The Sacali Family of four began to wonder what the future would hold as Russian infantry rumbled across the Eastern border of their country, and bombs began to fall. Thankfully, the Uniting for Ukraine program was launched by the U.S. government earlier this year to provide a safe and orderly means for Ukrainians displaced by conflict in Ukraine through a U.S. sponsor to come to America. Home for Refugees partnered with Welcome.US' Welcome Connect for matching and Community Sponsorship Hub for support.
The Sacali Family of four began to wonder what the future would hold as Russian infantry rumbled across the Eastern border of their country, and bombs began to fall. Thankfully, the Uniting for Ukraine program was launched by the U.S. government earlier this year to provide a safe and orderly means for Ukrainians displaced by conflict in Ukraine through a U.S. sponsor to come to America. Home for Refugees partnered with Welcome.US' Welcome Connect for matching and Community Sponsorship Hub for support.
Our Home Team that was partnered with the Sacali Family is from St. Peters by the Sea Presbyterian Church in Huntington Beach, California in the Los Ranchos Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church USA whose pastor is Rev. Steve Wright. In this case, the Sacali family also had a 3rd special partnership with the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law's Humanitarian Clinic to help give guidance through the sponsorship process to facilitate their approval. Here is part of their journey over the last seven months of messaging, planning, and waiting. Once our family and our Home Team were matched, we messaged them to begin to lead them through the process with the Home Team members as their U.S. sponsors.
HFR: Hi Mr. and Mrs. Sacali! This is Andrea Castillo from Home for Refugees USA. Thank you for your patience waiting for our message regarding next steps. We are happy to say everything is good. We are getting ready to start [the sponsor process and the whole team is excited to welcome you soon!
Sacali Family: Hello! On behalf of our family, we would like to thank you very much! We really appreciate it! Due to the missile attacks on Kyiv and critical infrastructure facilities today, we have no electricity now. Therefore, I can answer with a delay. I apologize for that. Also, if there is an air attack, we will be in the bomb shelter. There is no communication and no internet.