Everina Mustafa-Bennett, 21, is an intern at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Jamestown, with the New Neighbor Coalition, a faith-based initiative to help refugees and asylum seekers settle into the community.

"Teaching the families how to speak English. It's teaching the adults what their bills are, but also as complicated as making sure that they understand that this month, this date you have to pay this bill," she said.

It's the same help that the woman who brought her to America received.

Everina is from Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, in Africa, and was taken from her parents at the age of three, and put in a refugee camp with a woman and her seven kids, some in need of medical care.

In 2009, she was seven when they all came to the U.S. and was placed in Buffalo when got help from a local church.

"It was quite scary. Help us find apartments, get used to America," she said.

Once settled, the woman had other plans for Everina.

"She ended up using me for sexual exploitation to make some money in America without having to get a job. But then once my case worker and school found out, I was placed in the foster system," said Mustafa-Bennett.

And then she was moved to Jamestown, before settling with her foster, turned adoptive, parents in Frewsburg.

"I call it a miracle. If it wasn't for them, I definitely don't know where I'd be. There's no words or sentence that can describe how grateful I am to my adoptive parents. They went out of their way to make sure that I got a childhood. And they pushed for me to go to college," Mustafa-Bennett said.

She recently graduated from Jamestown Community College. It was JCC that put her in touch with St. Luke's.

"I was able to dream, become something and get a life," she said.

"It's in our religious purpose to welcome all who find their way here. Welcoming refugees and asylum seekers is about respecting dignity," said Luke Fodor, rector, St. Luke's Episcopal Church.

The church was already helping a handful of refugees from DRC and a dozen or so from other nations.

“The resilience that they learned is one of the greatest assets the refugees bring to local communities. We enrich one another's culture with food, with custom, with deep humanity," said Luke.

"I was given an opportunity that not a lot of kids who come from Africa with nobody and nothing get," said Mustafa-Bennett.

They are opportunities she's passing along to others.

"It's basically me paying back the chance that God gave me, but also at the same time, it's letting me connect with a culture that was lost," said Mustafa-Bennett.

The New Neighbor Coalition has also partnered with Journeys End Refugee Resettlement in Buffalo, which has opened a satellite office at St. Luke's to help families in Jamestown.

As for Mustafa-Bennett, she plans on continuing her education at Stony Brook University on Long Island as a globalization and international relations major, with the hope of becoming a human trafficking lawyer. She says she'd also like to build a safe house for human trafficking victims.