FUS members and friends have teamed up with Minnesota Valley UU Fellowship (Bloomington) and Dakota UU Church (Burnsville) to sponsor Ukrainian families seeking refuge here in the Twin Cities under the federal government’s Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program. Under U4U, the US government has created a pathway for Ukrainians to come the US for an initial two-year period. Catherine Jordan, Bernadine Joselyn and Bob Aderhold are leading this effort working closely with Alight (formerly the American Refugee Committee), an international organization headquartered in Minneapolis.
Alight is providing guidance as we prepare to offer these families temporary housing and connect them to social services during the two-to-three month transition to independent living. The federal government requires sponsors to pay for food, housing, clothing and other expenses during the transition period. Happily, FUS members have stepped up to donate housing for two of the three families during the transition period and we have now managed to raise the money we estimated we would need to support them during their transition.
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More info
Check out the February 19th talk given by Rev Kelli and the presentation by Stephanie Koehne from Alight following the assembly.
Updates
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Ukrainian Families Are Arriving!
July 18, 2023 – The FUS Ukraine project team is happy to report that, after months of planning, two of the three Ukrainian families sponsored by FUS members have now arrived in Minneapolis, one on July 13th and the other on July 15th. The third family is expected in early August. Our teams have been…
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Sponsors, travel authorizations approved; arrival expected late July!
June 27, 2023 – The US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) has now approved the sponsor applications for all three of our teams. In addition, US Department of Homeland Security has authorized travel for all three families. And, we expect them to arrive in Minneapolis during the final two weeks of July!
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Fundraising goal exceeded!
June 16, 2023 – We’re excited to announce that our three congregations (FUS, DUUC, and MVUUF) have exceeded our fundraising goal. That goal was based on what we estimated necessary for our three beneficiary families to travel to the U.S. and transition to self-support. It’s hard to determine the total financial need for these three…
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Used car needed!
June 9, 2023 – One of our three sponsor teams, each in the process of sponsoring a refugee family that will come to the twin cities, is looking for the loan of a car for 2-3 months (we think August-October). The project will cover the insurance during this interval. The father is a car mechanic…