Our New Friends and a New Venture

Last July we welcomed our new friends, an Afghani refugee family, to America. The past 7 months have been one of the greatest blessings of our life. It has been amazing to get to know them and recently we have begun work on a project to help this family to use their skills and talents to become self-reliant.

Turning lemons into lemonade. When their power was shut off for several days in October because of a mix up with their bills we spent a fun evening eating donuts by lantern light. 

At Christmas time we went with our volunteer group and our family downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.

As we were leaving Temple Square Mike explained to them that the buildings we'd visited, the temple and the tabernacle, were built by refugees many years ago when they settled here.

With no men to help provide for this large family, we knew it would be a more difficult challenge for them to support their family. While the oldest daughter of the family was able to get a part time job at Walmart, the mother was not having any luck finding employment because her English was progressing so slowly. As we came to know the family more, we learned that the mother and her oldest daughters are highly skilled seamstresses. The mother was so skilled she could make a dress from just looking at a picture and getting some measurements. When we discovered this - Mike hatched an idea.

One thing we've learned over the course of Jessie's high school experience is how hard it can be to find suitable dresses for dances. Especially if you want something unique and/or something modest. What if we found a way to link her skill with the demand for dresses that we see. We wondered if it could work. We posed the idea to the family, who enthusiastically agreed. We wondered how they would be able to acquire the quality machines that they would need if they were to really make this work. We wondered how best to structure our venture. As we worked these things through in our minds and made it a matter of prayer,  things began coming together, the solutions presented themselves and the way opened up.

Our first step was to ask them to make a dress for Jessie, and the daughter of some friends who were willing to join us in the venture. The only machine they had to make the dresses was one from Costco that was generously gifted by my old friend, Wendy. Not a professional machine, but in the hands of a master...

Here they are adjusting the sleeve on the dress they made for our friends' daughter

Part way through their work on Jessie's dress an Afghani man, a neighbor and friend, took it upon himself to purchase a professional grade machine for them with the understanding that they would just pay him back as they were able, without any time frame attached. He has become one of our best resources, showing up to translate complex ideas, facilitating, researching and helping us stay connected. A humble, quiet man - here in the U.S. because he was an aid to American troops in  Afghanistan.

Here they are at work on their new beautiful Juki machine

With those first few dresses under our belt we put the word out that our refugee friends were making dresses and the first real orders came in. We're still working out our process and streamlining as best we can for now, but I think we're onto something. We have felt guided every step of the way.

We are calling our new venture, "Panah" - which means "refuge" in Dahri (their language). We hope to move things forward enough to help employ other refugee women, all here without husbands, to be able to support their families.

Our love for them grows. I jokingly call the mother my little sister, because she is a year younger than me, but she is my elder in terms of experience and strength.  

I'll keep you posted.