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Biden vowed to revive US refugee program. Everyday Americans are helping.

Mohammed Humed spent 16 years in a refugee camp. That’s almost half his life so far. 

The Eritrean fled his East African home in 2008, fearing threats from a repressive government that detained his family members. At a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia, unable to work, he says meals weren’t guaranteed.

Now, in southern Colorado, a group of American strangers has found Mr. Humed a home. They’ve also found him a job. And a griddle for injera flatbread. All this came through a new program called Welcome Corps that allows private citizens to sponsor refugees.

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Welcoming refugees has long been an American tradition. Resettlement has rebounded under the Biden administration, with American citizens lending a hand.

In July, these Colorado volunteers, with the backing of the U.S. State Department, brought Mr. Humed and his family to their mountain-flanked town of Trinidad. The roughly 11,000 residents are mostly white. And no one else here speaks Afar, his native language, says Mr. Humed. Still, he’s grateful enough for the warm welcome to stay for now – with the hope of one day bringing more people like him here.

“Welcome Corps is my second family,” Mr. Humed says through an interpreter. He calls one of his sponsors “like my father.”

That sponsor, Tim Crisler, is also moved. The retiree doesn’t have children and has enjoyed this new fatherly role.

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