Kind hearts: Amazon employees welcome a refugee family to Nashville

Co-sponsorship pilot enriches resettlement in the U.S.

Kevin Lubin’s four-year tenure at Amazon has been marked by personal and professional growth as well as a profound sense of fulfillment thanks to the company’s numerous volunteer opportunities. That’s why he jumped at the chance to participate in Engage to Change, a co-sponsorship initiative piloted by Amazon, in partnership with Welcome.US, that supports employees as they welcome newcomers into their communities.

In July 2023, Kevin and several Amazon team members embarked on a transformative journey as co-sponsors for Sebazungu, Olive, and their children, Tony and Agape, a refugee family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Co-sponsorship represents a holistic approach to refugee resettlement. From airport welcomes to household setup to educational support, co-sponsors serve as pillars of strength during the initial stages of a newcomer family's resettlement journey—and they are guided by the support of a local resettlement agency every step of the way. As with Kevin and the Amazon co-sponsor group, many co-sponsors form long-lasting relationships with the families they are supporting who are settling into their new lives in the U.S.

For newcomers Sebazungu, Olive, Tony, and Agape, their journey has been far from easy. Olive shared that both her and Sebazungu’s parents were killed in the war in the Congo, and the family endured many difficulties while living in a refugee camp before they were finally able to resettle in Nashville.

“My story in Africa before I came to this country, it was a hard life. We had no food. Getting what we needed to eat was so hard. We were living such a hard life,” Olive said.

Their transition to life in the United States has been marked by profound gratitude and newfound opportunities.

When asked to share his favorite part about living in America, 9-year-old Agape simply said, “We have so many places to go to play.” The boys especially love playing with their new bicycles that they received after the Amazon group took the family to a St. Luke's toy drive during the holidays.

Amazon does its part to support employees engaged in co-sponsorship by providing paid volunteer time and assisting in securing funds for housing.

“I think it goes to one of the biggest things that we have here at Amazon, which is customer obsession. You know, we just love our customers, and we want to always innovate on their behalf. And it's the same thing with the family, or even grander than the family: the community is our customer, and we want to make sure that we are helping them succeed,” Kevin shared.

Kevin and his co-sponsor team were guided by the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE), a refugee resettlement agency in Nashville, Tenn., that provided tailored training sessions and coordinated efforts throughout the co-sponsors’ nine month volunteer period. Kevin and his team’s tasks included welcoming the newcomers when they arrived at the airport, setting up their home with furniture and essential household items, enrolling Tony and Agape in school, setting up doctors appointments, employment support for Sebazungu and Olive, budgeting, and more. Additionally, Amazon funded private English tutoring for Sebazungu and Olive.

Kara Sievers, the Community Engagement Coordinator at NICE, has worked with the newcomer family firsthand and has been heartened by the speed and innovative approach of Kevin and his colleagues.

“The Amazon team has done an amazing job because we have a lot of things that we would love to be able to provide for families and just don't have staff capacity,” she said. “A lot of the really long-term, hard work of integration takes a long time, and it's a lot of everyday things like going to the library, going to the park, that helps someone feel connected to their community. It's something that our staff would love to be able to do, and we don't have the capacity. So having a co-sponsorship team, they sometimes do way more than our staff ever could and really do the majority of the meaningful work—I would say more so even than our staff does. That has been a huge help to us, too.”

Chris Linthicum, NICE's resettlement director, said he’s been impressed by the speed and efficiency of the co-sponsorship group. “They work in a fast-paced environment, and resettlement is a fast-paced environment, so I feel like it's been a very fluid transition for them to jump in and be able to help out," he said.

In a world often fraught with division and uncertainty, initiatives like co-sponsorship offer a glimmer of hope—a testament to the transformative power of collective action and human kindness. As Kevin said, "Some people say that [co-sponsorship is] difficult, but I really don't see it. I see it as just so rewarding. I would do it again, and again, and again."

Engage to Change is a project of Church World Service’s Refugee Welcome Collective in partnership with Welcome.US under an agreement paid for by the U.S. Department of State. This article was funded in part by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State.