In the aftermath of Election Day 2024, many are concerned about what the fallout will be for “your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as poet Emma Lazarus described humans from around the globe who seek refuge in the US from political oppression in their native lands. For people like Robert Sabuda, the change of regime, following a campaign fueled by incendiary anti-immigrant rhetoric, simply means that it’s time to double down on making refugees and asylum-seekers settle in and feel welcome.
Sabuda is the founder of Plutarch for Refugees, a New Paltz-based group of volunteers committed to helping displaced Afghan families make new homes in Ulster County. One family has already been resettled, and two more are expected to arrive in the next few months. To ease their transition, Plutarch for Refugees has been hosting a series of fundraising events. The latest will take place on Friday evening, December 6, at Full Circle in Gardiner: a workshop in which attendees will each make a festive holiday wreath to take home.
An artist by profession who specializes in designing pop-up books for children, Sabuda is also the director of 10 Horse Art Center, a renovated stable in the Plutarch neighborhood of New Paltz where artists can rent studio space. Born into a blue-collar family in Michigan, he moved to New York City to attend Pratt Institute. “I grew up poor, and a lot of people gave me a leg up to get somewhere in life, so I have a soft spot for people in need,” he says. “My volunteer work has always been related to refugees. I’m hard-wired for that.”
Although Sabuda has been doing refugee-related work for 20 years or more now, helping people from many countries, the US pullout from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 served to concentrate his focus on ameliorating the effects of 20 years of there on the populace — especially those who had worked for the American forces. “When Kabul fell, it reminded me of Vietnam. I was a child when that was happening, and I remembered that so many Vietnamese people needed to come here. In 2021 I was watching the same thing on TV,” he says. “Everything was happening on the fly, and Afghans were arriving everywhere.”
“The Afghans were our allies for two decades,” he notes ruefully. “They would ask me, ‘Why did the US leave us like that?’ and I’d feel shame.” While not a supporter of the war from the get-go, Sabuda believes, “The follow-through wasn’t great.”
Through his earlier volunteer work, Sabuda was already “connected with other folks who work with resettlement,” and he began meeting some of the refugees. “There were resettlement camps in this country for about a year” after the troops pulled out, he recalls. “Afghans started to arrive in our area with nothing but the shirts on their backs.”
In 2022 he decided to get more directly involved in organizing resettlement efforts close to home, and reached out to friends who were sympathetic to the cause – notably Laura Corbett, an active parishioner at the neighboring Plutarch United Methodist Church. Together they found a core group of volunteers, and established Plutarch for Refugees, using the Afghan Refugee Network as its not-for-profit umbrella and networking with other local organizations, including New Paltz for Refugees.
Sabuda began hosting outdoor fundraising events, including concerts, at 10 Horse Art Center, to prepare for the arrival of the first new residents. As soon as the US Department of State’s Welcome Corps program was launched in January of 2023, Plutarch for Refugees applied to sponsor a family. This program enables Americans, in groups of at least five adults, to support newly arrived refugees by securing and preparing initial housing, greeting them at the airport, enrolling children in school, helping adults find employment and meet other needs to ensure they are prepared for life in the US.
The first family arrived at the end of the year, and with more sponsors stepping up, Plutarch for Refugees immediately put in applications for two more families. “We help them connect with other Afghan families. At our events, we serve Afghan food,” Sabuda says. “They like it here. Believe it or not, the climate and temperature are the same as Kabul.”
Nonetheless, he notes, “All refugees are filled with great fears,” and some of the resettled Afghans deliberately keep a low profile for fear of retribution, due to being seen as collaborators with the occupying force. “Most are young, college-educated and speak English. Every single family that we worked with has worked with Americans.”
Sabuda and his colleagues envision the development over time of a small community of Afghan refugees in the mid-Hudson, where they can find mutual support and celebrate their culture. The proximity of New York City, with its historical legacy of celebrating ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, makes our region particularly promising as a new home for these displaced people, he says.
Of course, in the current political climate, it remains to be seen whether the federal government will continue to provide any supports for resettlement efforts after January 20. Sabuda says that during the prior Trump administration, he witnessed budgets getting slashed for “the humans who were processing the applications… The point is to slow things up.”
“After Haiti, Afghanistan is the second-poorest country on the planet,” Sabuda observes. People coming from there need a support group of friendly volunteers. Without the support of such groups, it’s very difficult to resettle. This is the heaviest volunteer lift one can do, other than Doctors without Borders.”
So it seems that, for Americans depressed or worried about the results of the recent elections, there are ways to get active and make life a little easier for people fleeing persecution in their countries of origin, by volunteering for organizations close to home such as Plutarch for Refugees. Learn how you can help at www.plutarch4refugees.org/volunteer.html or by e-mailing hello@afghanrefugeehousing.org.
If you’re not ready to take that big a plunge, you can do your part by attending the first annual Wreathmaking Fundraiser and Holiday Market, a “festive evening of crafting, laughter and community support” in the beautiful new community space at Full Circle (https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2024/07/30/full-circle-in-gardiner-holds-soft-opening-this-Thursday). It’s located at 297 Bruynswick Road in Gardiner, at the corner of Route 44/55. The doors open at 6 p.m. on Friday, December 6 and the event begins at 6:30.
This hands-on workshop is perfect for all skill levels, and all materials needed to design your own 22-inch wreath will be provided, including fresh fir, holiday greens, premade bows and more. “I’ve been frantically dehydrating 100 orange slices,” Sabuda reports. Warm cider and light refreshments will be served, and handcrafted gift items from Hudson Valley artisans will be available for sale.
Tickets cost $85 and are going fast, with space limited to just 45 participants. To purchase, or to learn more about the organization, visit www.plutarch4refugees.org.
Join the family! 
