![Buffalo Bills fan wearing popular Water Buffalo 716 hat](/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Water-Buffalo.webp")
Buffalo Bills fan wears Water Buffalo Club 16 hat at Buffalo Bills game. (Courtesy of Joseph Cook/BuffaloNews.com)
We are thrilled to see the spotlight shining on our friends over at Stitch Buffalo. The Buffalo News recently featured the refugee women who craft the popular Water Buffalo Club 716 hats regularly seen on gamedays and around Western New York.
The State Department promised fully vetted refugee families who are here legally that it would pay for basic needs and case management support for three months.
When it issued a stop work order, it defaulted on the funding it owed to us for work already performed and to be performed for the families already here.
It left the local non-profits that do this work holding the bag.
We have a moral obligation to finish resettling the 731 refugees who the federal government has abandoned.
The International Institute of Buffalo (IIB) and the other non-profits of The Refugee Partnership of Western New York created a Crisis Response Fund to cover suspended federal refugee resettlement funding.
The objective is to raise $1.5 million within 30 days to fill this funding shortfall and support these refugees.
Give to the Crisis Response Fund
