Getting Settled

An important AIM ministry is helping international students get settled well in Hattiesburg. We help them find an affordable apartment that is close to their campus, roommates to share it with, and furnishings to make it a home.

We provide an online forum called “iFriends” Facebook group where students can connect with each other to share rides, ask for help and information, sell or giveaway things when they are leaving, and post invitations to events. Our AIM community volunteers interact with the students on iFriends and help to meet their needs. We also post a lot of useful information about apartments and living in our community to help new students get ready to come.

DONATIONS of used furniture and furnishings are solicited from the community and are given to the new students as they arrive and move into their apartments. We don’t have a lot of storage space, so we ask the students to fill out a “Furniture Request Form” and as items become available, we deliver them directly to the students who need them. Whatever students receive for free, we ask that they pass on to other international students for free when they leave Hattiesburg. Anything they buy, they may feel free to sell.

DONATIONS of funds are especially needed at the beginning of each semester to buy mattresses & cookware for all the new students when they first arrive. We are co-sponsoring a big “Kitchen Giveaway” at the BSU for newly arriving students. Used kitchen items and funds to buy new ones are needed. Contact Kathy Pope (kathycpope@gmail.com) to make donations of used kitchen things. To donate money for cookware, send by Venmo to @USM-BSU, or mail a check to USM BSU, c/o Rebekah Guthrie, 118 College Drive #5185, Hattiesburg, MS 39406. To donate money for mattresses, mail a check to AIM-Hattiesburg, Inc., c/o Deana Ponder, 76 Bent Creek Loop, Hattiesburg, MS 39402. OR DONATE USING PAYPAL: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=DN6XZ2NEBS2SJ

Since receiving our Non-Profit 501c3 status in April, 2023, we are now able to give tax receipts, receive grants and do more for the students. We received grants from Ekklesia-Hattiesburg and Walmart, Inc., Spark Good Program in January, 2024, and were able to buy new 8” memory foam mattresses for most of the new students who arrived in January. We would love to be able to do this for the new students in the Fall!