Help Sidra Reunite Her Family!

Please help us help Sidra, reunite her family!

We are deeply honored to be launching this GoFundMe campaign on behalf of our dear friend and mentor, Sidra Rashid. Sidra is a 19-year-old Syrian Kurdish American women, impassioned with the hope and determination to be reunited with her five cousins, now stuck in tenement housing in Lebanon.

The Khalaf family earned UN refugee status back in 2013, at the same time that Sidra’s family did. Last year, Sidra’s family of 7 all became US citizens, while her cousins continue to face a very uncertain future with the looming threat of war in Lebanon.

Sidra has recently reached out to us for assistance, after finding out about Welcome Corps, an organization launched in 2023 by the U.S. State Department in cooperation with numerous non-profit organizations:

“Welcome Corps is the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in more than 40 years…a new service opportunity for Americans interested in welcoming refugees seeking freedom and safety.” ( WelcomeCorps.org)

As sponsors, we will assist the Khalaf family once they arrive, by helping them find safe and comfortable housing. We will also help them navigate the channels to get the children in school, find doctors and dentists, procure jobs and make the adjustments needed to begin fulfilling and productive lives in our country.

To help them, we need to raise $2,425 per person (a total of $16,975) for resettlement costs in the USA. We cannot start the process with Welcome Corps until we have at least half of this amount. WE WELCOME YOUR SUPPORT!

The Khalaf family has been through a great deal. They escaped the war in Syria in 2011 by walking to Lebanon where they have been living ever since. Among all their extended family, they are the only ones remaining in refugee status abroad.

“My cousins have had a lot of struggles,” Sidra tells us. “They live in poverty where it’s hard for them to have even a basic life.” Her aunt and uncle have told her they hope “to get the kids to a safe place where they don’t always have to be scared of war, and for them to have a better future and a better education. Even though we escaped Syria because of the war,” her aunt says, “now the war is starting in Lebanon and we are terrified.”

We’ve known Sidra since she was 11 years old. She is currently a student at Olympic College, here in Washington State. She was enrolled in Running Start in high school, while also holding down a part-time job and volunteering at a local foodbank and hospital. She graduated with a year of college already under her belt. She continues her volunteer efforts in the community while going to college, with hopes of becoming a doctor.

However, it has been a long road. Imagine: Sidra’s family arrived in Port Orchard, Washington, to begin a new life. Parents, four children facing a whole new world! Then, upon their arrival, the family’s sponsor changed his mind, leaving them with no place to go.

Congressman Derek Kilmer’s office got involved and found housing for the family. When we found out about their plight, we became involved in helping them with their resettlement needs as well as establishing a closer – and on-going – personal bond with the family.

Several of us had served on humanitarian delegations to Lesvos, Greece, in 2015, under the auspices of Seattle-based SCM Medical Missions (SCMMedicalMissions.org). Upon our return, we made a commitment to be involved with Syrian refugee families relocating in our area. We learned of Sidra’s family’s situation through SCM. We’ve been part of each other’s families ever since! A connection that feeds our collective souls.

More about Sidra—

At just 11 years of age, Sidra quickly picked up the language and became the family spokesperson. She was an inspiration from the first day we met her!

Having two special-needs siblings and parents with much more limited English, she became — and remains—the manager of all the family affairs.

Her family has hosted several newly-arrived Syrian Kurdish immigrant families in their home and helped with their resettlement needs. Their kindness and tireless efforts to ease the stresses of moving to a new country is a lesson for us all.

We believe it is time to help Sidra become reunited with her extended family.

Will you please join our efforts to do just that, by making a donation today?

Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Alice Mendoza

Ellin Spenser

Kelly Webster

Bonny Danielson