Khalaf Family

The Syrian refugee family we are sponsoring are getting settled in. They are delightful: friendly, outgoing, eager to learn English, and to get settled in America. We have taken them shopping for clothing essentials, but we still need many specific items. If you can help, please bring your donations to the box under the coat rack at UCE. Thank you!

Clothing for the Khalaf Family

We need the following specific items for our family. Everything should be good quality and in excellent condition – 
 

Women

Winter coat—long, black, xlarge
Winter gloves—black/grey, large
Leggings—black, sm/med
Boots—black, 7.5/8 and 9
Shirts/turtlenecks—muted colors, sm/med, xlarge
 

Men

Jeans—49 waist/23 long
Jeans—28 waist/28 long
Jeans—31 waist/28 long
Pants—khakis/dress pants, 49 waist/23 long
Shirts—pullover/polo, muted colors, medium, xlarge
Hoodies—muted colors, medium
Sweaters—muted colors, xlarge
Shoes—muted colors, 8, 9.5, 12
Boots—black, 8, 9.5, 12
Winter gloves—black/grey, large
Winter hats—black, knitted
Winter coats—medium and xlarge

We also need a large, deep cooking pot with lid.

Note: We can shorten men’s pants if needed.

The Refugee Team is busy preparing for the arrival of the Haj Khalaf family who will be arriving on Sept. 8th. The family fled from Syria in August of 2012 and have been living in a refugee camp in Turkey since then.  We will soon be welcoming Khaled (the father), Fattoum (the mother), Aya, (their 18-year-old daughter) and Uday (their 14-year-old son). We don’t yet know where their apartment will be located, but Refugee One is working on that now. The Apartment team will be busy cleaning and preparing it and the Furnishings team is ready to move loads of furniture and housewares into their new home. We will welcome the family at the airport and the mentors will start visiting the family and showing them how to do basic tasks such as grocery shopping, shopping for school, using the pharmacy, riding the “L”, etc. Mentors will also arrange for social outings for the family, so they get to know their new home city. We will mentor the family for a 6-month period.

Thanks again to everyone for their generous support (time, money, kind words.)  Additional donations are welcome, simply make a check to UCE with a notation that the donation is for refugee resettlement fund. Thank you, all!

The team working on sponsorship of the Syrian refugee family is gearing up for the next stage. We’ve raised the necessary funds, now we are gearing up for the arrival of the family in mid-September. But, we still need help!

Mentors: We need 5 more volunteers to sign up for this role. Our mentors will visit the family at least 6-10 times over the next year. Each mentor visits once every other month, although additional visits will be necessary in the first few months. It’s possible that our family won’t need help for an entire year, but we ask that mentors prepare for this possibility.  Mentors will help the family get used to living in the U.S., showing them how to shop in a grocery store, use the CTA, or explain other everyday parts of life. Mentors also arrange for social events to help the family become more familiar with the Chicagoland area and to have fun together.  If you want to ease this family’s transition, please contact Jane Kenamore at jkenamore@ameritech.net.

Furnishings team: This team had already done a great deal of work, but needs some additional help during the family’s move-in period (most likely mid-September). We need one additional volunteer who would help organize the moving of furniture and housewares into the family’s apartment. For more details, Contact Marilyn Wroblewski at mwroblew1109@gmail.com.

Providing rides to appointments  If you could help take members of the family to appointments with your car. please contact Jeanne Kerl at figkerl@gmail.com.  We are anticipating that they will need this help, so we are asking for several people to be on call.

Many thanks to all of our gracious, generous donors and to the volunteers who have already put in lots of time in preparation for the arrival of the family.

—The Refugee Family team