Open Arms for Refugees - Gretchen Allene Grimm

“The work of resettling a refugee and helping build a new life in a new country is a tremendous undertaking, and we welcome your support in this pressing humanitarian mission.” ~OpenArmsforRefugees.org

Guest Speakers Ted Buerger and Zia Gulestani.  Hosted by Gretchen Allene Grimm

Ted Buerger is the cofounder of Open Arms for Refugees. He is the lead coordinator of the roughly 100 Open Arms volunteers who have welcomed and helped resettle 11 households and 35 persons to America since January 2022.  Open Arms helps these New Neighbors find food and shelter, healthcare, education and ESL classes, jobs, and community. While most households resettled have been Afghan,  two families are from Colombia and one is from Ukraine.

Zia Gulestani is the Operations Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan with Too Young To Wed, which seeks to protect young girls from child marriage. When Kabul fell, Zia stayed to secretly maintain a network of safe houses for Afghan women hiding from the Taliban. Once discovered by the Taliban, he and his family of five fled to Pakistan. Open Arms welcomed the family at JFK Airport in June 2023, the ninth household that Open Arms has helped resettle.