Reaching out to Afghan refugees resettling in the Manhattan community was a back-to-school project for the Manhattan High AFS Club members. 

The crisis going on with the refugees that were coming in into specifically to Manhattan was noticed by the AFS club and let to a partnership the club members were proud of.

“I feel good,” AFS president Kathryn Borthwick, senior, said. “I think that sometimes when big problems come out in the world we don’t really know what we can do to help and so I think what our club did with the refugees crisis showed that we can all make an impact even if it is something small.”  

AFS was made aware that quite a few refugees were coming into Manhattan the club decided to try and lend them a helping hand, by raising awareness about the refugees that where coming into Manhattan communities.

“We had a specific club social where we talked about the refugees and we designed like…welcome to Manhattan signs for them that they could like take back to their houses,” Borthwick said.

Although AFS students didn’t lead the entire resettlement project, Borthwick could say the team’s work involves finding housing and household items for people resettling here. The group has a website 

that addresses the refugees coming into Manhattan, which was a natural tie-in for AFS.

“I think the significance is that AFS is an intercultral club and so we love other cultures and  to know that there’s people coming in from a new culture that need help like we really want to bring awareness and help out with that because we deal with umm involving many cultures,” she said.

The members of the club broke into tables and made wooden welcome signs so that as refugees come into a new environment they feel a little bit more welcome.

“I think just helping them navigate a new culture and then also allowing them to express their culture at the same time even as they are coming to Manhattan, they still bring with them all of their rich culture so you don’t want to lose that  as they’re coming here,” Borthwick said. “I think in general it’s just… especially for the exchange students, they came from other countries so they in a small way understand at least what they go through when they come from a different culture into a new one.”