Packing hygiene kits for neighbors starting over.

When someone arrives with nothing, fleeing war or escaping exploitation, the first thing they lose is a sense of dignity. The IRC in San Jose meets people at that moment: resettling refugees and asylum seekers, and, through its dedicated anti-trafficking program, helping survivors reach safety and self-sufficiency.

Those survivors aren't only from far away. The IRC's anti-trafficking services support vulnerable youth and adults including U.S. citizens, trafficked and exploited right here in our own communities. A hygiene kit is a small, immediate way to say: you're welcome here, and you matter.

Newly arrived families receive food assistance through CalFresh, but federal law limits those benefits to food for home preparation, so they cannot be spent on soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, or any other hygiene item. Families arriving with almost nothing are left covering those costs out of very limited cash in the weeks when money is tightest. These kits close part of that gap so a family can start out clean and with their dignity intact.

Source: CalFresh permitted-purchases guidance, consistent with federal SNAP rules limiting benefits to food for home preparation.

Rohan wrote more about what's driving global displacement in Armed Conflicts and the Refugee Crisis.