Shoshana Akabas tutored an Afghan refugee who arrived in New York City while she was a student at a New York City grad school. The woman was pregnant and didn’t have much support in the U.S. so Akabas asked her friend who had just given birth if she had any baby clothes. Akabas’ friend had an overflow of onesies—many of them unworn, because babies grow so fast—that she was happy to give away. Six months later, Akabas’ friend asked whether she could donate more clothes to the same Afghan mom.
“That was when the idea hit me,” Akabas, 29, tells ELLE.com. “This is a much more efficient, sustainable, and dignified way of getting clothes to folks who need them.”
Akabas started connecting refugee families in New York to her friends with children. Word spread and soon there was a rapidly growing waitlist of parents who also wanted to share their kids’ clothing. “So many clothes end up in landfills within a year of being manufactured,” Akabas says. “This made it really easy for parents to give their kids’ clothes a second life, and to know that the items were going somewhere meaningful.” By 2018, the community initiative had turned into New Neighbors Partnership, an official nonprofit that normalizes the idea of sharing among community members—and helps local and refugee families build relationships that go beyond hand-me-down baby clothes.
“We take what would otherwise be a one-time blind donation and turn it into a longstanding community connection between people who might not have otherwise crossed paths,” Akabas says. “It’s a much more personal and direct network for sharing clothing.”
New Neighbors Partnership matches refugee families with New York City families, who must agree to pass on clothes for at least three consecutive years. Akabas claims that this efficient way to give has many benefits, including the high quality of the clothing. “If I’m donating to a drive, I’m much more likely to just throw everything into the bin, knowing someone on the other end will sort it out, but if I’m sharing with a family I know, I’d make sure all the buttons are sewn, the stains are removed,” she says.
It provides security and comfort for refugee families. “They know they will have clothes for their kids for seasons to come,” Akabas says, “as well as the connection to a local family with similar aged kids.”
New Neighbors Partnership
Courtesy New Neighbors Partnership
New Neighbors Partnership was founded in 2003 and has helped more than 300 refugees from 33 countries. A third of the refugees are special immigrant visa beneficiaries from Afghanistan who have helped the U.S. government to flee. New Neighbors Partnership helped to evacuate a Kabul family that was trapped in Kabul following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. It took six weeks for the mother and her children to reach New York. “We’ve been welcoming Afghan families for a few years, but there’s definitely been an influx in the past few months,” Akabas says. “We worked with one mother who arrived 9 months pregnant, moved into her new home in Queens on a Monday and went into Labor on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, we’d matched them with a family who delivered all the baby supplies they needed and has continued to provide clothes and other forms of support.”
Akabas anticipates that more Afghan families will be matched as they are resettled in communities near military bases. “Refugee families resettling in the U.S. are arriving at an extremely difficult time,” she says. “Afghan evacuees, many of whom are arriving as humanitarian parolees—as well as asylum seekers in general—are eligible for very few public benefits, putting immense stress on families who are still settling into their new home and often have no connections or sources of support.”
This holiday season, New Neighbors Partnership is looking for more families to partner with refugee families and to contribute their kids’ hand-me-downs. The organization has a wishlist on its website and is accepting donations. New Yorkers can also sign up to volunteer with the New Neighbors Partnership’s fundraising, planning, and communications team.
“Not having to worry about buying kids clothes or diapers or other baby supplies can be a huge financial—as well as emotional—relief that has amazing long-term effects,” Akabas says. “In my experience, families with these kinds of social connections and material support have much better outcomes two or three years after resettlement, in terms of feeling stable, happy, and welcome in their new home.”
Source: elle
