Pack 3 Alyssa Allen REVISED

The Fayetteville Public Library hosted a supply drive with Canopy NWA on Nov. 6 to collect welcome kits for refugees in the community.
“Canopy’s mission is to welcome and equip refugees with all they need to build new lives,” Volunteer Coordinator Mariah Green said.

Canopy decided to adopt welcome kits halfway through the pandemic, and then our community have reached out since and asked to host a supply drive, Green said.
Green said community education and visibility are two of the most present needs Canopy meets.
Most people don’t know refugees are here, Green said, and aside from educating the community on their existence, Canopy dispels false narratives that all refugees are here illegally.

“Drive-by supply drives are really important to our mission,” Green said, “because a part of welcoming clients is furnishing their homes and providing them with safe places to live.”
Green said furnishing houses is a hard part of her job, so having people in the community volunteer to help find permanent housing, temporary housing, and even be a temporary host home has been helpful.
Canopy does supply drives as often as people invite them to do it, Green said.

This time, the Fayetteville Public Library offered to host the drive, but in the past, Green said, Harding University has sent volunteers all the way from Searcy, Arkansas.
According to the Fayetteville Public Library website, people were invited to help support the recently resettled Canopy allies by providing a Canopy Welcome Kit, which contains any necessary household item. The community was able to supply relief and welcome displaced people from all over the world.

Co-Sponsor Coordinator Intern Kate Jones said, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan are two locations many refugees flee from in order to come to Northwest Arkansas.
Canopy currently has 125 families coming from Afghanistan, Jones said.
“Canopy was started because there was not a current refugee agency in the whole state of Arkansas,” Jones said.
The humanitarian crisis happening in Afghanistan, Jones said, is a very present issue that Canopy is helping to solve in their community.

By doing supply drives, furniture drives and career fairs, Jones said, Canopy aims to equip refugees with everything they need to begin a new life in America.
“We just care about them,” Jones said, “and their well-being, and the fact that they have come so far and have experienced a lot that we have never experienced.”