During that time Taraky helped establish and is the president of the Afghan Community Center in Erie where computer courses and English to Speakers of Other Languages courses are offered to more than 200 Afghan families currently living in Erie. Taraky was also recently appointed by Governor Shapiro to represent the commonwealth on the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs.

Over the weekend, Taraky took a much shorter trip from Erie to Warren to meet with Afghani families living in Warren through Special Immigrant Visas. Taraky’s visit was for a private welcome lunch provided by an Afghan restaurant from Erie.

The Erie resident spoke words of encouragement to the two local Afghan families living in Warren in their native languages while also translating for the English speaking Warren Area Refugee Resettlement Network (WARRN) members attending the lunch. He used the friends who came with him as well as his own story as examples of successfully adjusting to a new life in the United States. His message to the newcomers was clearly about how they can make a new life in Warren County.

Twenty Afghans have successfully completed a final round of a digital literacy program in Warren. WARRN is a local organization that also includes several board members and one full time employee, a resettlement case manager-house supervisor, as well as a part-time employee who is the lead teacher for the ESOL program (English to Speakers of Other Languages), which due to the recent growth, has an immediate need for more volunteer teachers. Volunteers are a huge part of the ongoing success and sustainability of the organization’s important work.

Saeed Taraky, an Afghan refugee, is pictured with Tom Pierotti, WARRN president and founding member.

“We help one family at a time; see what we can do,” said Gladys Archer, board member and lead volunteer.

Forty-nine of the 50 states resettle refugees. In Pennsylvania, there are primarily five regions in which refugees are resettled: Pittsburgh, Lancaster/Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Allentown/Scranton, and Erie. Within each region, there are multiple voluntary organizations that are responsible to sponsor refugees and aid in the resettlement and placement process.

Warren has welcomed legally arrived and vetted refugees and immigrants through WARRN, whose primary focus is on helping refugees integrate into the community and to support their well-being within the Warren area. The effort of WARRN is entirely separate from the work of any of the other refugee settlement organizations in the state. WARRN has done all of its work with private funding through the generosity of donors, grants from local foundations and volunteers who have given hundreds of hours.

Individuals and organizations are always invited to support the efforts by being a welcoming and inclusive community that helps refugees fleeing war and persecution rebuild their lives. After the non-profit organization was formed, WARRN applied for funding from foundations for housing and found a multi-apartment house for sale. Money was raised to buy, renovate and equip it, housing resettled families currently. There is an ongoing need for additional housing.

Eleven out of 20 Ukrainian refugees who initially settled in Warren have moved to other states to reunite with friends or family while three Ukrainian refugee families have chosen to firmly resettle in Warren. WARRN has then grown in the past several months to begin helping Afghan refugees who are escaping persecution in Afghanistan. Immigrants from Afghanistan that helped the U.S. government and troops by providing translation and intelligence services, or other needed skills for at least one year while the U.S. military was fighting against the Taliban are eligible for an Afghan Special Immigrant Visa.

Saeed Taraky, an Afghan refugee, is pictured during a visit in Warren on Saturday.

Tom Pierotti, WARRN president and a founding WARRN board member, said his son, a physician in the war, reassured Pierotti about the need to help the Afghan refugees as they had helped Americans serving in Afghanistan.

“Bringing people who assisted our military and saved American lives in a war; endangering their own lives, with a promise that they could come here when the war was over, I believe that it was a bad thing for us to break that promise, and if we can keep that promise even in small ways, one or two families at a time… I think that’s being patriotic,” Pierotti said. “That’s the kind of thing we should be proud of, and not hide.”

The Afghan families have undergone a long process in order to receive an Afghan Special Immigrant Visa. The families needed the promised assistance with the logistics of arrival and resettlement, which had not been delivered. WARRN stepped in to partner with Church World Service, Sponsor Circle Program, and others, to fill in that gap. Refugees who had already made the trip to Erie as well as Erie refugee support organizations met the new refugees after arrival.

WARRN network hosts free ESOL classes, open to the public, every Tuesday and Thursday evening at First Lutheran Church, 109 W. Third Ave., Warren, from 6 to 8 p.m. The church provides spaces for WARRN’s programming and office free of charge. The ESOL class is offered to adults and their children, requiring varying levels of language proficiency and instruction. The loyalty and consistency of volunteers are how the resettlement work continues. Jamie Stright, lead teacher, would be happy to talk with interested students or volunteers. Clearances are required for ESOL. For more information, call 814-688-8291 or visit www.weresettle.org.