Here is the latest update from Open Doors for Refugees about the expected Syrian refugees coming to Madison. Open Doors is looking for furniture, household items, and gift certificates for the families.
Dear Friends,
There’s been a tremendous outpouring of support for Open Doors, especially since the election. Thanks to all of you who’ve contacted us. Keeping you informed and engaged, our third-Wednesday-of-the-month general meeting is next week, December 21st,at 7:00 PM. This time it’ll be at Beth Israel Center, 1406 Mound St. Everyone is invited.
160 refugees are slated to come to Madison this fiscal year (October-September), 110 through Lutheran Social Services and 50 through Jewish Social Services. LSS has already settled several families this year (and many in years past), while JSS is about to receive their first family. While the future of the refugee program is very uncertain, it looks like it’ll be very busy for the next few months.
And with the influx of refugees, we need donations of furniture and household items. The number of refugee families coming in the next few weeks will more than deplete the donations we have on hand (which we had to stop collecting because we had run out of storage room). However, we’ve recently received additional storage space, we especially need furniture at this time, and we have room to put more of it. If you’d like to donate either furniture or household items (sorry no clothes), please email us at OpenDoorsForRefugees@gmail.com for more information about what we need, pacing the donations, and scheduling a pickup of larger items.
Finally we’ve set up a gift certificate program, which is a great and more direct way to help refugees. Donors get a choice of where to get gift cards, all gift cards will go directly to refugees, and refugees will get purchase choice, which they don’t otherwise often get.
Interested in getting involved? We have our December meeting coming up and would love to see you there!
Time: 7:00-8:30 PM
Location: Temple Beth Israel
1406 Mound St.
Madison, WI 53711
OpenDoorsForRefugees@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/OpenDoorsForRefugees/
http://www.opendoorsforrefugees.org/