CAIF

As always CAIF has a wonderful time preparing and eating a meal with the women at Calvary Women’s Shelter in DC. Talking over dinner is the highlight. We talked about our families, favorite foods, where we go to school, our plans for when we growup. 

CAIF helped pack 12,000 meals for the hungry in the DC area at Washington Hebrew Congregation.

 

On Sunday CAIF went to the Unity Walk! Co-leader Julia was filmed asking a Jewish faith leader questions about their faith for an IFC project. We visited a Jewish Synagogue, Sikh Gurdwara, Buddhist temple, Russian Orthodox Church and the Islamic center this year and saw many old friends and made some new ones too. It was neat seeing the Interfaith hospitality—the Russian priest greeting Muslim visitors with “Salaam Alaikum” and the Mormon Elders greeting at the Islamic Center where we saw an interfaith choir perform and visited the sanctuary. At the Buddhist Temple, Interfaith Power and Light was providing tree seedlings to plant to help the environment. 

 

CAIF co-leaders did some planning and then celebrated the Hindu holiday Golu last weekend and Dhruv explained the meaning behind their family’s display of dolls. For more information see this article! We learned that it is celebrated in different ways in different parts of India, partly because “India” is a political boundary that somewhat arbitrarily grouped many kingdoms. Each region or community has kept their own flavor of celebration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golu

We set up another apartment for an arriving refugee family with KindWorks. The family is 2 parents, 4 girls and 3 boys. We took an empty apartment and donations and created a welcoming home. We wish this family the best in America. 

Anjali: “Volunteering made me feel like I was doing something good for others. I imagined if I had to be relocated, the amount of worries I would have, at least when I got there I would have a nice place to live. “

CAIF families helped KindWorks set up another apartment for newly resettled refugees. "Many hands" truly "made light work" as about 20 volunteers from ages 6-60+ transformed the piles of donations into an inviting home for a family from Eritrea. The neighbor also helped. They are also from Eritrea and have a child of similar age! One can imagine the stress of a move, needed because of instability in one's home country, and it is so meaningful to be able to hopefully ease the transition by having an inviting home set up with all the essentials, from toiletries to toys. KindWorks always sees the pantry is stocked with culturally relevant food and usually a fresh home cooked meal from their culture.

 

CAIF prepared and served a great Italian dinner with the women at Calvary and great conversation over dinner as always. 

We walked out. Next the March for Our Lives on the 24th. Register https://event.marchforourlives.com/event/march-our-lives-events/8738/signup/?akid=&zip=" target="_blank">here.

February 24th, Discussion with Iman Rauf (Cordoba House NY) with Interfaith Families Project

March 24th, March for Our Lives, Mall, Washington DC

April 6th, Prepare and Serve a meal at Calvary Women's Shelter in DC

RSVP to capitalareainterfaithfriends@gmail.com