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'There are people that care about you': Donation drop-offs paused after overwhelming support for Afghan refugees

The International Institute temporarily halted donation drop-offs so they could organize and move existing piles, as fundraisers continue around the St. Louis region

ST. LOUIS — The piles of supplies inside the International Institute's St. Louis gymnasium speak volumes about the region's readiness to welcome Afghans to the region.

"If you had asked me a month ago whether we could have this kind of response from the community, I wouldn't have been sure about that,"President & CEO Arrey Obensen said. "So this response from this community has been phenomenal."

The center received so many supplies, they had to temporarily halt drop-offs Tuesday and Wednesday so crews could sort through the existing boxes, send some items into a secondary warehouse for storage, and make room for more donations, knowing more fundraisers are still in the works.

"It was so hard, and I really wanted to do something," fundraiser Fahima Band Ali said, referencing her own relocation from Afghanistan in 2017.

"They have left everything to come here, and they don't even have their bank account with them. They don't have anything. The only thing that they have is themselves and their clothes on their back," she said of the refugee experience.

A Webster University sophomore majoring in political science, Fahima Band Ali organized a public discussion/fundraiser to help Afghan refugees heading to St. Louis for 7 p.m. Tuesday evening in Browning Hall. The event will be live-streamed, with donations taken online at a corresponding GoFundMe account. She hopes to give others the same welcome she received when she came over as a 15-year-old.

"They might feel that nobody cares about them because they are in a desperate state, but when they see this, I really want them to know that there are people that care about you. There are people who really wanna help you," she said.

Obensen said if you want to find the helpers, you won't have to look far. They're between the stacks in their gymnasium and all-around St. Louis.

"This is a story of St. Louis that has to be told over and over and over again. This is the goodness that lies within this community," he said.

The International Institute will resume donation drop-offs on Thursday, with plans to announce information within a week about large-scale furniture donations.

In the meantime, they are urging people to consider donating cash, grocery store gift cards, and Metro passes.

Contact reporter Sara Machi on Facebook and Twitter.

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