Welcome to the Afghan Allies Project!
St. John’s Episcopal Church and an amazing team of volunteers supports Afghan refugees resettling in the our area.
The Afghan Allies project began in November 2021 when a small private foundation helped 8 families fleeing the fall of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan. These are people who worked with the U.S. military or other agencies, and face persecution under the Taliban regime. On arrival in Petaluma, they reached out to St. John’s for help, and we went to work recruiting volunteers to address a host of needs, from furnishing apartments, learning English, and finding employment, to enrolling children in schools and recreational activities. We connected them with the array of medical, legal, educational and other services in our community. And we introduced them to a very special group of volunteers, the “Family Friends,” who have befriended them and helped them feel at home here.
A year later, finding new homes.
This has been a challenging and rewarding journey for everyone. Thanks to their own hard work and resourcefulness, and an amazing outpouring of generosity and kindness, these families have made great progress in establishing new lives in the USA. Now, a year later, their original sponsoring foundation is allowing their apartment leases to expire. Because the rents on those apartments is too high for them to renew those leases in their own names, our Afghan Ally families are looking for new homes to complete their transition to becoming fully self-sufficient. For a few of the families, this has meant relocating out of the area. Others have already secured lower-cost housing in Sonoma County. Some are still looking for places. Your donations enable us to ease this transition by helping with moving costs, move-in expenses, and short-term supplementation of rent payments.
Read the Newsletter.
There are numerous ways members of the Petaluma community can help. We need volunteers in various capacities, such as moving household goods (volunteers with trucks are especially needed), employment networking, English tutoring, driving lessons, and help with fundraising events.
If you are interested in volunteering please click the button below to indicate your interest and availability, and someone will be in touch with you soon.
How can I help?
If you would like to support the Afghan Allies Project with a monetary donation, you can contribute by clicking the button below and selecting “Afghan Allies Fund” from the dropdown menu.
You can also send a check to St. John’s Episcopal Church with “Afghan Allies” in the memo line.
Family Friends Program
Our goal is to pair each Afghan family with one or more “Family Friends” who are open to a life-changing experience.
The Family Friends program is the heart and soul of our project. Family Friends will befriend the new arrivals, learn their names and their stories, visit their homes, and welcome them into their own. They will help identify and meet their needs by drawing on the support of our larger volunteer network.
While cultural common denominators, such as the Muslim faith or Persian language, would be ideal for those wishing to participate in the Family Friends Program, people with those backgrounds are few in our community. So the rest of us will do our best, relying on the most basic common ground of all - our shared humanity. A minimum six-month commitment is required, with a two-hour orientation and training at the outset, and regular support meetings with other Family Friends.
Contact us!
If you have questions about volunteering or would like more information about the Afghan Allies Project, email us at allies.sjecp@gmail.com