As refugees from Syria continue to make their way into Europe, members of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound in Redmond (MAPS) have been doing what they can to help.
On Sunday, MAPS teamed up with the Salaam Cultural Museum (SCM) and Muslim Community Resource Center (MCRC) — based in Seattle and Redmond, respectively — to hold a clothing drive with the collected items to be donated to refugees who have fled from Syria to Jordan and other countries.
TONS OF CLOTHING
SCM Director Rita Zawaideh said they have worked with MAPS a number of times on various issues and projects and this was the second time they have done the clothing drive with the mosque.
Early estimates of Sunday’s drive had them at nearly 20,000 pounds of clothes collected and Zawaideh said it was the biggest drive they have ever had.
“This one,” she said Monday, “was so big we collected almost 18,000 pounds of clothing.”
When final numbers came in later in the week, Zawaideh said they collected a total of 26,933 pounds of clothes.
Zawaideh said any new clothes they receive, they pack up to bring to Jordan themselves — SCM travels to that country every 45 days on humanitarian and medical missions. They bring any used clothing they receive to a Value Village store, where they are paid by the pound. That money is used to purchase specific items they can’t send or are easier to purchase in Jordan, such as baby formula, diapers and tents.
When they brought in the donated clothing from Sunday, Zawaideh said store employees told them that this was also the biggest drive they had seen from a non-governmental organization (NGO).
“There was overwhelming support and participation from the community,” said Nickhath Sheriff, founder of MCRC, a volunteer-based nonprofit organization that was inspired by the Together Center in Redmond and started in 2010 to connect those in need with relevant resources and service providers in the community. “Everyone wanted to help. In their own small way, the community wanted to do whatever they could to alleviate the suffering of those fleeing from their homes in Syria.”
Sheriff added that they had to scramble to bring in additional trucks to transport all of the donations.
While SCM collects donations on a rolling basis (people can still donate by dropping off items at the SCM office at 3806 Whitman Ave. N. in Seattle), as they travel to Jordan regularly throughout the year, Zawaideh said she was shocked to see how much they collected in just one day.
“It was incredible,” agreed Ahsen Nadeem, youth director at MAPS, about the community’s response.
YOUTH INVOLVEMENT
He described the donations as mountains of bags of clothes that many of the youth volunteers working that day just wanted to climb. Members of the MAPS youth group volunteered their time on Sunday to help load the clothes into trucks to be driven to the Value Village. In addition, he said the young people also worked to spread the word about the clothing drive — both among members of the MAPS community as well as outside of the mosque — and encourage people to donate.
“We had kids ranging from 6 years onwards who volunteered to help unload donations from people’s cars and load them into the trucks,” Sheriff said.
For Nadeem, it was great to see members of the youth group having fun during the service day, adding that not only did the young people give up a good portion of their day off from school, but many — at least those volunteering later in the day — also gave up at least a portion of the Seahawks game.
“It was fantastic,” he said.
Sheriff added that in addition to helping those in need, one of the goals of Sunday’s clothing drive was to teach people — especially young people — the importance of giving back.
“Living in the Eastside, one tends to accumulate a sense of entitlement and material comfort,” Sheriff said. “Interacting with the less fortunate through MCRC projects such as clothing drives, shelter work and serving meals to the hungry makes everyone realize the responsibility we have in taking care of those who are needy. It is an opportunity to put into action the teachings of Islam and the emphasis that the Holy Quran places on taking care of the poor, the hungry and the dispossessed.”
OTHER ACCEPTABLE ITEMS
In addition to collecting clothes for men, women and children, Zawaideh said they also accept blankets and hygiene kits, preferably with travel-sized toiletries such as shampoo and conditioner, soap and body wash, toothpaste and wet wipes.
Zawaideh pointed out that many times when people travel and stay in hotels, they will take the small toiletries provided home but never end up using them. She said if people take those items and put together sets into a plastic ziploc bag, they will have ready-made hygiene kits they can hand out to refugees.
This is especially important, Zawaideh said, as SCM is now also traveling to Greece, which is acting as a checkpoint for the refugees before they travel to other places in Europe. The small hygiene kits are convenient because people can just stick them in their backpacks and travel bags as they continue on their way.
Zawaideh said they also accept donations of vitamins as the supplements are the cheapest in the United States compared to other countries.
HELPING LOCALLY
While the clothing drive was something the MAPS community — along with members of the greater community — did to help refugees halfway around the world, Isra Ayesh is working to help them on a more local level.
The 20-year-old Shoreline resident attends MAPS and, along with her friend Anny Khan of Renton, started Americans for Refugees & Immigrants (ARI). Their nonprofit organization is dedicated to working with state and national lawmakers to enable refugees to come to the United States.
PUTTING IN THE WORK
Ayesh said being open and welcoming to people relocating to this country is great but there needs to be legal infrastructure put in place to make that happen.
“You’ve got to work for it,” she said.
That work includes contacting members of Congress — and encouraging others to do the same — and asking the lawmakers to make public statements on the refugee situation coming out of Syria. Ayesh said they are also asking people to call the White House to let them know they support refugees coming to the United States.
To contact Congress, call (202) 224-3121. To contact the White House, call (202) 456-1111.
Ayesh said ARI’s immediate goal is to get Congress to agree to accept 100,000 refugees into the country. The deadline to make this happen is Sept. 30.
If they miss this deadline, the nonprofit’s next goal is to get state lawmakers to accept 10,000 refugees into Washington.
Ayesh pointed out that Washington was one of the first states to accept Vietnamese refugees following the Vietnam War. ARI just wants that tradition of acceptance to continue.
“We want to follow in those footsteps,” Ayesh said.
FOLLOWING THROUGH
For Ayesh, a Palestinian American, advocating for others is not new. The University of Washington, Bothell student has previously organized and participated in demonstrations protesting the Gaza War.
She said it is something she is passionate about because being a refugee is not something any parent should have to deal with and no one should have to worry about their child washing up on the shores of a random country’s beaches.
Ayesh added that U.S. President Barack Obama recently commented in response to a post on the “Humans of New York” Facebook page about a young humanitarian, saying he is doing what he can to make the world a place where young people can live up to their full potential. Ayesh said she would like to see the president follow through with his words.
To continue to spread the word and awareness of the Syrian refugee crisis, ARI will be holding a rally from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday in front of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building at the corner of Madison Street and 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle.
