From November 13, 2023
What do we mean when we use the term refugee? What is an an asylum seeker, a stateless person, an internally displaced person ( IDP )? Read the definitions that we use from the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR).
From November 1, 2023
Asylum seekers are encountering a broken immigration system delaying their cases to be adducted, Read about how Thousands of Afghans Seek Asylum in US, Congress Yet to Pass Adjustment Act
From July 1, 2023
This Time Magazine Article of 6/29/23 identifies the difficulties and challenges that many Afghans who were left behind from the evacuation in August 2021, are facing. The same is true for many here in San Diego County who we are helping. The biggest need for them is housing. Most are ending up here, exhausted from their long difficult journeys, with little or no money and not able to rent an apartment without having a regular paying job and a credit history. Some of our new friends are in shelters, while many are staying with local Afghan families who are struggling themselves. Some are stuck in hotels with nowhere to go. We are regularly serving some of these families with the greatest needs of shelter and food. We also are helping connect them with local immigration attorneys to help them through the challenging process of applying for asylum. As the article says, when they do finally send in their application, they need to wait another five months to obtain permission to legally work in the USA.
We also are providing weekly sewing and driving classes for Afghan women, a men’s English class, and our after school tutoring program we call Learning Bridge.
We are thankful for the many volunteers who give of their time and energy to welcoming these newcomers and building friendships. Our volunteers come from many different churches and denominations. Since we are not a government supported agency, we rely solely on the generosity of churches, God’s people, and other non-profits for support.
When you support Bridge Builders Network’s Welcoming Afghans Initiative, you are helping these newcomers overcome many challenges while building genuine friendships, providing hope for the future, and facilitating healing from the trauma of war and forced displacement.
From May 26, 2023
Here is the story of many who are here now making the long dangerous trip through jungles, facing constant bribes, and then ultimately feeling rejected once in the USA by a government that doesn’t seem to care. But we care and we know that you care! Please support us financially in our efforts to welcome these new neighbors who are only seeking safety, freedom, and a future for their children.
From May 12, 2023
We continue to host weekly programs for many men, women, and school age children at our Center, serving those who initially came in the fall 2021 - spring 2022. Our work continues with providing ongoing help for newly arriving refugees, fleeing for their lives from the Taliban, and seeking refuge in the USA. These brave people come to us with urgent needs for housing, food, clothing, medical care, and help with their immigration documents. We have been finding some housing for families but there is still a great need for hosting both individual men and women, as well as families. We find that all of the local shelters are full. If you are willing to provide any kind of housing, short or long term, please contact us. We do need ongoing funding partners for our work, so we invite you to consider giving a one time generous tax-deductible gift, or better yet. to support us monthly. You can use the donation button is on the right of this page or send a check to BBN PO Box 9041 San Diego, CA 92169
Our WAI leadership team met recently and came up with the following to help clearly explain our vision and values to newcomers, our partners, and visitors to our Center:
At Bridge Builders we seek to be welcoming, respectful, understanding, and caring
We value:
Building friendships across cultures
Learning & Creativity
Faith & Freedom
Personal Responsibility & Integrity
From January 19, 2023
Thousands of Afghans were given visas to fly to Brazil in recent months. Many are taking the treacherous journey through the jungles of South and Central America and coming across the US border from Mexico, seeking asylum. Most of these refugees have no money, no place to live and are not eligible to receive any funds from federal programs. Some are families but many are men who have fled the Taliban hoping to bring their wives and families here. Many are coming to our Center and we are helping them with applications for help through the State of California, and introducing them to immigration local attorneys to begin the long drawn out process of being accepted as a refugee and eventually receiving permanent residence status. They have many needs and a long journey ahead. If you want more information or want to help us help them, please write us
You can help support our work in coming along side these new refugees financially by clicking the button below.
From November 15, 2022
Current ongoing programs we are offering include men’s ESL & driving class, women’s sewing, kids tutoring program, special events, welcoming newly arrived families. We are planning to offer women’s ESL & driving class soon. We are in need of financial partners to be able to continue supporting our staff and programs. Please write us for information about any of these programs and consider donating to our work. Information about donating is found on this page.
From May 9, 2022
A few new families are still arriving from neighboring countries or US bases in the Middle East. Of the ones who have been here in the USA since fall 2021, some are finding long term housing, but many are still in hotels. Our focus is shifting as we continue to reaching out to families in all three of those situations and we are now offering the following programs:
Men’s Driving Class
Men’s ESL classes
Women’s sewing
Tutoring for school children
Providing used bicycles for adults
Special group events with local church partners
Almost all of these families attending these programs do not have cars yet, but we are thanking God that we have had donated to us another passenger van, from one of our friends at Bridge of Hope who are serving Afghan families. We are also thankful for the San Diego office of Jane Oak Law Firm for their partnership providing immigration clinics.
CURRENT NEEDS
A female to volunteer to drive our van to bring women to our sewing program and kids to tutoring.
Finances to support our staff and overhead expenses
Church partners and families willing to develop friendships with families who need local friends to help with transportation and willing to be hosted as guests in their hotel rooms or in their homes.
Please write us for information about any of these programs and consider donating to our work. Information about donating is found on this page.
From September 18, 2021
With the complete withdrawal of the US military from Afghanistan, Afghan interpreters with their families fleeing Taliban rule are already arriving in cities across the USA. Afghan refugees and SIVs (Special Immigrant Visa ) in the past have been resettled in California and Texas more than any other states, and this pattern is expected to continue, with refugees wanting to resettle where relatives and friends already live, and where Afghan communities already exist. Local refugee resettlement agencies are expecting several hundred families to be resettled in San Diego & El Cajon, CA, during these next months and are likely to be overrun in their capacity to provide for the newly arriving families sent to them, as was the case with Syrians arriving in the summer and fall of 2016.
In addition to these Afghan families who are resettled through local resettlement agencies after going through a strict vetting process, many will arrive with a different status, seeking official asylum, registering through the US State Department’s Humanitarian Parole program. Consequently, many families are likely to arrive to San Diego County and other cities in California and Texas only to be living with families and friends without any of the support that those being assisted by the refugee resettlement agencies receive, such as cash assistance and food stamps. It will likely take weeks and months to process these new arrivals before they begin receiving the needed government help, and will be relying on family and friends for their support.
Bridge Builders Network seeks to serve and partner with local faith communities, non profits, and the local Afghan community in their efforts to welcome these new families, coming along side them in their transition to a new life in a new land.
Our goal is to bring hope to newly arriving Afghan families, that they would experience the feeling of being welcome, feeling like they belong, feeling safe, cared for, and developing new friendships built on trust and shared common values.
