BMPC VOLUNTEERS PROVIDE SUPPORT TO AFGHAN WOMEN

By: Elena Perri

Nearly 76,000 Afghan refugees have arrived in the United States since fleeing their country after U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.

The BMPC Refugee Support Committee soon began working with the Nationalities Service Center to welcome the Sepah family to the church campus in December 2021. The family lived on campus until last summer when they moved into a home in the local community.

Brooke McInnes, a member of the Refugee Support Committee, and Barb Morse, a new church member, identified a need to bring Afghan women together at BMPC. While the initial focus was on teaching the women English, the Afghan Women’s Group now provides an ongoing opportunity for the women to socialize and support one another.

The group, which began last April, meets approximately every six weeks in the Education Building. Volunteers provide child care during these gatherings.

“At one meeting, we took all the women into the room and made sure they knew each other, and then we went to another room to babysit, and we just left them,” Brooke said. “When the time was up, we went back in, but they weren’t ready to stop. So then we sat down and listened to what they were talking about.”

Barb, who became a BMPC member last May, said her friend Linda Gamble, a longtime church member, introduced her to the Refugee Support Committee. “She knew that I was recently retired and looking for something to do to help others,” Barbara said. “I met so many wonderful like-minded people that I decided to join the church and have been pretty involved with helping the Afghan refugees.”

Barb noted that the group started with four women and has grown to approximately nine women who come from area churches – St. Thomas of Villanova, Main Line Unitarian Church, and Church of the Saviour in Wayne.

Barb and Brooke connected with staff at these churches which led to the formation of an Afghan Women’s Group Steering Committee. “We’ve been contacting each other to share tips, to help each other with problems, to help each other’s families,” Barb said. “We’ve also met to brainstorm how we can work together on what our family’s problems are.”

The staff members they have worked with include Cathy Van Kula from St. Thomas of Villanova, Nuala Carpenter from Main Line Unitarian, and Phuong Lee and Silvia Kwak from Church of the Saviour.

Barb noted that tapping into the knowledge of the other church staff members has been invaluable. “It’s just incredible the amount of contact between all of us gals at the various churches who are working with refugees to share and help each other,” she said. “We’ve learned a lot from each other as well as had fun.”

The resiliency of the Afghan women and their families has been remarkable to witness, according to Brooke and Barb.

“I can’t even imagine going through this experience,” Brooke said. “They have the trauma of being in Afghanistan with all this chaos going on, and they had to get to the (Kabul) airport, which was a feat in itself and dangerous too.

“We’ve heard their stories, which are just so awe inspiring. Each one of them has a different story, which puts a face to all the news we’ve been hearing, and so we have learned to admire them a lot.”

Barb added that the Afghan refugees can talk with their family members in Afghanistan through an app called WhatsApp, and they are very concerned about them because they have no work, no money and no food. “This causes a tremendous amount of worry for our Afghan friends here because they’re living a very nice, comfortable, safe life, and their parents or their brothers and sisters are over there starving,” she said. “It’s horrible.”

While Barb and Brooke have spent many hours helping the refugee families, they have gained much from their interactions with them.

“For me, this whole thing has been life changing in a very positive way,” Barb said.

“I think we’ve learned as much from these women as we’ve given to them,” Brooke added. “They’ve given us just as much back in terms of friendship, and also more awareness of the world and what people are going through. I feel lucky that I got this opportunity. It spoke to me, and it’s really fun.”