Peggy Abrom helps collect necessities to furnish and stock homes for refugees. (courtesy of Peggy Abrom)
Local woman collects items for refugees
While the holidays are well over and it’s nearly summertime, the giving season is never truly over. From Scripps Ranch, Peggy Abrom does her best to help the less fortunate by volunteering with others in the community, as well as the greater San Diego county, to collect and distribute donations for refugees who have recently relocated here.
As Abrom described it, she is working with “an informal group of volunteers organized on the Facebook group ‘Helping El Cajon Refugees.’”
She explained that they work to “fill the gaps between what the refugee resettlement agencies provide and what the refugee families need.”
While this group is not an official non-profit, the volunteers work closely and coordinate with various non-profits that assist refugees.
“The group does this by using social media to crowdsource,” Abrom said. “We look for donations for furniture, household items, clothing, and sometimes food and funds.”
Abrom was inspired to join this initiative after a conversation with music minister Katherine Cavallo at the local St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, who herself is very involved with local refugee aid.
“With the news of the worldwide refugee crisis over the past years, our family has long wanted to find a way to help,” Abrom said. “My daughter Molly and I delivered items for [Cavallo] to refugee families in El Cajon one Saturday and we were hooked.”
Since then, Abrom has been volunteering her time to collect and deliver donations because, as she explained, “coming from a community like Scripps Ranch, where we are blessed to have so much, I knew I could tap into the community to help these refugee families that have so little.”
Since joining this cause, Abrom said that Scripps Ranch, as a community, has really come together to help, having an overwhelmingly positive impact on the initiative.
“I knew the Scripps Ranch community was generous, but I had no idea HOW generous,” Abrom said.
The first post she made on social media about this cause requested donations for a newly-arrived family from Afghanistan with eight children. Within a few hours she had dozens of offers for every imaginable item.
“I was moved to tears at how sincerely loving and caring so many people are for complete strangers,” she said.
Abrom makes use of the local Facebook pages like Buy Nothing Scripps Ranch to ask for donations and volunteers. She has found this to be a perfect way to reach the community. Now that the page has been divided, others have joined Abrom’s efforts and collect items from Buy Nothing Scripps Ranch South, North and East to help contribute to the cause.
“Together, this community has literally fully furnished and outfitted about four refugee families’ apartments and donated items to dozens more,” Abrom said.
She said the group is always looking for “basic necessities one would need to furnish and stock a home from scratch: furniture, rugs, kitchen items, linens, clothing, school supplies, diapers, toiletries.”
But it doesn’t stop at donating. Abrom explained that one of the best ways volunteers can help is by assisting in the distribution of the donations.
“I would encourage people that have donated to take it one step further and deliver their items,” she said.
Abrom described this as her favorite part of the process.
“Get out of your comfort zone and visit one of those sweet families, and build relationships with people from a different part of the world,” she said.
Aside from joining the “Helping El Cajon Refugees” Facebook group, those interested may help in other ways. Abrom recommends contacting one of the formal resettlement agencies, such as the International Rescue Committee, or non-profits like Hearts for Refugees. Abrom said that if anyone wants to help directly, they can email her at pegabrom@gmail.com.
“I can proudly say no community in this county is as generous as Scripps Ranch,” Abrom said.