Want to help a recent Afghan family arrival to the US. Mother, father, two children ages 3 years and 18 months. What can I buy that they would find useful and would actually like. What kind of clothes, toys, games, electronics would be of value?
A couple of kid gifts might be appreciated and show respect. But, if money is the issue, why not fund some gift cards, and take them shopping (or just take them and pay for it)? Then they can have some personal agency in choosing what they want and need.
But be cognizant that charity can be a little sticky. Sure, people want money and food and stuff, but what they most want is control over their own lives. And, depending on their personal values, they don’t want to feel beholden to other. So, just make sure your efforts are indeed welcome.
Carseats?
What part of the country?
A little early for it, the stock likely isn’t in the stores yet, but winter coats and gloves would likely be much appreciated if they’re anywhere it snows.
If someone hasn’t already done so, you might help them locate the nearest mosque or Islamic Center, Also, a Middle Eastern or Indian grocery store. If you can help them acquire drivers’ licenses, that would be good. In the meantime, you could help them figure out the bus schedule. And, obviously, if you can connect them with the local Afghani community, that would also be helpful.
If they are very recent arrivals, and came as refugees or SIVs, then you should just contact their resettlement agency and ask their case manager how you can help. If they’ve been here for a while, they could be recipients of TANF, and you could cantact whatever agency in your state administers that. Or you could just ask them. If they’re SIVs, then probably at least one member of the family was an interpreter, and speaks English well. Ask him (it’s probably the father) how they like their new city, and say you’re glad to answer any questions about it.
Non-spurious Dicking Cream.
I would say, be careful, and go through whoever brought them here, and make sure they want this charity and will accept it. A friend was helping (or thought she was) a recently relocated Afghan family through her church, and they contributed enough to get quite a few very nice baby things for the woman’s newborn child, and to handmake others (blankets, booties, and such). All of which the mother threw away because they were gifts from infidels. (They were Methodists. There are many Muslims that don’t consider Methodists infidels. But, apparently, this one did.)
Huh. My synagogue is sponsoring a couple of Iraqi refugee families, formally, through their resettlement agency. It has not been an issue that we are all infidels.
But I would agree both that you should contact their resettlement agency, and also that you should be careful not to interfere with whatever degree of control over their lives they can manage. For example, the team that prepared the apartments for our families:
Took photos of furniture members offered to donate, and let the families select which items they wanted.
Stocked the kitchens with some very basic items, but did not, for instance, buy spices. Instead, they took the refugees shopping so they could pick out their own spices and most of the food.
Also, our group has tried to facilitate the adults finding employment. One of the men had been a skilled laborer in Iraq, and we researched and purchased some tools of his trade so he could do that here.
I didn’t know this myself before I had an Afghan-American coworker, but people from Afghanistan are called “Afghans” and not “Afghanis”. (The afghani is the currency of Afghanistan.)
As for the OP’s question, it’s hard to guess what this family might want and what they might already have. It’s always best to ask. Based on what I’ve heard from other immigrants, they sometimes wind up getting a bunch of old clothes and junk dumped on them by well-intentioned but clueless people. This can be both embarrassing and inconvenient, so it’s better to check and see what they actually need.
Yeah, there just isn’t any real info in the OP to say anything useful. Might was well start a GoFundMe page and prime the pump.
One thing for the father. Or maybe not, depending on his thoughts of shaving his face? I apologize if what I’m writing would be insulting to a Afghan male.
In my town a Syrian family moved here, the father had a really hard time finding a razor that that would shave his face. All of the disposables and multi-bladed razors would just get clogged with his thick facial hair.
So a friend of mine went to a knife shop and bought him an old-timey single bladed safety razor. The father was super appreciative and still talked about this gift a couple weeks later.
MtM
Write an perform a parody of the Addam’s Family theme in their honor. Include a box set of Addam’s Family DVDs so that they know what you are doing.