EL CAJON, Calif. — It takes help turning an empty apartment into a home for a refugee family. Lead organizer Jill Galante of the Facebook group "Helping El Cajon Refugees" stuffed her SUV to the brim to bring joy to a family with 4 children ages one to seven.
"Of course everybody gets a stuffed animal. I go to auction sites, and I get returns on comforters for $17,” Gallante said.
The refugee family who recently fled Afghanistan asked News8 not to show them or their new El Cajon apartment for fear of Taliban retaliation on their relatives left behind in Afghanistan.
"They did make it in the nick of time, but he is desperately worried and devastated for his family back home. All they can do is pray,” Gallante said.
It's just the fourth refugee apartment set up the group of volunteers has done this week. They carried large boxes and tables and lamps up steps in Lemon Grove on Tuesday and set up baby cribs for one family.
"Right now, that master bedroom is completely empty, so I know they slept on the floor last night and the night before,” Gallante said.
Many of the volunteers are strangers to one another, coming together after seeing the "Helping El Cajon Refugees" Facebook group. It's a private group that accepts anyone who wants to help and posts a long list of grocery items and household goods they think the refugees will need.
“That's just a place where if you have items to donate, you can post them, and if we have the transportation, since we are just volunteers, we will come and get it from you,” Gallante said.
From furniture to fruit, “all the way down to a toilet scrubber, we really try to do it soup to nuts,” Gallante said.
The group is not giving some sloppy hand-me-downs. Gallante said people often ask, "'Can't they just get the stained blanket? That is better than nothing?' No, because I can do better than nothing."
The volunteers hope their message catches on. Gallante says the only reason she is doing this is because someone asked her if she had any extra items, and she did.
Anyone who would like to make a monetary donation to the group’s efforts can do so on the Second Families site.
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