Welcome Home

Create Homes and Build Community for Our New Neighbors

Welcome refugees and others resettling in the DC area

Set Up Apartments & More!

KindWorks puts together warm new homes for people starting over in our area—including newly arriving refugees as well as those rebuilding following fires, floods, and other dire circumstances. Join us as we transform an empty apartment into a thoughtfully furnished and decorated home—complete with “extras” to meet the recipient’s needs, whether that’s warm coats, a fridge full of food, or a culturally appropriate welcome meal! There are many ways to help—as a donor or as a volunteer, serving one time or on a continuing basis. Every home setup varies, based on the needs of the family, but here are some of our most frequent needs:

Drive your truck (or large SUV)
Help transport donated furniture for home setups.
Provide some muscle
Move furniture, hang art, make beds, and more.
Use your building skills
Help assemble bunk beds, cribs, and other furniture.
Make simple bike repairs
Change inner tubes and clean up donated bikes that need a bit of work.
Donate furniture
… plus decor, cleaning supplies, and other household necessities. See donation guidance.
Supply fresh groceries
Help fill a family’s pantry and fridge. Learn more.
Cook a welcome dinner
Learn how to get involved.
Share some KindSoup
Make and Share some KindSoup with newly arrived families. Contact Mhrangiz to make a connection Details here.
Donate funds to KindWorks
You can choose to direct your donation to specifically fund our home setup programs or make an unrestricted general donation. Donate and learn more.

Specific needs are detailed in any upcoming “welcoming ways” activities shown at right (or below when viewing on a mobile device). If there are no projects listed, or there are no volunteer slots available, and you wish to get a jump start with helping on our next home setup, complete this form.

Welcoming Ways

Monthly Giveaway for Refugees and Newcomers

April 17 @ 12:00 pm-3:30 pm

Donate Furniture & Other Household Goods

Frequently Needed Items

Here are some of the types of household furnishings KindWorks often needs for refugee home setups. Please note that the apartments we help with cannot fit breakfronts, armoires, and other large furniture sized for a single-family home.

Sofas, love seats, occasional chairs, coffee tables, end tables, flat-screen televisions (with remotes/supplies), area rugs, wall art, and lamps
Dining room tables and chairs, sets of serving platters, plates, bowls, dishes, and silverware
Dressers, night stands, bed sheet sets, blankets, and pillows
Student-sized desks and chairs, laptop computers (which KindWorks can wipe and refurbish), and sewing machines (with sewing supplies)
Towels, bathroom mats, toiletries, and bathroom cleaning items
Stove-top pressure cooker, other pots and pans, tea kettles, small microwave ovens, kitchen tools, and cleaning supplies
Wastebaskets, vacuum cleaners, brooms, mops, irons, and folding shopping carts
Bicycles and toys

Items in bold are on our most wanted list!

Every home KindWorks sets up relies upon donors like you to supply the full range of items that make an apartment comfortable and livable—from sofas to lamps to cleaning supplies. Because specific items vary depending on each family’s needs and the apartment space we’re working with (and the fact that we have very limited storage space and access to moving equipment), we are often only able to accept furniture and other household donations when we are preparing for a known home setup or are actively in the process of setting up a home. To learn about donation needs associated with an active home setup, click the link(s) for any planned home setups listed on this page, above. Then, sign up to deliver any furnishings still needed. If there are no upcoming opportunities posted, or if you have items to donate that aren’t needed for any listed projects or furniture that requires pickup, please let us know what you have so we can advise you of what we might be able to accept and when. Email Mhrangiz with details about your donation, including

photos
dimensions
whether or not item(s) can be disassembled for easier transport
if you are able to deliver or have delivered, and
your donation timeframe requirements, if any

Please note that our ability to accept furniture donations is determined by current need, available volunteer labor, and very limited storage space. We appreciate your understanding.

In-Kind Donation Receipt

A Word About Quality

Furniture donated for our apartment setup projects must be in at least very good condition, with no chips, tears, or stains. Other household goods should be new or very gently used. In addition, all donations must be clean and completely free of pet hair, cobwebs, and cigarette smoke.

Fill the Fridge with Food

(and the pantry too!)

When a newly arriving refugee family walks through their new home set up by KindWorks volunteers, they find not only a comfy living space, but also all the essential groceries they need to get started in their new life. You can make this possible by volunteering to provide the items needed to fill the fridge and pantry for a resettling family. To sign up for this important role, click the link(s) to any planned home setups listed on this page, above, to reserve your donor spot. If there are no upcoming opportunities posted or grocery needs have already been filled, email us and we’ll save you a spot for a future home setup. At shopping time, bring along the following list (and a friend or two perhaps), and plan to deliver everything just before the family arrives. No time to shop, but want to help? Donate online to help fund our home setups or any other projects you choose to designate.

Groceries needed for a family of three; please multiply as needed to fit the size of the family that you will be supporting:

2 bags of apples
2 bags of oranges
2 bags of grapes
2 bunches of bananas
2 heads of lettuce
2 bags/cartons of tomatoes
1 bag of potatoes
2 bags of onions
2 heads of garlic
2 bags of carrots
2 large containers of plain yogurt
2 dozen eggs
2 gallons of milk
4 cans of diced tomatoes
2 jars of pasta sauce
2 pounds of pasta
2 big bags of rice
2 bags of flour
1 jar of honey
1 sugar
2 bottles of cooking oil
6 yeast packets
2 loaves of bread
Afghan flat bread
2 boxes of crackers
2 boxes of vanilla wafers, or other not-too-sugary cookies
2 boxes of granola bars
2 bags of dried beans
2 bags of lentils
tea, preferably loose leaf green
1 canister of black pepper
1 canister of salt
for families from Afghanistan, essential spices: garam masala, red chili powder, cumin seeds, green cardamom, turmeric powder, cinnamon sticks, and saffron*
for families from Ethiopia or Eritrea, essential spices: coriander seeds, cumin seeds, green cardamom seeds, dried red chili peppers, whole allspice berries, whole cloves, fenugreek seeds, and black peppercorns

The Finishing Touch:

A Welcome (Home) Dinner

Provide a newly arriving Afghan family a meal from your heart by preparing a welcome dinner featuring the flavors and dishes they have known their whole lives. This is a perfect activity for a family or a group of friends who like to learn new recipes and hang out in the kitchen together!

KindWorks welcome dinners are delivered to the refugee homes we set up as well as through local resettlement agencies serving multiple families. (If you’re from outside the DC area and want to prepare welcome dinners for newly arriving families in your area, email us and we’ll give you the information you need to contact the resettlement agencies near you.)

It doesn’t matter whether you know your kebabs from your qormas, KindWorks makes it fun, easy, and meaningful to prepare a delicious Afghan welcome dinner. Just follow these five steps:

Sign up
Email us for info on the next planned dates/delivery locations or sign up for any announced welcome meals linked in the upcoming refugee welcome projects above. We’ll provide the menu, recipes, and grocery shopping list—all of which is designed to make enough to feed the family you are supporting as well as your group of five to seven cooks or family members.
Shop & Prep
Split up the shopping list among your group and collect a few oven-safe casserole dishes and bowls so the finished meal can be donated in lovely dishes that the family will remember your kind meal by.
Cook (and eat!)
The day before the meal is to be delivered, gather your group to cook together, plate up enough for the resettling family’s meal in the dishes that you’ve collected, and then sit down with your group to taste the remainder of your delicious Afghan meal together.
Deliver
The next day, deliver the meal. We’ll let you know where it goes—either straight into the refrigerator of an arriving Afghan family’s home or to a central point from where it will be distributed.
Report back
Complete our reporting form to let us know that your dinner has been delivered, and include any photos/stories about your experiences that we can share. If you post about your project on social media, please tag @DoKindWorks and use these hashtags: #KWWelcomeDinners, #DoKindWorks, and #KINDdemic.

More ways to help! If you’re unable to cook but would still like to provide a homemade meal to Afghan refugees, you can donate online to our home setups fund and contribute towards purchase of ingredients for our welcome dinners.