GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay has a longtime history of aiding refugees. Now, the diocese is helping Afghan refugees who were displaced by the Taliban takeover to resettle in the Greater Green Bay Area.
The diocese is an affiliate of the U.S Catholic Conference of Bishops and works with the national organization to act as a local resettlement agency. Since November, the diocese has received about 125 Afghan refugees.
"They are individual men, they are families, children, all here looking to establish themselves, begin a new life. [They have] hopes and dreams of being reunited with family if their family is not here with them to date," said director Karmen Lemke.
From the moment the refugees arrived at the airport, the diocese met them and helped them find temporary housing such as an AirBnB or hotel. From there, the diocese helped them find permanent housing such as a duplex, home, or apartment. While it presented a large challenge, the diocese just moved their last family into permanent housing within the last two weeks.
"It's not a good market right now, housing is already a shortage. Affordable housing is a shortage and concern and some of our families range from size one to two all the way up to families of 12," Lemke said.
"In Afghanistan, 10 people can stay in two rooms. But here in the U.S everything is different," said housing coordinator Mahboobullah Habib.
Habib understands the challenges the Afghan refugees are being faced with because he once shared their experience. He relocated to the U.S from Kabul, Afghanistan about 8 years ago and lived in Washington state before moving to Wisconsin to work as an interpreter at Fort McCoy.
"When I talked with some of the families, they just received a call in the night and came to the airport and left. They didn't have time to say goodbye to their wife and kids," Habib said.
He worked at Fort McCoy from August 2021 until February 2022. During that time, he helped over 13,000 families find housing. After leaving Fort McCoy, he knew he wanted to continue helping refugees and moved to Green Bay to work for the diocese.
"It was not easy for me to leave Fort McCoy because I accepted all these families as my family," Habib said. "I was very emotional. I can say when I left Fort McCoy I was almost crying."
Now that all the Afghan refugees have found permanent housing, the diocese is helping the families find employment, English classes, access to medical and dental care, and any other needs they may have.
"We have added programming around employment services and evaluation of their education needs and that path forward for a continued better life and better careers," Lemke said.
With the U.S government's announcementthat it will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, Lemke says the diocese also hopes to be able to help Ukrainian refugees in the future. To stay updated and see how you can help the diocese resettle the Afghan refugees, you can visit catholiccharitiesgb.org.
