Showing Hospitality to our Neighbor

More than 130,000 people were airlifted out of Kabul airport after the Taliban took control. These are people who helped coalition forces and the Afghan government, and are now moving across the world to find peace and security. Alliance for African Assistance has been tasked with helping to resettle 510 asylum seekers from Afghanistan into San Diego.

We are working with Alliance for African Assistance in this important work.  Alliance has been resettling refugees and asylum seekers since 1989. Founded by our own Walter Lam, who himself came to the US as a refugee, LJPC has been a part of the Alliance from the very beginning, offering the seed money for what has become an integral mission in San Diego.

Thank you for your passion helping with this!

Alliance for African Assistance is working on two tracks. They are currently resettling 145 refugees from all over the world, plus they have received 53 Afghan Asylum Seekers from the recent evacuation of Afghanistan. The U.S. State Department has assigned Alliance a total of 510 people from Afghanistan, so Alliance has received about 10% so far.

The two most immediate needs are financial assistance and housing. Alliance is finding it very challenging to find available apartments and rental units. Among those 53 people currently in San Diego, there is a family of 6, a family of 7, and a family of 10 that are currently being housed in hotels.

Financial gifts can be given directly to Alliance (https://www.alliance-for-africa.org/) and if you are a realtor or have leads on rental housing, that could be helpful as well.

Financial AssistanceHousehold Assistance Currently on hold
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The government gives Alliance a one-time payment of $1,225 per person to get them resettled. This obviously is not enough to cover a hotel or apartment, furnishings, or basic necessities. Financial donations can be made by sending a check to the Church, or You can donate here.We are pausing collection of household items. Thanks to your incredible generosity, we have three full classrooms of donations that need to be sorted and categorized. Right now, the families are living in hotels while the search for affordable housing continues. We will keep you updated as to when we have the capasity to receive more donations. Thank You!

Three Powerful Stories

Walter Lam shared an update in church:

Here’s an interview with Pastor Paul and Walter Lam, Founder of Alliance for African Assistance:

Here’s a first person account from Rafiullah, one of Alliance’s case workers. Warning, some parts of Rafiullah’s story are disturbing, he still has family in danger in Afghanistan: