![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/10/17/opinion/17Warren-image/17Warren-image-facebookJumbo.jpg)
Afghans fleeing the Taliban are often people who risked their lives to aid America or are ethnic or religious minorities, female community leaders or L.G.B.T. people who are in extreme danger under the Taliban. Mr. Soerens told me about an Afghan family of four whom World Relief recently resettled. When Kabul fell, this family was in danger because the father had worked with the U.S. Embassy. They were evacuated by U.S. forces, and after over a month of processing and waiting, they boarded a plane and landed in Memphis.
World Relief Memphis rallied to provide welcome and vital services to this family and to connect them to a community. Because of an apartment shortage, a local pastor connected with World Relief hosted the family in his home until they could find housing.
World Relief also does the hard work of political advocacy for refugees and immigrants, supporting policies that protect the weakest and most vulnerable around the world.
People “fleeing pure evil,” said Myal Greene, the president and C.E.O. of World Relief, “can be welcomed into a city of love.”
“We take people who’ve experienced the worst day of their life,” he said, “and we give them hope.”
Fifty-five dollars provides child nutrition information to a mother’s group overseas; $100 gives a refugee child a backpack and school supplies; $800 helps a refugee family get their green cards.
Survivors of exploitation and trafficking healed. Red Oak Hope works with survivors of sexual trafficking and exploitation where I live, in Austin, Texas, and also in Uganda and countries in Asia. Here in Austin, it runs a transitional home where survivors of exploitation receive rent-free housing, relational support, case management, advocacy, medical care, counseling, vocational training and addiction recovery support. Women stay at the house anywhere from one to 18 months. Some get their G.E.D. One woman who was part of their program recently received her master’s degree. Children are also permitted to stay in the house with their mothers, providing safety and hope for both generations.
Around 40 million people are trapped in human trafficking worldwide. It is nearly impossible to get good data on how common this is in the United States because trafficking and exploitation are hidden crimes, but the Polaris Project estimates over 20,000 people were trafficked here in 2019. Red Oak Hope offers help and support to individual women, one by one.