Outreach and Refugee Resettlement Program

Mr. Aftab Siddiqui, Vice Chair  

In the aftermath of 9/11 tragedy, it became imperative that Muslim Community increases its participation in mainstream organizations and activities. MCC decided to launch an Outreach Program that would focus on assisting local shelters. The Program is co-chaired by Ismail Tahir and Aftab Siddiqui and started functioning in early 2003 and has now established a partnership with Arlington Life Shelter (homeless shelter). Volunteers from MCC prepare and serve hot breakfast twice a month to the homeless. They also serve dinner during Ramadan. Star Telegram has reported on the activities of MCC volunteers.
 Homeless Shelter: Outreach Program has served more than 3000 meals to Arlington Life Shelter in the past two years. This was only possible due to generous donations from MCC’s supporters and volunteers. Sisters Shaun, Carole Sturm, and Farhat Huda have played a major role in the outreach efforts.
 Back-to-School Supplies: Outreach Program has been providing back-to-school supplies to the children in the homeless shelter. The volunteers from the program collected donations, shopped for the school supplies, collected gift cards for shoes, prepared the school packs, and handed over the supplies to Arlington Life Shelter. Many of these volunteers are school age children. MCC is appreciative of their donation, work, and dedication. 

Food Bank: MCC has collected the canned food for the Food Bank in the past. Dr. Ahmed has met with the directors of the Food Bank and discussed the MCC’s participation in working on similar projects of collecting the canned food or arranging the volunteers to help at the Food Bank – Head quarters in Fort Worth Texas.

Humanitarian Day: Mr. Aftab Siddiqui is the member of the organizing committee. He was instrumental in organizing the health fair at the Humanitarian Day and collecting the cloths and other necessities to be distributed at the Humanitarian Day.

Human and social service agencies and organizations are scrambling to plan for the arrival of an estimated 500 refugees from war torn Iraq. These refugee families have been living in Syria for some time and are in dire need of all kinds of assistance. Most of them are traumatized due to devastating experiences in Iraq – their home country where they had living for years and generations and then had to flee the war zone. They lost everything and became totally dependent on the Syrian Government and people who have been taking care of almost two million refugees for the last few years.

Ms. Nuha Almarkouzi and Mr. Aftab Siddiqui of MCC for Human Services met recently to coordinate efforts to help the refugees settle in the area. The needs of this group of refugees will include housing, schooling of children, health care including psychiatric care, English language skills, employment and many more. Government agencies will help in documentation, initial housing, and healthcare. The Muslim community will have to pitch in to provide them a sense of comfort and security. Many including children are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); a number of women are expecting; the families are shattered and have lost everything. The community will have to reach out to these unfortunate families and help them to make their transition in a foreign environment smooth and easy. MCC has been working with local mosques to organized activities supporting financial and social needs of the refugees. Many individuals are supporting financially and providing house hold items, clothing and Qurbani meat. If you or your organization is interested in helping, please contact Aftab Siddiqui or Talaun Thompson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and 817-589-9165.