Huntington Congregational Church
On Sunday September 24, Rev. Lucille Fritz of the Huntington Congregational Church introduced her congregation to the Albarghouth family – father Ahmad, mother Alaa, and their four children: Retal. Nada, Mohammad and Darien – which the Church’s Valley Refugee Resettlement Project (VRRP) resettled to Derby six months earlier. Mr. Albarghouth thanked the parish and the VRRP volunteers for supporting his family since their arrival in March. Rev. Fritz congratulated the family members on their assimilation progress and gifted them a check from the church.
Mr. Albarghouth related in brief remarks to the parishioners how he and his family left their home in Syria ten years ago when it was destroyed in a civil war. The parents walked to Amman, Jordan with their young daughter, Retal. During the next nine years, three children were born. Jordan was not welcoming to refugees, restricting them from driving and offering only limited opportunities for education. Work options were insufficient to support the family, and the decision was made to emigrate. It would be eight years before they were chosen by the US Department of State for entry into the US Refugee Assistance Program.
Today, the family resides in a Derby apartment and the children attend public school and Head Start. Mr. Albarghouth works at two part-time jobs and recently passed his CT DMV driving test. They have the loan of a van and will need a family car in the near future. A combination of State assistance and employment has made them financially independent.
The VRRP accomplished many milestones in this first effort at refugee resettlement: securing and furnishing an apartment; connecting the family with State and local programs and services, and education and health organizations; finding employment opportunities; creating business and banking accounts; helping pay rent costs initially; and introducing the American culture while learning about Arabic culture. The next step will be to help the family secure a reliable six-passenger vehicle of their own.
Several local community organizations were extremely helpful in making their transition successful, and notable mention goes to the Valley Community and Matthies foundations, Derby Public Schools, Spector Furniture, TEAM Head Start, Valley Regional Adult Education, Derby-Shelton Rotary and St Vincent de Paul food bank and thrift shoppe.
The VRR Project qualified to receive a refugee family after its volunteers completed several training modules and raised over $15,000 to become a Community Co-sponsor under the auspices of IRIS, Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Service of New Haven. As the VRRP volunteers’ engagement with the family lessens over the coming months, the Project will begin to consider the acceptance of another family to resettle locally. The Project will announce its plans in this regard.
Local residents and businesses can support these effort by donating funds and gifts via the Church website: Valley Refugee Resettlement Project – Huntington Congregational Church (huntingtonucc.org) or via a GoFundMe account: https://gofund.me/f503d48b. They may also email co-chair Rich Knoll at rknoll@snet.net.
