A sewing circle that once gave Afghan women in North Carolina a gathering place to build skills and community lost its funding after the Trump administration slashed refugee admissions and dismantled organizations that supported resettled families, the Associated Press reported.
The Refugee Community Partnership, a Durham-based mutual aid group, had operated the program — providing transportation for women who do not drive, daycare for their young children, and a space to learn tailoring and other sewing techniques. But the administration’s sweeping cuts to refugee-support organizations eliminated the resources and staff needed to keep it running.
Now, two congregations in Durham have revived the effort. Members of the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Judea Reform Congregation raised money and recruited volunteers to drive the women to the fellowship’s building, where the class now meets. They arranged for an Afghan instructor and a translator, and organized child care so mothers could attend without distraction.
The congregations also gathered donations of at least a dozen new and used sewing machines, giving participants the tools to practice and eventually produce garments.
The program offers more than vocational training. For women whose families were recently resettled in the Triangle region, the weekly sessions have become a way to connect with fellow Afghans, practice English in a low-pressure environment, and develop portable skills, participants told the AP.
The Associated Press noted that the congregations’ intervention filled a gap left by the federal government’s retreat from refugee resettlement infrastructure. The mutual aid model, in which community groups take on services previously handled by government-funded agencies, has become more common as federal support contracts.