Callaway County recently became home for five Afghan families, including three expecting mothers.
The women of the Fulton Rotary Club recently held a baby shower for the women. One had her baby earlier this month and the other two are expecting in coming months.
The shower was held in the community room at the Fulton Police Department and included festive decorations, gifts, cake, brownies, fruit, punch and green tea.
Breshna Sherzad and her daughter, Lima, a freshman at the University of Missouri, served as translators for the women. The Sherzad family left Afghanistan and came to Fulton 13 years ago when Lima was 5. Last year she was valedictorian of Fulton High School.
The Fulton Afghan resettlement effort grew out of a Fulton Rotary initiative and now involves several other organizations and churches. When it became clear thousands of Afghan citizens would be relocating to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul and the predicted takeover of the Taliban, some Fulton Rotarians proposed to the club the organization lead resettlement efforts in Callaway County.
Working with Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, the Fulton Afghan Resettlement Committee so far has helped settle the five families (10 adults, 30 children and two babies on the way) in Callaway County.
They have secured housing, furnishings, food, clothing, etc. They have met refugee families when they arrived at airports, connected them with local services and familiarized them with Fulton and Callaway County.
This communitywide, Rotarian-led initiative was the first community sponsorship program in Central Missouri and its organizational structure and overall model has now been copied by other towns and small cities in Missouri.
Most evacuees from Afghanistan came to the U.S. with few belongings. Many qualify for Special Immigrant Visa status in the United States based on the danger they would likely suffer for having worked for or with the U.S. during the 20-year Afghan War. Through the translators at the shower, the women said that was the case for all of the families in Callaway County. Unfortunately, all of them still have relatives in Afghanistan who were unable to get out.
Fulton Rotarians visit with their Afghan guests during a baby shower on Sunday, April 3, 2022. (submitted)