For two decades, Mohamed Dawid said he yearned for an opportunity to guide new refugees in the United States using his own lived experience as an Oromo refugee. And he wasn’t the only one.
When he found out about Welcome Corps, he quickly mobilized his community to get involved.
“We’re always talking about how we can help people who left their homes behind,” Mohamed said. “How can we save lives for people who are in the same situation that we were in that are still there?”
Welcome Corps is a State Department program that allows U.S. citizens and residents in groups of five or more to sponsor refugees. They support them throughout the first 90 days of living in their new country and continue to be a resource as they build their new lives. Sponsors welcome refugees at the airport, secure and prepare housing, enroll children in school, and help adults find jobs. Mohamed and fellow sponsor Robsan Yusuf are among the first set of Welcome Corps sponsors in Minnesota since the program launched last year.
Mohamed Dawid spent eight years living in a refugee camp in Kenya, as his family jumped through the many hoops required to come to the U.S. in 1999. His family escaped war where they faced discrimination for being Oromo, an ethnic group in Ethiopia.
“We got to the United States through so many processes,” Mohamed said. “It was very difficult to get out of the war in Ethiopia and get to Kenya. There were a lot of issues and problems. Through all that we learned so many difficult experiences.”
Robsan Yusuf lived in a refugee camp for five years with his mom and brothers, also struggling to navigate the complex process of coming to the United States as a refugee. When he found out about Welcome Corps through local news, he helped set up a meeting of other members of the Oromo community at a coffee shop.
“We were waiting for this kind of opportunity for so many years,” Robsan said. “We just came together to figure out—how are we going to proceed?
As the pair researched their options, they brought together a group of six sponsors, fundraised, and applied for the program.
The State Department partners with nonprofit organizations that work with refugees to implement the program. In Minnesota, humanitarian organization Alight has served as a local support organization for Welcome Corps. Alight meets with Welcome Corps sponsors and trains them in refugee resettlement.
“Our Alight sponsor program is built to support sponsors so that they can be the best welcomers,” said Stephanie Koehne, the Welcome Corps program lead at Alight. “We do have some sponsors who have had their own lived experiences that have helped allow that connection to look a bit different.”
‘The dream is fulfilled’
The program launched in January 2023, and more than 15,000 sponsors from across the country applied last year, according to the State Department. While Koehne said she could not disclose the exact number of Welcome Corps refugees in Minnesota due to privacy, the State Department reports that nearly 100 refugees were supported nationally through Welcome Corps in the program’s first year.
A dozen sponsor groups in Minnesota were approved and matched with refugees, according to Koehne. In total, 48 groups—at least 240 individuals—have submitted applications. Approved sponsors are spread out across the state in the Twin Cities, Worthington, Moorhead, and more.
In terms of the countries refugees are coming from, Koehne said it’s been across the board.
“We have seen upticks with different groups. At the start, we saw a lot from Sub-Saharan Africa, and we continue to see that,” Koehne said. “We have Congolese, Somali, and now we’re seeing more matches from the Western Hemisphere as well, so more Venezuelan matches.”
For the most part, Koehne said the refugees resettling in Minnesota through Welcome Corps are part of families. On average, the families are made up of about three to four people, but the family units can look different, for example, a single mother and a few kids, or a parent and grandparent.
Mohamed and Robsan, however, are working with an individual refugee in the program.
Mathias Shimirimana, 38, came to the United States last July from a refugee camp in Zimbabwe. Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Shimirimana lived in a refugee camp for almost 15 years. He now lives in St. Paul and works as a cashier at a restaurant.
Robsan and Mohamed met Shimirimana at the airport when he arrived in Minnesota.
“They got me a job, showed me around, helped me get my documents,” Shimirimana said. “They were there for me to feel welcome.”
As a Welcome Corps refugee, Shimirimana had the option to be sponsored by someone he knows, by having them name him on their application. Instead, he chose to be matched with a sponsor at random. Within one week of having their application approved, Mohamed and Robsan’s sponsor group was matched with Shimirimana.
“Minnesota has consistently led on applications for matching and also for naming,” Koehne said. “We’re just continuing to see more and more Minnesotans learn about Welcome Corps and be sponsors.”
While the 90-day requirement to support Shimirimana has passed, Mohamed and Robsan continue to help him.
“The dream is fulfilled because he’s safe, he’s got a job, and he’s got his own place, and can pay rent,” Mohamed said. “But as a newcomer, he may have homesickness.”
Robsan said the sponsors regularly call and meet with Shimirmana to make sure he’s not feeling lonely.
Shimirimana said he’s slowly started making some friends, but it’s been hard to stay in touch with them because of his work schedule.
Shimirimana told Mohamed and Robsan that he hopes to transition to a career as a truck driver in the future.
“The achievement will be to get a home and build a family,” he said.
Application challenges
While they were matched with Shimirimana in just a week, preparing their application and getting it approved required a lot of back and forth, Robsan said.
As part of the application, Robsan said they had to write up a detailed plan for how they will support the refugee they’re matched with. Robsan said a Welcome Corps official repeatedly sent their application back asking for more details.
“I told them, we are going to give it up,” Robsan said. “Whatever we wrote, it was like, ‘No’. But we didn’t know all the criteria.”
For example, they had to report specific addresses for where the refugee may live, go to school, work, where they will get cash assistance and food stamps, and more. Because they hadn’t secured housing yet, Robsan said their sponsor group had trouble reporting the exact details in the plan.
Eventually a Welcome Corps worker gave Robsan more helpful guidance for their application. Once they added all the necessary details, program staff were quick to approve and match the group.
“Because it’s a newer program, people have to go through a whole application and prep process, and that takes time—finding a group of five people, submitting an application, waiting for approval, the process for arrival,” Koehne said.
She added that once approved, Alight assists sponsors throughout the refugee’s first 90 days in the United States to make sure they are receiving core services: temporary housing, public benefits, groceries, and more.
“We’re really helping make sure all of those key responsibilities are tracked and are stepping towards self-reliance at the end of it,” Koehne said. “It is a goal that at the end of 90 days, folks as much as possible can be independent.”
Each sponsor group is paired with an Alight guide. The organization hosts weekly virtual sessions with sponsors. Sponsors can also set up one-on-one check-ins with Alight.
“Every single family and individual presents unique circumstances that our team is wanting to help people with,” Koehne said.
Koehne said some sponsor groups from the first cohort have said they want to work with another refugee family or individual after a short break.
Mohamed and Robsan both said they’d serve as sponsors again as they continue to stay in touch with Shimirimana.
“We’re seeing Welcome Corps grow bigger and bigger,” Robsan said. He wasn’t surprised though. Given the interest he saw in his own community to participate, he saw it coming.
Who is eligible?
Sponsor groups must be made up of at least five U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, who are at least 18 years old and live in the same community.
What will my group be responsible for?
Sponsor groups provide core resettlement services for refugees within the first 90 days of arrival.
- Securing and preparing affordable housing.
- Enrolling children in schools.
- Finding jobs for adults.
- Signing up for federal and state benefits.
- Overall, helping refugees integrate into their new community.
How can I apply?
Sponsor groups can submit an application through WelcomeCorps.org .
Sponsors will have to complete training, pass background checks, and supply $2,425 per refugee. When applying, the group must provide documentation that it has raised 60% of this amount, or $1,455 per refugee.
Who will I be matched with?
Once approved, sponsors are matched with a refugee family or individual. They can report preferences for specific languages, nationalities, or family types (i.e. families with children or an individual) in their applications. Sponsor groups are encouraged to keep an open mind.
In some cases, sponsor groups can also request a refugee they know by naming them in their application.
Yes! Refugee support organizations across the country are implementing Welcome Corps in their communities. In Minnesota, that organization is Alight .
Welcome Corps also provides sponsors with tools and resources, such as a budget template, fundraising guides, an arrival checklist, and ongoing guidance throughout the process.
Email sponsorship@wearealight.org to find out more about the program and ways you can get involved.
The post ‘Waiting for this opportunity’: Two Oromo refugees pay it forward by sponsoring a stranger through Welcome Corps appeared first on Sahan Journal .
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