San Ramon Students Help Hundreds Of Refugees

SAN RAMON, CA — Dougherty Valley High School senior Arnav Gupta has founded Open Arms Refugee, a nonprofit to provide educational and mental health support for refugees.

"Our mission is to provide educational and mental health support to refugees, many of whom arrive in the United States with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We believe that by empowering these individuals with the right resources, they can rebuild their lives and create brighter futures for themselves and their families," Gupta told Patch.

Since Open Arms Refugee was founded over two years ago, the nonprofit has worked with over 45 volunteers, raised more than $10,000, and directly supported over 600 refugees. Gupta and his co-founder Vallabh Himakunthala recently traveled to Lesvos, an island in Greece home to several refugee camps, particularly for people from Syria and Afghanistan.

Arnav and Vallabh spent four weeks at the Kara Tepe refugee camp, where they provided educational and mental health workshops, and enough food to over 200 people for a month.

See here to watch a documentary about their trip.

Open Arms also works to help refugees who have recently entered the United States. They have hosted drives to provide cooking equipment, cleaning and hygiene items, and school supplies for newly-arrived refugees. To better educate the world on the challenges facing refugees and how they can help, Open Arms has launched a podcast, which is available on YouTube and Spotify.

"We are two immigrants ourselves and had been motivated to undertake this venture because we visited these immigrant shelters and noticed the terrible living conditions that they face," Arnav and Vallabh wrote on their website.

To volunteer, donate, or learn more, visit openarmsrefugee.org.