HFFC Forum

Concerned about the Afghan evacuees and refugee? Donate to HFFC’s Thanksgiving Campaign to support two refugee cosponsor groups who are helping them towards self-sufficiency in Fairfield County. Here’s some background: With the stunning fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, many Afghans fear for their lives, especially people who helped the U.S. military or who were vocal in their support of a free press or expanded roles for women. In August 2021 the US government flew 100,000 Afghans out of the country so they could be safe while applying for asylum in the US. Refugee resettlement agencies (and the volunteer co-sponsor groups that work with them) are giving these families a home and helping them get healthcare, employment, English and more to help these families become self-sufficient. In past years, HFFC has made some contributions to Stamford Interfaith Refugee Settlement (SIRS, sirsct.org), which plans to welcome two Afghan families in 4Q 2021. Another group, Westport's Interfaith Refugee Resettlement Council (IRRC) also plans to welcome two families in the same timeframe. Both community co-sponsor groups are trained and supervised by the resettlement agency, IRIS—Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (irisct.org), whose executive director, Chris George, spoke to us during our 11/8/21 program. . HFFC is holding a Thanksgiving Campaign in November 2021 to raise funds from HFFC members and friends for the SIRS & IRRC co-sponsor group. Please donate by clicking on the Donate button on hffcct.org and selecting "Refugee co-sponsor groups." Note: HFFC is a 501(c)(3), so your donation to this activity is tax-deductible. To reach our $2000 campaign goal, we are suggesting individual donations of $50. But we also want to have widespread support for this cause. So if $50 is too rich for your budget, contribute any amount. Click on the big Donate Now button on the hffcct homepage or go directly to this link: https://donorbox.org/hffc-donations Thanks!

In this CT legislative session Secular CT and HFFC have been closely following and advocating for three bills that interest humanists. Two bills passed, and a third made greater progress than in any previous session. In late May 2021, Governor Lamont signed a bill prohibiting deceptive adversing intended to mislead the public on reproductive healthcare services. We would agree with his press release that it is "abhorrent" to mislead people "during a vulnerable time of their life." In April 2021, the Governor signed a bill removing religious exemptions for student vaccinations. Despite protests from hundreds of anti-vaxxers, the bill passed overwhelming in both the House and Senate. Science prevailed! Unfortunately, in order to pass, a compromise was needed, "grandfathering" un-vaxxed kids currently in K-12. This means others remain vulnerable to the unvaxxed kids for up to 12 more years. But at least the bill finally got passed. We advocated strongly for the Medical Aid-in-Dying bill for terminally-ill patients. The bill successfully got out of the Public Health Committee for the first time in 14 attempts since 1994. However, it died without a vote when it was referred to the Judiciary Committee, whose concerns will need to be addressed in a future legislation session.