Humankind STL
Providing a foundation for Immigrant families
HumanKIND STL is an organization started in April of 2022 by a group of St. Louis natives who saw an immediate need in our community and took action. It began as a result of the needs of the 900 people that arrived from Afghanistan to the city of St. Louis after the evacuation in Kabul in August of 2021. These families arrived with nothing but a backpack full of limited belongings and their paperwork.
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Our Mission is to provide a foundation for immigrant families in St. Louis, MO through comprehensive, personal and compassionate support to ensure their long term success.
Our Story
Ann Wittman met her first Afghan family in November of 2021 and could not believe their story. They are a beautiful family with 5 small children and mom was pregnant at the time. They had to leave Kabul, Afghanistan in a hurry. They could not say goodbye to relatives. They only had backpacks with some documents and basic necessities needed for travel. They had to leave everything behind. They boarded the plane in Kabul in August, went to a refugee camp in Germany, then to Washington DC, then to a military base in the US, and finally arrived in St. Louis in October. When Ann met this family, they welcomed her and her husband, Frank, into their bare home and served her tea and cookies. They had very little English at the time. The dad was eager to get to work. Ann took him to get his drug screening for his job, took him to take the driving permit test, took the family shopping and through these experiences she fell in love with this family. As she met other Afghan families that had all the same needs, she recruited her friends and formed HumanKIND STL. Welcome Neighbor STL invited HumanKIND STL to join their organization in April of 2022. The 2 organizations work hand in hand to support over 200 local immigrant families in the St. Louis area.
WHO WE ARE
We are volunteers in the St. Louis community who want help new arrivals to St. Louis establish their new lives. We also work closely with many other charity organizations in the area: BIAS, Kindness Begins with me, International Institute, Oasis International, and the St. Vincent DePaul Society. HumanKIND raises funds and work closely with these organizations to execute creative solutions to many problems that all of these organizations face when helping the immigrants.
WHAT WE DO
We get to know these families personally. We visit them regularly, take them to the grocery store, to doctors appointments, coordinate furniture delivery, bring clothes and shoes, help find jobs and transportation, register them for school and walk them to the bus stop on the first day. Through all of these encounters, the families learn to trust us and we become their American families. They call us and text us to ask for guidance or help daily. Our goal is to make sure they know they have our support and love as they begin their lives in St. Louis. We fundraise and buy cars for the families. As of November, 2023 we have purchased 36 cars and repaired an additional 7. We lead service projects, bringing students in the community to the needs of the immigrants.
First Day of School in America