WELCOME | Manhattan Area Resettlement Team celebrates new HQ

A historic Manhattan home is serving a new purpose as a refugee resettlement and welcome center.

Volunteers and supporters of the Manhattan Area Resettlement Team gave tours of the agency’s new offices Thursday in the historic Damon Runyon House at 400 Osage Street. MART’s new executive director, Ana Mendonca-Zarling, and program manager, Virginia Rodriguez, moved into the Runyon House in August.

“It’s awesome, because now we have a space which we can welcome our clients and serve them the best way possible,” Mendonca-Zarling said.

MART officials saved $50,000 for a down payment over two years to buy the house. 

Prior to the Runyon House purchase, MART was utilizing office space in the Manhattan Housing Authority building and the Flint Hills Place apartment complex to help Afghans with necessary paperwork and hold informational meetings.

Along with the new headquarters, the leaders refreshed the organization’s mission in August to include more refugees from other countries. Mendonca-Zarling said a family from the Democratic Republic of Congo is arriving in Manhattan Saturday to be resettled.

Army veterans Aaron Estabrook and Fatima Jaghoori established MART in late 2021 to assist in the resettlement of refugees from Afghanistan who fled their homes as the Taliban forcibly retook the country in August 2021 following 20 years of U.S. and allied military presence.

Estabrook, who served in a tank battalion in Afghanistan, said housing a refugee welcome center in a historic building gives new refugees hope while honoring Little Apple history and tradition.

“MART has transformed over the past year from an all-volunteer organization to a professional resettlement agency,” Estabrook said. “Manhattan is poised to receive people from any country, and it’s only possible because of the professionals at MART.”

Mendonca-Zarling said a family from Nepal and a family from Venezuela are also expected to arrive in Manhattan in the coming weeks.

MART volunteer and new Manhattan city commissioner Susan Adamchak told The Mercury that state officials are anticipating more refugees from Congo, as well as Haiti and Cuba. Additional refugees from Afghanistan are also expected to arrive through 2024. More than 200 Afghans now live in Manhattan as part of the local resettlement effort, which pairs with state and national agencies to provide refugees with resources for housing, healthcare and educational needs.

Adamchak said volunteers are needed for transporting people to appointments and setting up homes ahead of arrivals. Co-founder Jaghoori said she thinks MART volunteers are meeting refugees’ needs well, but more assistance pairing resettling people with jobs that match their skill set would be beneficial.

K-State junior educational studies major Emma LaLond is MART’s newest volunteer, assisting program manager Virginia Rodriguez with organizing and cataloguing financial documents for refugees. She loves that her workspace is in a historic building.

“It’s old, vintage and it’s so cozy for people to come in,” LaLond said. “It’s so much more special than going into a regular office.”

Damon Runyon’s father, Alfred Lee Runyan (Damon changed the spelling of his last name after a typo in a New York newspaper stuck) came to the Manhattan area in 1855 as a young boy aboard the steamship Hartford. That ship carried an immigration party that left Cincinnati and ran aground near the confluence of the Big Blue and Kansas rivers. The passengers settled in the area with other immigrants and changed the name of their community from Boston to Manhattan.

Kansas Sen. Usha Reddi — who represents District 22, which includes Manhattan — said during the open house that being an immigrant from India helps her understand what new refugees are going through.

“I understand leaving your families, your culture, your food, your traditions, everything and coming here and trying to start a new life,” Reddi said. “I hope to work with you to make sure we continue to be a welcoming community but also make sure you have resources to be successful … whatever you might need. We are working for you.”

During the event, co-founder Estabrook presented longtime MART volunteer Sarah Inskeep with the inaugural Inskeep Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service. Inskeep has served in numerous volunteer capacities with the organization since its inception and will remain a board member and coordinator for the agency while preparing for graduate school next year.

“I’m super grateful to the team, and I’m excited about everything that we’ve done and excited to see the organization grow,” Inskeep said. “I’ve always emphasized to the team that this wouldn’t be possible without the work we’ve all done together. No one person could’ve pulled this off.”

Source:  WELCOME | Manhattan Area Resettlement Team celebrates new HQ | News | themercury.com https://themercury.com/users/profile/ajdome

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