The power of connectivity: Welcome.US CEO Council partners provide newcomers with needed tech

Mobile device distribution offers peace of mind and independence to newcomer families

Newcomers face a number of challenges when they first arrive in the United States, but one of the most pressing issues is often connectivity. This is why Welcome.US’s committed partners at T-Mobile and Google have ensured that newcomers can access essential technology to keep them connected with their loved ones, their new community, and the world around them.

Through this initiative, Welcome.US and its partners have distributed phones with free year-long service plans from Metro by T-Mobile to community organizations that support newcomers nationwide. These organizations include resettlement agencies as well as diaspora and veteran-led organizations and community-based organizations that serve newcomers.

The power of connectivity through these mobile distributions has enabled communication and provided comfort to families facing crisis.

RefugeeOne

As refugees across the world continue to be displaced from their homes by conflict and war, the power of communication is undeniable. One phone call can save lives.

That was the case for Mohammad Shafiq Alokozay, his wife, Shakoria, and their three children. Shafiq worked as a driver in Afghanistan while Shakoria stayed home with their daughters, ages 9, 5, and 3.

“Because of the special circumstances, I received a phone call in the afternoon to be ready, and a car picked us up in the middle of the night,” Shafiq said. “We went to the airport at 4:30 in the morning, and we got [on] an airplane.”

The family was evacuated to a refugee camp in Doha, Qatar, for three weeks. After completing all the health screenings, vaccinations, and paperwork, the Alokozays were able to move to Chicago, where they now live.

Shakoria had to travel to the United States with her broken arm.

When they arrived in Chicago, they were immediately helped by RefugeeOne, a Chicago-based resettlement agency. Members of the organization picked them up at the airport, took them to a furnished apartment with a kitchen stocked with groceries, and welcomed them with a hot meal.

With the help of RefugeeOne, Shakoria was also treated at the medical campus of Sinai Hospital in downtown Chicago within four days of their arrival. She spent the first weeks there by herself, but she was given a cell phone to maintain contact with her family the entire time.

In order to ensure that every refugee newcomer family is given access to a mobile device, RefugeeOne’s policy dictates that only one phone is distributed per household. However, given the extenuating circumstances of the Alokozay’s case, RefugeeOne issued a phone to both Shakoria and Shafiq.

RefugeeOne was able to grant the Alokozay family this lifeline through Welcome.US’s partnership with T-Mobile.

“She was alone there, and she was sad because the kids were here,” Shafiq shared about those trying days when Shakoria was receiving treatment in the hospital. “So the phone was always on. She was talking to the kids, she was talking to me, and directing me on what to do.”

Not only was Shakoria able to stay connected with her family during her recovery process, but she could also keep herself occupied and distracted during the long hours in the hospital—sleep was elusive with the constant stream of nurse visits and treatments she needed around the clock.

Even without a medical emergency, the cell phones provide newcomers with a direct line to their case manager and emergency services as they navigate the initial resettlement process.

Both the devices and the data plans also give newcomers access to platforms like Google Maps and Google Translate that are necessary to navigate around their new communities and communicate with their new neighbors. The free data plans provided by T-Mobile for the first year after arrival make a huge difference when it comes to clients who are often on a limited budget.

This is the case for Shafiq who used his phone to find directions to the hospital to visit his wife, as well as to learn English and set alarms throughout the day for prayer time.

Kelli, who has been with RefugeeOne for almost six years, shared, “The fact that we have this [partnership with Welcome.US] to rely on is huge and saves our time, our staff’s time so much, and it just gives us reliable communication with our clients, which, we just can’t state enough, is so, so, so helpful.”

While Shakoria still needs to undergo several more surgeries, she is now back home with her husband and children, and the family is settling into life in the U.S.

Keeping Our Promise

RefugeeOne’s clients aren’t the only ones benefiting from the device distribution program.

Following the fall of Kabul, M.R., an Afghan newcomer who asked to only be identified with his initials to protect his family still in Kabul, said his family lived in fear for two years. M.R. held many positions working for USAID programs, United Nations programs, and the World Food Program while in Afghanistan.

“Two or three times, I changed my houses because the Taliban was searching for those people that work with U.S. agencies,” M.R. said.

He and his family tried multiple times to leave the country but they weren’t allowed to cross the border.

Finally, in late August 2023, M.R. received the phone call he had been hoping for. He was told to be prepared and in Kabul the following day.

“I told them [to] give me one more day [so] that I could sell my furniture and my car,” M.R. said. “They gave me one hour.”

After years of living in fear, M.R. and his family were resettled in Rochester, New York. They were greeted by Keeping Our Promise (KOP), a resettlement agency based in Rochester that helps Afghan and Iraqi allies resettle in the U.S. These include individuals who have helped the U.S. either as interpreters, support personnel, for the U.S. State Department, or for USAID programs.

“Me and my family, we are happy, we are safe,” M.R. shared.

Before this program launched, KOP would provide newcomers with phones and service plans for one month, but after that month was up, it was up to the newcomers to continue the service and determine how to stay connected.

“That’s really difficult,” said Ellen Smith, director of KOP. “They’ve got no checking account, no bank account, no credit card.”

Since the program’s launch, 400 phones and service plans have been distributed to KOP.

“Just to hear that other human voice and to know you’re going to be okay,” Smith said. “Just to be able to know that you can call someone and get someone on the phone, and you don’t have to worry about, ‘Are my minutes running out? Is my time running out for the month?’ You’ve got that connection. It’s important that our friends at T-Mobile know how much I appreciate that as someone who runs this program and deals with families who have been incredibly traumatized.”

Ukrainian Community Center of Washington

Roza, her husband, and their three young children were living in a small suburb in Kyiv when the war in Ukraine first began.

Roza’s husband Roman, who is a professional singer, was on tour in the U.S. in early 2022. The day before his scheduled flight home, Roman lost consciousness. At the hospital, he was diagnosed with COVID and pneumonia as well as a blood clot in his heart.

“He was so weak [that] he couldn’t even walk and it was hard to breathe,” Roza said. “We were not sure if he [would] make it.”

Because of his health condition, he wasn’t allowed to travel for six months.

For days, Roza spent all of her time talking to friends and doctors in the U.S. and losing sleep over her husband’s condition. The night before the war started, she had been on the phone with her husband until 3 a.m. due to the time difference. His condition was improving, and she was finally able to go to sleep.

She was abruptly woken up at 5 a.m. to the sound of her neighbor’s car starting. Roza looked at her phone and realized the war had started. Roza and her family lived just outside of Kyiv—the epicenter of the fighting.

“So all the main fights were in our neighborhood because [the] Ukrainian army didn’t allow [the] Russian army to go to Kyiv,” Roza shared.

Roza’s brother lived in Western Ukraine where the fighting had not yet begun, and he invited her and the children to come stay with him. A drive that normally takes just a few hours took the family over 20 hours.

When they finally made it to western Ukraine, Roza realized that she and her kids would not be safe anywhere in the country.

The Ukrainian government had restrictions on who could leave the country, but families with three or more children were allowed to leave. Roza and her friend made their way to the Polish border together. The line of cars leading to it was 60 kilometers long.

Roza’s friend, who had two children, was turned away at the border, but Roza was able to escape with her three children to Poland.

After a few weeks, Roza and her children reunited with her husband who was still recovering at a hospital in Washington state.

When they arrived, they were helped by the Ukrainian Community Center of Washington (UCCW). The UCCW is often the first place that newcomers in the Seattle area go for support as they navigate life in their new communities.

“A lot of people don’t have relatives, they don’t have friends, and they don’t even know where to go and who to ask for help,” said Oleh Kalabskyi, a cross-cultural and mental health counselor at UCCW whose role has him interacting with and assisting recently arrived newcomers. “And when they call us, [they say], ‘Oh, thank God, I can hear [the] Ukrainian language and somebody can understand me.’ It is very helpful for those new arrivals.”

During their initial intake with clients, UCCW will check in with them to see if they already have a device like a phone or a laptop. But many of the devices Ukrainian newcomers have brought with them are not usable in the United States, even with a new SIM card.

Through the partnership with Welcome.US, UCCW staff are able to offer their clients phones and free service plans with T-Mobile for up to one year.

“This program is very helpful,” Oleh said. “Sometimes people even cry when they see [the phones]... because [they’ve] not [had] a lot of things for free, [then] they come into the United States, [and] they can feel they are welcomed here, and they can feel they are valued here.”

For Roza, this program has proved very helpful for her family.

“We have [a] family of five, and we have lots of expenses, as you can understand,” Roza said. “So every help that we receive today is very important for us.”

Today, Roza’s husband has fully recovered, and the couple is able to focus on bringing back stability and safety for their three children—the youngest of whom was diagnosed with hearing loss and autism once they arrived in the U.S. The resources that UCCW have provided this family, including the phones and service plans, have allowed them to prioritize taking care of their daughter, paying rent on a place of their own, and resettling in their new community, safe and sound.

By the end of 2024, organizations helping refugee newcomer families will have distributed 50,000 mobile devices. This Welcome.US partnership with Google and T-Mobile is providing families with the connection, comfort, and resources they need to find safety and belonging in their new communities.