle Waiting List Program: To be added to the waitlist: https://mcceastbay.org/vehicle-form
• Burial/funeral assistance: HTTP://mcceastbay.org/burial
• Mental Health services: https://mcceastbay.org/counseling/
• Immigration attorney referrals: https://mcceastbay.org/immigration/

Other Resources

• MCC East Bay: Immigration Attorneys in Bay Area
• CAIR California: Immigration & Policy Resources For Afghanistan
• Maisie McCormack: Leaving Afghanistan
• City of Fremont: Afghan Refugee Fund
• PARS Center: Legal services

Sponsoring a Family in Afghanistan

• The SRVIC-MCC does not sponsor families. Please see this information sheet.
• Please see CAIR-LA’s page here.
• The 5Ive Pillars Organization here.

Questions? refugee@mcceastbay.org

In-Kind Assistance

• Household furniture items needed for setting up apartments: https://mcceastbay.org/furniture
• Clothes and household items for setting up apartments: https://mcceastbay.org/clothing
• Toys needed for specific-age groups: https://mcceastbay.org/amazon
• The MCC Car Program has facilitated the donation of 150 vehicles to date and has a long waiting list of refugees: https://mcceastbay.org/car-program
• Bicycles are an evergreen ask from refugees. Please let us know if you have a new or gently used bicycle for any age to donate: https://mcceastbay.org/bicycle
• Food pantry: We need help filling the shelves and stocking up on ethnic food items. See what’s required: https://mcceastbay.org/pantry-donations
• Cell phones, very gently used and fully unlocked from any carrier company, are required. Chargers need to be included. We also accept gently used, entirely wiped laptops and Chromebooks, complete with chargers. Please send a message to refugee@mcceastbay.org to arrange to drop off.

Foster Care

• For those who speak Dari, Farsi, Pashto, or Arabic and are open to fostering Afghan children, please get in touch with Alameda County Social Services, Department of Children & Family Services by visiting their website and completing the contact form or by calling the Alameda County Adoption and Foster Care Hotline at (510) 259-3575.
• To support unaccompanied Afghan minors in the Bay Area, please contact Kelsey Coplin, Community Coordinator, Refugee Foster Care Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, kcoplin@catholiccharitiesscc.org or 408.325.5273.
• For housing assistance, the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Refugee Programs Bureau.

Other Ways to Help

• The SRVIC-MCC Refugee Team is helping resettlement efforts only in the Bay Area. Here are some local nonprofit organizations that are sending humanitarian aid overseas to Afghanistan:
  • Al-Misbaah Resource Center
  • HHRD
  • IRUSA
  • Zakat Foundation of America
  • Launchgood has also set up a page to donate to help the deserving in Afghanistan here.

Questions or comments? refugee@mcceastbay.org