Austin HS Students Fundraise to Buy Sewing Machines for Central Texas Refugees
KXAN - Austin, TX
by Kelsey Thompson
December 12, 2022
“More than a year since the Afghanistan pullout crisis and less than a year since the war in Ukraine began, two Austin high school students have fundraised to help refugee families integrate in Central Texas.
“Yara Hussain and Stewart Haas, a senior and junior at Headwaters School, helped raise money to purchase sewing machines for four refugee families. The items were distributed on Sunday at Global Impact Initiative’s headquarters, a nonprofit whose work includes integration resources for incoming refugees.
“It’s not Hussain and Haas’ first introduction into global politics and work with refugee communities. Haas came up with the idea of physical donations here in Austin after seeing issues with getting monetary donations to families in Afghanistan during the emerging crisis in August 2021.
“‘Sewing machines are how [Afghan women] make their living and they make their kids clothes, how they basically function and make not only stuff for themselves, but also sell stuff,’ he said. ‘So providing sewing machines would help them basically get a foot into the United States and basically making money so that they can just better their lives.’”
(includes video)
