BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The International Institute of Buffalo is an organization that helps refugee resettling in Western New York.
Staff members said volunteers can really make the region feel like home for these families.
Humanitarian crises happening worldwide have been heavily occupying the organization.
In the last year, the social services organization has helped roughly 2,000 people and it has settled about 200 refugees.
"We spend a lot of time collecting goods to furnish the homes that these individuals are going to be living in. We want to make it a welcoming place. Not just a house, but really a home," International Institute of Buffalo New American Integration director, Denise Phillips Beehag said.
Beehag told Pheben Kassahun that the government dictates what items need to be put in each home.
"Shower curtains, cups, plates, spoons, everything you can imagine for starting if you were starting you first apartment and moving into and then other things like a fan because it's been so hot," Beehag said. "That's what the government requires us to provide; things like linking them to school, linking them to employment services, linking them to medical services, social security. All of the beginning things that they need to start their lives in America."
The first thing that needs to be done in preparation for a family's arrival is to find housing and to furnish the home. The organization is with each family for 90 days.
"It's a long process and to say that 90 days is the end of it. It's not. It's a long process," Beehag said.
Volunteers also help families get acclimated to the American lifestyle, like navigating the grocery store.
"We're making life a little easier for them so, which also feels important," volunteer, Hannah Raiken-Schulman said.
"So, I knew of the institute and I knew their work and I had been a pediatrician and took care of immigrants in practice and this was a good choice in terms of helping the families that are moving in who really need it," volunteer Robert Schulman added.
The couple has been volunteering for the last five months. It is something they started to do after recently retiring.
A volunteer information session will take place Aug. 27 at 6 p.m. The session will be held over zoom and will be posted on the International Institute of Buffalo's Facebook page.
"It's a great opportunity for not only the individuals who are volunteering to give back to the refugee community. It's helpful to us but it's also helpful to our clients, to really experience that up close and personal that Buffalo is the City of Good Neighbors," Beehag added.
Right now in the Buffalo Strong section of wkbw.com, you will find a list with contact information for more than a dozen organizations in the city looking for volunteers to "get involved".
