News

Torn apart by chaos in

Afghanistan a refugee family
is reunited in Bennington

As Musa and Zakia Muslim Yar and their three sons made their way to the Kabul airport to fly to the U.S. in 2021, the couple got separated from their two boys amid the crush of people trying to flee the country...

BCOA has grown...

Bennington County Open Arms (BCOA)

Afghan refugees rebuild

Courtesy Tiffany Tan/VT Digger
Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

BENNINGTON – In a one-story house a few blocks from downtown Bennington, Mary Jan spends several hours a week fashioning brightly colored yarn into winter scarves or bath mitts. Her hand-knit creations are sold at a couple of stores in the county. Two days a week, she also works at a local food manufacturer, helping make packaged snacks...

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Current Volunteer Opportunities:

• Internships
• Grant Writing
• Social Media Manager
• Working With Refugee Families
• Working in Advocacy
• And many more...

Flight to Freedom

Courtesy Michael Albans/Bennington Banner

Afghan family’s harrowing
flight to freedom and
the children left behind

BENNINGTON — The choice was painfully simple — leave on the plane heading for freedom with your wife and youngest child or risk nearly certain capture by the Taliban by trying to get to your two teenage sons, missing in the chaos outside the airport doors....