Help Our Sudanese Refugee Friends in Chicago!

Hello!

Our team of seven friends welcomed a Sudanese refugee family to Chicago in July 2023. Through a local refugee resettlement agency and a ton of generosity already, the family of six has begun to find their footing: the father recently received his social security card and began working, and the four children are enrolled in Chicago public schools, playing sports, and making friends in their neighborhood.

We have learned a lot about refugees in this process. On average, refugees spend ten years in refugee camps awaiting placement by the UNHCR. Our friends spent 16 years in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Kakuma was the only home their children had known until moving to Chicago in July.

We also learned about the limited financial support provided to refugees. Refugees rely almost entirely on private non-profit organizations for support. They are required to pay back the cost of their flights to travel to the United States, and they have to do so while learning to shoulder the weight of normal living expenses.

Our friends have also begun to encounter medical expenses arising from years of untreated injuries and illnesses while living in Kakuma.

Our team spends a couple of nights each week hanging out with our Sudanese friends. We help them with schoolwork, learning English, learning to navigate the city and find necessities, and with anything else that comes up.

So far we have covered their unforeseen expenses out of pocket (e.g. groceries, cell phone bills, home repair, and CTA fees). This month, their rent subsidy provided by the refugee resettlement organization will end, and they will have to begin paying their $1,700 monthly rent on their own. We would like to give them a boost by raising $5,100 to cover three months of rent.

We appreciate anything you can give! It will make an immediate impact on our friends’ lives and will allow them to begin saving some of their income.

*We recently helped the family set up a bank account. For simplicity’s sake, your donations will first go to one of our bank accounts, and we will disburse to the donations to their account each month through Zelle.