We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sofia Khan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sofia below.
Sofia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?
How to inspire the community to get inspired/involved in helping their newly resettled refugee families?
This issue was complex and required a multifaceted approach.
-educating the community about the refugee resettlement process
-introducing them to the families
-having a discussion about the needs of these families.
-motivating community to get started
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am a local Physician, I moved to GKC area in 1996.
Helping my community is part of who I am and knowing I’m not alone in this passion! This is the reason that, I created a community platform for the community, to learn about and help the refugee families.
What sets KC for Refugees apart from other 501c-3 organizations is our workforce. We are run by a diverse group of volunteers who believe in social equity. Our organization is non faith based and our volunteer base and Board represents the diversity of our City, both in race and religion. Included both in our wok force and Board are (prior) refugee leaders of our community as well!!
What we are most proud of is the amount of support we have been able to provide on a consistent basis to hundreds of families and the number of collaborative programs we have with other organizations with similar objectives. These include food pantries, computer drives, bicycle drives, job placement, affordable housing, transportation for work etc
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
That driving force behind our organization is our love for Humanity and our compassion to welcome our new neighbors. We try our best to understand the situation the family came from and How we can best understand what they need, that is our driving force.
We do not believe in forcing anyone to give up their way of life, we want to help them find a stable and happy life of their dreams in our community. Supporting them to be self sufficient is our biggest goal!
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Money is unfortunately needed for a lot of the services we provide, especially for rent and utility bill support. We would like to know of more grant and funding resources available in our community for our work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kcforrefugees@gmail.com
- Instagram: kc for refugees
- Facebook: KC for Refugees