LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska’s largest refugee resettlement program will be able to keep its Lincoln and Omaha doors open thanks to a donation by a couple who advocates for refugees.
The donation by Donna and Coyner Smith will sustain Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska offices in the two cities for at least another year, the Lincoln Journal Star (https://bit.ly/2p08cT6 ) reported.
“Thanks to them, we’re able to actually have our vision - which is safety, hope and well-being - played out in reality,” program Vice President Todd Reckling said.
The Smiths said their compassion grew after opening their door in Omaha five years ago to then-16-year-old Leemah Nasrati whose mother, a doctor who emigrated from Afghanistan, was dying of cancer. While Nasrati was born in the U.S., she said four of her relatives were refugees after fleeing Afghanistan in the 1990s.
“I didn’t do anything to deserve being born in the United States,” she said.
Nasrati is now 21 and studying political science and global studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
After taking in Nasrati, the Smiths paid more attention to the many stories this year about refugee crises.
“I don’t care what religion they are or what ethnicity - it’s just wrong,” Donna Smith, 81, said Monday. “We just feel compelled to do something because they’re fellow human beings.”
The couple donated the undisclosed amount after reading about the program’s cutbacks, which were triggered in February by President Donald Trump’s limitations on how many refugees can enter the country.
“It’s a beautiful organization, and it’s just a shame to see it crumble under the situation that they’re in,” Coyner Smith said of Lutheran.
The donation will fund three positions in Lincoln and three more in Omaha until the end of the fiscal year in October, when the White House will again decide how many refugees to accept.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com
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