World Refugee Day 2011: A Celebration of Service

Photographer: Zoeann Murphy

USCRI's office in Albany helped reunite Mawatta with her 9-year-old daughter after being separated by war for more than four years. USCRI staffer Sarah Cady accompanied the mother from Liberia—pictured holding her youngest—to the airport in Albany to await the arrival of her child. Mawatta and her family recently became naturalized U.S. citizens.

Photographer: Christina Bruce-Bennion

Katie Painter, Ibrahim Musa, Migua Mberwa, and Dadiri Mberwa. The Global Gardens program helps refugee farmers bring their produce to the Boise Saturday Market and events like World Refugee Day. They grow crops that are both familiar and unfamiliar to Boiseans to expand their culinary tastes.

Photographer: Shelley Bauer
Summer 2010

Refugee Services started working closely with Rolling Hills apartment complex in 2009, early in this relationship both parties decided that putting community garden plots in at the apartment complex would help to build community and give residents access to healthy low cost food. There were five families that originally signed up to have plots but by the end of the first work day in April 2010 there were eighteen refugee families from Burma, Nigeria and Bhutan who had come out looking for plots. Redeemer Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake helped to fund and put in a fence for their yearly service day "Live Out Love" in June 2010.

Photographer: Hillary Prag
May 2011

Kindergartner Pukar receives preventative dental care while his classmate, Samwel, looks on outside his classroom from Dental Assistant, Ana Briones, of Total Oral Prevention Strategies, TOPS at Place Bridge Academy in Denver, Colorado. TOPS has provided preventative dental care and referrals for over 100 students at Place Bridge Academy, a magnet school for refugees and immigrants in the Denver Public School District.

Photographer: Hillary Prag
May 2011

Paraprofessional Hlaing Moe Than of Burma works with third grader Nura A. on a worksheet in the hall outside his classroom. Nura is a refugee student from Burma, now attending Place Bridge Academy in Denver, Colorado. Place Bridge Academy currently staffs 36 paraprofessionals speaking 8 different languages in order to provide support to the newcomer students at the school. He and his colleagues serve over 160 families from Burma whose children attend Place Bridge. Than has been living in the United States for less than 3 years and been working at Place Bridge for the past year.

Photographer: Zoeann Murphy

Refugees often come to America with a single suitcase packed with personal treasures: traditional hand-woven fabrics, photographs of loved ones, or a tattered English dictionary. They arrive here having lost most of their worldly possessions, yet for many refugees, their sense of hope for a better tomorrow often outweighs the not-so-distant memories of loss and suffering.

Photographer: Zoeann Murphy

Zaw Min/USCRI and volunteers: Local volunteers play a crucial role in welcoming our new refugee neighbors. These dedicated, giving community members are helping USCRI set up an apartment for a refugee family.

Photographer: Shaun Boyte
June 2010

IRC nursery volunteer cradles a young boy while his mom attends class.

Photographer: Amy Melsa

Open Arms, a for-profit social enterprise in Austin, TX, endeavors to do business differently, giving refugee women entry to American society by paying them a living wage for creating fashionable merchandise from reclaimed materials. In doing so, they link arms across a cultural and economic divide to bring hope, prosperity and a future. Pictured: Leslie Beasley, Flora Lado, Lacey Strake

Open Arms, a for-profit social enterprise in Austin, TX endeavors to do business differently, giving refugee women entry to American society by paying them a living wage for creating fashionable merchandise from reclaimed materials. In doing so, they link arms across a cultural and economic divide to bring hope, prosperity and a future. Pictured: Lacey Strake, Flora Lado, Odile Moukissi

IRC employee Gejsi Cangonji with refugee kids from Burma.

Photographer: Lily Solmssen Moureaux
August 2009

IRC Summer Academy: Children of Ellie Cook's Lower Elementary Class are enraptured by The Alphabet Tree, by Leo Lionni, read aloud by their teacher, Ellie Cook. Ms. Cook has been teaching this class since the start of the Academy in 2006.

Photographer: Liza Lieberman, HIAS DC

HIAS Young Leaders, a volunteer-based group of young professionals interested in immigration and refugee issues, formed a valuable partnership with the Shalom Education Center in Rockville, Maryland. HIAS Young Leaders assisted the school by teaching chess classes to the students, most of whom are the children of refugees or refugees themselves from the Former Soviet Union, every other Sunday for over two years. These classes enhanced and nurtured American values and Jewish identity within the Russian Jewish community of the Washington Metropolitan area.

Photographer: Jonathan R. Tan
May 2011

Dr. Allen S. Keller (M.D.), program director and medical director at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture in New York, NY, with client, Cheikhna Mahawa from Mauritania. Taken at the Ambulatory Care Medical Clinic in Bellevue Hospital Center.

Photographer: Florian Seger
May 2011

A cultural orientation class with newly arrived refugees from Burma.

Photographer: Daniel Carvalho

In New Haven, CT, an English language teacher provides literacy instruction to a refugee from Somalia at the office of IRIS- Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services.

2010

Dr. Crista Johnson (right), Director of the Refugee Women's Health Clinic (RWHC) at Maricopa Integrated Health System (MIHS) visits one of her Somali Bantu patients whom she recently delivered. This is the patient's first delivery in the United States. A member of the RWHC staff – Ms. Halima Abdirazak (left) is present to provide interpretation during the patient's post partum stay and to also ensure that discharge instructions are properly conveyed. Staff: Dr. Crista E Johnson, Director RWHC (right), Ms. Halima Abdirazak, Medical Assistant and Patient Care Coordinator RWHC (left)

Photographer: Rick D'Elia

The Welcome to America Project (WTAP), furnishes the apartments of refugees, newly admitted through the U.S. State Department, resettled to Phoenix, Arizona from war-torn and oppressed countries worldwide. This mostly volunteer organization collects high quality furniture and household items from donors throughout the Phoenix area, and delivers them free of charge, on Saturdays all year long, to refugee families arriving from numerous countries. This mission is two-fold, to furnish the bare apartments of newly-arrived refugees with high quality home furnishing, and to build bridges of neighborly understanding between the local community and newly arrived refugees. Volunteers provide furnishings and a welcoming home, but more than that the Project provides purposeful connections and understanding for all participants.

Photographer: Elisa Ruiz
July 2009

In July 2009, the Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, welcomed hundreds of guests to the Gracie Mansion in New York City to celebrate the achievements of volunteer attorneys who are affiliated with Human Rights First's Refugee Protection Program. Since 1980, these volunteers have provided quality legal services to thousands of refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Pictured are an asylee and his pro bono attorneys from the law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

Photographer: Paul Buckowski

Lee Meh, a Karenni refugee from Burma, was pregnant when she was resettled in the United States. She named her newborn Debbie Meh, in honor of Debbie Taylor, a local volunteer who helped her family acclimate to life in America.

Photographer: Mark Luinenburg. Virginia McKnight Binger Awards in Human Service

Cynthia McArthur volunteers with the Center for Victims of Torture. CVT is an international nonprofit headquartered in Minneapolis dedicated to healing refugees and asylum seekers who are survivors of torture. Cynthia has had a lifelong passion for bicycling including working as a bike mechanic and bicycle safety coordinator. Now retired, she's still expressing her passion for bikes by finding and fixing (in her St Paul home's garage, pictured here) used bicycles for CVT's clients. It's kind of a full circle." Cynthia said. "It gives me a way of sharing something that I love to do." Since 2000, Cynthia has donated through her "Bikes for Clients" program about 50 bikes a year to CVT clients. Clients find that a bicycle provides a new sense of freedom and can simplify and brighten their lives. One CVT client who had been tortured and in jail for 12 years under a severe dictator, having come to the twin-cities penniless and without his family told her, "when I ride a bike, I can ride north or south, east or west for as long as I want, and when I get tired I can lay in the grass and look at the sky."

Freedom House provides housing and comprehensive legal and social services for people seeking asylum. Residents live in a converted convent Freedom House does not charge clients for any services and is an Asylum and Immigration Grant partner of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. For their privacy and protection, residents' faces cannot be shown.

Photographer: Sarah Rogers

Since 2007 Centennial United Methodist Church has coordinated a yearly service project for their service day "Centennial Serves," where they help refugee children pick out and pay for a new pair of shoes. Centennial raises funds for the shoes, the Minnesota Council of Churches – Refugee Services helps to identify children from newly arrived families to participate in the "Shoe Spree," and Payless Shoes offers a discount on the total bill. This last year the Shoe Spree took place on October 11, 2010, and 22 children picked out new shoes and socks!

Photographer: Jonathan R. Tan
May 2011

Dr. Adeyinka Akinsulure-Smith (Ph.D.), staff psychologist at The Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture in New York, NY, with client, Foster J. Nachande from Zambia. Taken at the offices in Bellevue Hospital Center.

Photographer: Chris Maddaloni
May 2011

Demissie Abebe, the Executive Director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Abebe is a survivor of torture from Ethiopia and was granted asylum status in the United States several years ago with the pro bono legal assistance of Human Rights First.

Julio Puzzuoli (Lexington Village Apartments) Rafat Ita (Resource and Sponsorship Coordinator LSSM). Inspired by a news article on Iraqi refugees Julio Puzzuoli contacted LSSM to help refugees with their housing needs. He was introduced to refugees as a landlord, but has become more involved as he's been drawn in by their stories. Julio has provided refugees with reduced rents on their apartments and has waived their security deposits in order to make it easier for them to quickly move in. He has also provided cash support for LSSM programs.

Photographer: Jenny Johnson
November 2010

Farida and her ESL/Citizenship teacher Christine celebrate after Farida passed her citizenship test. Farida, a Meshketi Turk, is originally from Uzbekistan has been working towards her citizenship for the last two year. Pictured: Christine Bryers and Farida.

Photographer: Shane Welch

A community volunteer assists with an English Language Training (ELT) class at RefugeeOne, a refugee resettlement agency located in Chicago, Illinois. RefugeeOne's ELT Program is designed to help refugees learn the English language as quickly as possible in order to apply for and attain employment that will move them toward self sufficiency.

Photographer: Hank Osborne
April 2010

The program celebrates its first graduating class at the Red River Theatre. Fifteen men and women from Bhutan and Togo have completed the 220-plus hour course that combines English lessons with on-the-job training within the hospitality industry.

Developed and funded through a partnership of the Duprey Companies, CEI Capital Management, LLC and Lutheran Social Services (LSS), the eight-week vocational ESOL program gives refugees and immigrants the opportunity to increase the skills necessary for securing and maintaining quality employment. The primary goal of the program is for job-seekers to obtain job placement within three months of completion of the program. On-the-job training takes place at the Comfort Inn Concord and the Courtyard by Marriott Concord. Both hotels are owned by local real estate developer, Steve Duprey of The Duprey Companies.

Photographer: Beth Azarow

Judy Snyder offers a warm welcome to as many as 18 refugee children into her home at a time. Unaccompanied refugee minors are children who have been orphaned or separated from their parents and are resettled to the United States alone. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are the only two organizations in the world that provide specialized foster care services for these children. Pictured: Judy Snyder.

Photographer: Ankush Brahmavar

Students that are part of the Thundercares program at Thunderbird School of Global Management planned a fun day for refugee children filled with American games and a variety of snacks. They played soccer, baseball, volleyball and the card game Uno. They ate chips and salsa as well as other snacks. The children who participated are from Burma, Congo and Burundi. Thundercares builds relationships in the community and hosts many international students who had a natural ability to connect with refugee children.

Summer 2010

The IRC's Youth Program took a field trip to explore the aviary and Liberty Park. From day one these two became friends. Throughout this program these two boys were connected and have developed a strong friendship. Pictured: Abel Perry (mentor) and Blaze (10 - year old Congolese boy).

Photographer: Kristie McLean
May 2011

Volunteer Melissa Morin laughs over learning how to knit with 15-year old Bhagi Biswas.

Photographer: Chris Maddaloni
May 2011

Dr. Kate Sugarman works with Unity Healthcare and the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC) in Washington, D.C., conducting forensic exams for survivors of torture, to help them provide medical evidence of their torture for their asylum claims.

Photographer: Florian Seger
May 2011

Case Manager Ayaan Aweis meeting with a newly arrived refugee from Eritrea.

Photographer: Jeanne Smoot

Gisele, an asylee from West Africa, with the attorney who represented her, the former Director of Legal Services of the Tahirih Justice Center (Tahirih), Colleen Renk-Zengotitabengoa, together with Gisele's daughter who was given the middle name 'Colleen' in gratitude. Gisele has served on Tahirih's Board and has been a spokeswoman for the organization. Tahirih has offices in Falls Church, VA, Houston, TX, and Baltimore, MD, and provides free legal representation to women and girls fleeing abuses such as domestic violence, rape, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, torture, "honor" crimes, and forced marriage, both asylum-seekers and women and girls eligible for protection under other federal laws. Since 1997, through direct services and referrals, and leveraging a volunteer network that has grown to over 800 pro bono attorneys, Tahirih has assisted over 12,000 women and children.

Features Linda O'Malley, a volunteer from St. Paul, who worked one-on-one with Sharmake Muse, a young Somali refugee. She walked him through all the day-to-day skills he'll need in the U.S. and helped him enroll in community college courses to pursue a nursing career. Their relationship led to a new "befrienders" program at MCC.

Church sponsors welcome refugees at the airport.

"Ready for Success" feature clients—one Burmese and the other Bhutanese—at the Episcopal Community Services Ready for Success clothing closet, which helps low-income people find suits and other nice clothing for job interviews.

Photographer: Kelly Hebrank

In New Haven, CT, a volunteer talks with a refugee who came to the weekly food pantry run by IRIS.

Photographer: Ali Saeed

The Human Rights Clinic of Miami provides medical documentation of torture and abuse for asylum seekers in Miami, Florida. Attending physicians, residents and medical students work together to evaluate clients and provide medical affidavits to be used in legal proceedings. The purpose of the clinic is to provide both a service to the Miami community and to train future health professionals in how to do this work. Pictured: HRC 2010-2011 staff: Front, from left: Janki Amin, Natasha Chida MD. Back from left: David Serota, Stephen Symes MD, Nidhip Patel DO, Michael Muench.