Two refugee families from Afghanistan settled in central Iowa this week and five more families are on the way. They’re getting a hand from -former- refugees.Six of the seven families are led by Afghani widows who were subjected to brutal attacks and extreme discrimination in their home country. Some of them have seven children.Laura Keegan, at Catholic Charities in Des Moines, says a Vietnamese family that fled to America –and Iowa– 25 years ago is sponsoring one of the new families. Terrorist groups, believed based in Afghanistan, are suspected in the September 11th attacks on the U-S, which Keegan says makes her mission to find homes for Afghani refugees in Iowa usual and challenging.Keegan says so far, everyone is welcoming the Afghan refugees and there’ve been no reports of trouble from the closed-minded.
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