DEWITT, Iowa — A local nonprofit is helping home Ukrainian refugees settle in the Quad Cities and surrounding areas.
Angela Boelens, Augustana professor and founder of Iowa Nice, started putting together the organization in September, just over half a year after Putin's war in Ukraine began.
"The organization that was put together as a not-for-profit, with two primary objectives: one being to help other people in our community who want to help Ukrainians to become sponsors, and to be able to navigate a pretty complicated system in becoming sponsors," Boelens said. "So that's one side of it; it's helping sponsors and helping others to enjoy the gift of being able to give back to people who are really needing our assistance right now. The other side of the organization is focused on providing benefits directly to those families that are coming here helping them to get past the financial hurdles of arriving here with nothing more than a suitcase."
Two refugee families currently housed by the nonprofit, the Zakharchenko family and the Hedzhmanova family, arrived in the United States with just two suitcases for their entire families.
"They're arriving with just a couple dollars in their pocket, a couple $100s and a suitcase. So unlike most other organizations, ours is doing both helping the sponsors become sponsors, connecting them with all the different agencies and avenues for helping to support the family that they sponsor."
But Boelens quickly realized she needed extra support in securing housing for the families. That's when she reached out to the CEO of DeWitt Bank & Trust, Greg Gannon.
"We talked a little bit about housing needs. And my wife, Cathy, and I were kind of watching the war. We wanted to do something but we didn't know how to do it. So this meeting was really pretty timely," Gannon said.
Gannon reached out to a few other individuals for some financial wherewithal.
"We contacted some other investors. And what we've done now is that we have formed a limited liability company. We close on the purchase of our first home last week."
Gannon is still seeking a few more investors to get involved.
"We almost have the the investor group put together. The goal is to have 20 investors involved with this. But hopefully we might buy a second home."
Gannon said they're looking for homes that are at least four bedrooms, two bathrooms, in order for each home to house two families.
"We're a small community, we need to be sure that our community can support the immigrants as they come in, be sure we get them acclimated and then we do it right. So we're thinking that a couple of homes is probably about the right size for this community to be able to absorb and welcome these beneficiaries to the area."
Now the nonprofit faces a shortage of finances, due to how quickly Boelens managed to start the organization.
"[Iowa Nice] didn't start until September, October in that timeframe. And by then we had missed all the grant cycles," she said. "It just seemed like we were thinking about this last year and had time to prepare us was kind of, you know, the need is there. Let's make this 5013 C come together really fast. I can't believe how fast that happened. We put it together fast and missed all the grant cycles, but we started getting donations and the rest is history."
The nonprofit is currently $230,000 short on funding due to the missed grants.
You can donate to Iowa Nice and visit their website by clicking/tapping here.
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