Carry the Future: Fargo Volunteers Help Syrian Families

Carrying a kid can be a tiring job for any parent.

For some Syrian mothers and fathers, it’s especially hard to keep their kids safe as they flee their homes.

One volunteer hopes to help the Fargo community make a difference in keeping families together, across the world.

Syrian refugees may have to walk hundreds of miles, deal with dangerous terrain, and avoid people chasing them, all while traveling with their children.

Carry the Future is a volunteer group that is hoping to help refugees by collecting new and used baby carriers for their families.

A local volunteer explains how a small donation in Fargo can help keep families together, one carrier at a time.

Najla Amundson stays busy being a mother of four children and a dog.

“I just think that could have easily been us,” Amundson said.

While Najla was born in America, her mother Mayla and father lived in Syria before they came to the U.S. more than 50 years ago.

“It’s really when I lived there it’s a beautiful country, and I’m sad it’s ruined,” says Najla’s mother Mayla Ghazi. 

While some see a ruined country, Najla is trying to save families there by collecting baby carriers around Fargo.

“I just thought that’s it, that’s how I, that’s what I need to do to help,” Amundson said. 

Boxes are set up at churches, businesses, and NDSU to encourage community members to support Syrian refugees during the season of giving.

“Put yourself there, and you can feel yourself going across rugged terrain or having people chasing you. Can you imagine, I mean, fleeing for your life?” says Knollbrook Covenant Church Pastor Calvin Lindstrom.

Najla says it’s important for Syrian Refugees to be able to put on the baby carrier quickly so they can safely travel with their children.

Najla says fleeing for most refugees means having to move as fast as they can when they arrive in Greece in order to move to their next location.

“I can only imagine what it’s like for a child who is going through something like that, to be worried about losing their parent maybe in the chaos or in the crowd, and now they don’t have to worry,” Amundson says. 

Regardless of politics, religion, or the past, Najla says she hopes this helps every parent carry their children to a safe and more promising future.

Najla has collected five baby carriers herself.

Her goal is to collect 100 by Christmas.

Drop off locations around Fargo include: Knollbrook Covenant Church, Olivet Lutheran Church, Temple Beth El, American Gold Gymnastics, TNT Kid’s Fitness and Gymnastics and NDSU’s Department of Communication. 

Carry the Future is looking for baby carriers that are soft with clasps or harnesses. 

For more information on Carry the Future, click here.