IRC | International Rescue Committee Blog

We've Launched a New Blog

2007-08-20T17:30:46Z

Photo: Emily Holland/The IRC Come visit our brand-new blog, Voices from the Field. There's a new name and a new look, but -- as always -- you’ll hear from refugees, IRC humanitarian workers, activists and volunteers around the globe. New voices as well as familiar ones... They’ll be sharing their own stories, from the front lines of regions torn apart by violence to the front porches of U.S. towns where the IRC is helping uprooted families make a fresh start. And we’ve added commenting, so now you’ll be able to add your own voice to the mix. We want to hear from you! NEW International Rescue Committee Voices from the Field blog: blog.theIRC.org document.location = 'http://blog.theirc.org/';

Benefit Event in NYC: Exhibition of Photography by M.I. Hamburg

2007-08-15T16:42:31Z

Larry Poons, East Durham, NY, 2007 Photo: M.I. Hamburg September 5-15, 2007: The Howard Greenberg Gallery will be presenting an exhibition of 25 portraits of artists in their studios by M.I. Hamburg. The artists include Ross Bleckner, Brice Marden, Larry Poons, Eric Fischl, April Gornick, Ursuala Von Ryingsvard, William King, Wolf Kahn, and Lord Snowdon, among others. Proceeds from the exhibition will benefit the International Rescue Committee. Mr. Hamburg, a member of the IRC Overseers, began serving on our Board of Directors in 1964. Howard Greenberg Gallery

Dreams and Disorientation

2007-08-06T15:45:47Z

Augustin, a refugee from Burundi, shortly after he arrived in Phoenix with his family. Photo: The IRC IRC chief marketing officer Marc Sirkin blogs his recent trip to Phoenix, where he was moved by a visit with a just-arrived family of Burundian refugees making the challenging adjustment to life in their new home. When was the last time you were moved to take action? This post isn’t intended to get you to take action, or to make a donation to the IRC. But there’s a good chance you just might because you will most certainly be moved, surprised and compelled to, at minimum, learn more about what I’m going to talk about. If I can manage to write what I have in my head you will literally be astounded. Americans take the “American Dream” for granted. Big time. For me, growing up in Westchester County, NY, college, a career and a family were only ever a question of time. It’s a given for many Americans that if they work hard they can live the life of their dreams. But the 'American Dream' isn’t really “American” – it’s more of a statement about the spirit of ALL human beings and their desire to live the life of their dreams. I spent a few days recently with our San Diego and Phoenix resettlement offices seeing first-hand how “the dream” works for refugees. These offices are in the business of delivering the 'American Dream' on a daily basis. I bet you haven’t heard about the ’72 Burundians. I hadn’t. They are a group of refugees who fled their homeland in 1972 following a campaign of violence against them by Tutsi-led forces. What happened is sometimes referred to as the first genocide in Africa’s Great Lakes region and -- two decades before the atrocities depicted in “Hotel Rwanda” -- resulted in 200,000 deaths and triggered the flight of some 150,000 refugees to camps in Tanzania, Rwanda and Congo. These folks have lived in refugee camps for 35 years. Two generations of people growing up in refugee camps. The government of Tanzania has made it clear that it doesn’t want them to settle permanently – but isn’t 35 years of living somewhere “permanent?” What if you were kicked out of your house and run off to a foreign country – then after 35 years told to leave? As for “the dream” - I have to give pause and wonder to myself how these people had any hope at all for a better life. I met Augustin and his beautiful family (his wife and 3 young boys) on my visit to the Phoenix resettlement office. Resettled refugees like Augustin typically travel up to 4 or 5 days to get from their camp to the United States. IRC staff members greet them at the airport and help them get settled in their new homes. Our trip to Augustin’s house was the IRC’s “24 hour” visit – a chance for staff to check in on the family and answer any additional questions they may have. Before my visit, I could only guess at how confused and disoriented refugees like Augustin must feel when they first arrive. But then the reality of his experience started to sink in. It was confusing and disturbing to me on so many levels: Augustin grew up in a refugee camp and doesn’t know what an air conditioner is, or butter for that matter. He asked us what a bag of pasta was for – he held up a box of Pop Tarts and with a look of hope and confusion listened while we told him it was a breakfast food, sort of like bread with fruit inside. But Augustin now finds himself in a furnished apartment, with an opportunity for education and a job--and, of course, Pop Tarts and Cheerios. Thanks to the IRC, he's standing on the doorstep of 'the dream.' In my eyes, Augustin is a hero – he is a man that I can only bow down to and honor. He has survived something that for any American is completely inconceivable. He is raising his family amid all kinds of upheaval, he speaks 5 languages and he has found a way to build a better life for them. I’m in awe. Later that evening, I decided to go along with IRC staff to the airport to pick up another group of incoming Burundians who had been traveling for 5 days. At 11:16, a group of African men wearing gray shirts, blue pants and basic sneakers came walking down towards us, their eyes bleary, holding on to their IOM issued bags with their papers – their permission slips to 'the dream.' As we stood around baggage claim, communicating in smiles and gestures, we soon learned that 3 of their 5 bags had been “lost” by the airlines. Americans get upset when they lose a bag with their pool toys and bathing suits. These folks lost bags with everything they own in them. The airline representative made us fill out forms and told us to call in 24 to 48 hours. Welcome to America! Imagine if you packed your house to move cross-country, and the moving truck got into a wreck that destroyed everything inside. I can imagine it – and it’s just horrible. But the newly arrived refugees just smiled. One of them picked up a copy of USA Today (he speaks no English at all) and found the weather map. He was looking intently at it and I leaned over to see if I could help him make sense of things. He pointed to Arizona and smiled. I pointed out New York and made an airplane motion with my hands - I think he understood me perfectly well.

Inside Darfur

2007-07-27T14:13:04Z

Emily Holland, right, shows of the Henna applied by a Darfuri woman Photo: The IRC Darfur's war-torn borders are closed, but the IRC's Emily Holland gets through to meet women living in hell on earth. She tells their stories in the August issue of JANE magazine, on news stands. Read the article > [PDF] Many thanks to everyone at JANE for all their support in drawing attention to the plight of women caught in conflict.

Who Are the Somali Bantu?

2007-07-13T15:06:21Z

Photo: Somali Bantu kids are often the welcoming committee during IRC home visits./ Roberto 'Bear' Guerra Anne Richard, IRC's vice president of advocacy, testified about the plight of Africa’s refugees before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 20, World Refugee Day. In her testimony she also spoke about groups of refugees the IRC is now helping to resettle in the United States: As of the end of May 2007, the United States had resettled 8,276 African refugees during the 2007 fiscal year. The IRC was responsible for 970 of these refugees. In recent years, perhaps the most talked about groups of refugees coming to the United States have been the Lost Boys of Sudan and the Somali Bantu. The Bantu were brought to Somalia as slaves in the 1800’s from Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. After slavery was abolished in Somalia, the Bantus still lived on the margins of society. When Somalia descended into anarchy in 1991 and many Bantus were killed, raped or beaten, they fled to refugee camps in Kenya where the same kind of abuse and persecution continued. After Mozambique and Tanzania refused to resettle them and with no chance of safe repatriation to Somalia, the US government agreed to resettle 12,000 to 13,000 Somali Bantus in the United States on humanitarian grounds, starting in 2003. By September 2002, more than 12,000 Bantu refugees had been transferred from the Dadaab Refugee Camp to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where the IRC manages the health care system and provides adult education services. Kakuma was a safer location for US authorities to conduct an application and screening process. The IRC quickly constructed new sanitation and bathing facilities, and our clinics and feeding centers soon filled up with the new arrivals, many suffering from malaria and malnutrition. We also created a special “survival” literacy course to help introduce the Bantu refugees to the language, culture and practices of a place vastly different to the one they would be leaving. The IRC trained some 85 teachers from the Bantu community and within two months, nearly 5,000 Bantus, almost the entire adult population at the camp, were enrolled. For most of the Bantu, illiterate and unexposed to modern conveniences, the classes were both bewildering and exciting. They learned the English alphabet and how to write the kind of family information that would be required on many US forms. They learned basic salutations, how to ask for directions, and how to report an emergency. And then one day, after a year of seemingly endless interviews, checkups and vaccinations, they started coming to the United States. Soon after their arrival, resettlement caseworkers and volunteers took the families on shopping excursions and gave lessons on food preparation, storage and clean-up. They showed the family how to lock doors, turn on sinks, stoves and lights, and use a washing machine and vacuum cleaner. They explained the concept of banks and paying bills. They registered the children in local schools, arranged for tutoring and enrolled the family in English classes. In as little as two months, and sometime less, many of the Somali Bantu had secured entry level jobs and began working their way up the economic ladder and achieving independence. Since 2003, IRC has resettled 1,766 Somali Bantu. Most arrived in 2004 and 2005. Only a few new cases have been added to this group since that time, however some continue to arrive. For example IRC had a new Somali Bantu case allocated to us only a couple weeks ago that we resettled in Baltimore. The generosity of everyday Americans has contributed to the successful resettlement of many resilient Somali Bantu families.

Film about family’s flight from Taliban and the importance of education wins Peabody Award

2007-07-12T13:03:39Z

Photo: The Adish family in their home in Charlottesville, Virginia / John Dolan Sahar Adish’s short documentary “Sahar: Before the Sun” tells the story of she and her family’s flight from Afghanistan and their struggle to establish a new life in the United States. Sahar now 19, made the film when she was a senior in high school in her adopted home town of Charlottesville, Virginia. This year the film won a prestigious Peabody Award. “The main message of my movie is the importance of education,” Sahar says. When I was in high school making this film I saw a lot of kids who took education for granted.” After the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in1996, Sahar’s mother, Kamela, a chemistry teacher was barred from teaching and Sahar was expelled from school. Under the new regime, girls were forbidden to attend school. “We were in shock,” Kamela says. “To just stay home, for nothing. It didn't make any sense.” Kamela refused to accept Taliban’s decree. She began started secretly teaching her daughter and other neighborhood girls in her living room. They painted the windows black and drew the curtains to avoid detection. In August, 1998, the local Taliban found out about the illegal school. In retaliation a group of armed men burst into the house and seized Sahar’s father Naeem, a geologist. Naeem was released after a few days in jail. Bur after receiving threats of public execution, the family fled Kabul for the Pakistan border. In Pakistan, they joined millions of other Afghan refugees living in camps along Afghan border. The family applied for refugee status with the United Nations and after a two year wait they were accepted for resettlement in the U.S. In 2002, the IRC resettled them in Charlottesville. There, Sahar and her brothers were finally free to pursue an education. Within days of arriving in Virginia, all the Adish children were enrolled in school. Even with a language barrier, their transition was made easier thanks to the academic skills their parents had made such sacrifices to give them. Sahar is now a premedical student at the University of Virginia. She plans to become a doctor and return to Afghanistan where she can use her skills to help her people. Her brothers are all in graduate school. Kamela plans to return to teaching and Naeem hopes to find work again as a geologist. To see “Sahar: Behind the Sun,” click here

UN refugee agency reaffirms strong ties with two key NGO partners

2007-07-12T10:54:28Z

Photo: © UNHCR/S.Hopper UNHCR.org on July 11, 2007 posted on its online edition the following article. GENEVA, July 11 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency on Wednesday reaffirmed longstanding ties with two key non-governmental partners – the International Rescue Committee and the International Medical Corps (IMC). High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres separately met high-level delegations from both United States-based NGOs and signed memorandums of understanding (MoU) on their strategic partnerships. IMC President Nancy Aossey and IRC President George Rupp inked the agreements on behalf of their respective agencies, which have implemented numerous programmes for UNHCR in the health, nutrition, shelter, education and water sectors. 'These MoUs constitute the basis for the development of a strategic and operational partnership between UNHCR and the two NGOs on both the global level and in specific operations,' said Guterres. Nicholas Coussidis, head of UNHCR's NGO unit, added that the goal of the MoUs was 'to have a more global approach, which means UNHCR can not only use its implementing partners' human resources and capacity in the context of emergencies but also in the context of post-emergencies and relief and development situations.' The two MoUs signed Wednesday recognize shared commitments towards protection and assistance for refugees, internally displaced persons and other persons of concern. They also reflect the intention to strengthen cooperation between UNHCR and both IRC and IMC. The partnership with IRC emphasizes closer collaboration in the areas of capacity building initiatives, emergency response, education, environmental health, water sanitation and hygiene, health and nutrition, durable solutions and protection – especially in terms of prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence. The MoU with IMC stresses closer cooperation in the sectors of health and nutrition, emergency, and durable solutions. In 2007, UNHCR is giving IRC US$15.2 million to implement programmes in the field, while IMC gets US$2.3 million. 'These agreements are not meant to be another policy document at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva,' said Nicholas Coussidis. 'They are really meant to reflect and concretize our partnerships in the field and for people in need to benefit from this collaboration.'

New York: A Crazy Refugee Story

2007-07-09T14:01:20Z

Photo: Shepard Hall, City College Photo: Seeding-Chaos / http://flickr.com/photos/seedingchaos/ Melissa Frakman mentors refugees through the City College of New York's Service Learning Program and the IRC's New York refugee resettlement office. She helps resettled refugees like Mamadu, from Sierra Leone, adjust to life in their new communities. One day this spring, an ordinary meeting between mentor and mentee turned into a 'crazy,' life-changing coincidence. 'You wouldn't believe what happened,' she told her professors and the IRC: I decided to show Mamadu around City College instead of our regular meetings at the public library. A refugee from Sierra Leone and survivor of the country’s bloody civil war, he was enthusiastic about seeing a college for the first time, and in our prior conversations never believed me that there were so many West African students at the college. Around 4 PM, I met Mamadu at the gates of the school, and for over an hour we walked around the North Academic Center building discussing education and the chilling disparity between life as a student here versus the life he knew in the refugee camps. At one point, the conversation turned to Mamadu’s aspirations, which included perusing an education but also connecting with a community from Sierra Leone, primarily because he missed the many friends and family he had lost in the war. As a last stop on our tour, I decided to show Mamadu the music studios (and more inspiring architecture) of Shepard Hall. As we approached the door, I mentioned to him that we might not be allowed in, because there would be a security guard checking ID cards. We entered the building, walked up the steps, and suddenly Mamadu froze. A few feet away was the security guard, frozen as well. Their eyes were locked, there was a long moment of silence, and they rushed towards each other and embraced. In the eyes of these two tough African young men, who had seen and experienced so much oppression, there were tears. They started speaking loudly in their native language, often stopping to stand back and look the other in the eye. Eventually they filled me in on the amazing reality: Mamadu and the guard have been best friends since childhood, and they spent their entire adolescence across the road from one another. They hadn’t seen one another for 8 years, since a bloody rebel insurgence where over 300 people in their village were killed in one day. They both had thought the other was dead. I left them to talk for an hour, and returned to find them sitting and excitedly talking, arms still in embrace. We took pictures, spoke of the thrilling situation and random cause of events that led to it, and they exchanged information, making plans to meet the next day. Through the Service Learning assignment, the IRC, and a large dose of serendipity, Mamadu has been linked to the comfort, support, and inspiration of a close friend, as well as a network of others in New York sharing his homeland and similar experiences. I spoke to him again yesterday, and he couldn’t help repeating throughout the conversation that because of the visit to City College, his life has been changed forever.

Starting Over in Oakland

2007-07-06T05:01:07Z

Photo: Tiffany Hearsey/The IRC After fleeing the first civil war in Liberia in 1990, the Wilson family spent 14 years in a refugee camp in Cote d'Ivoire. Two years ago, they were resettled in Oakland California.This story is an account of a family's determination to rebuild their lives. IRC volunteer Tiffany Hearsey tells their story in pictures in a photoset on Flickr.

View from Washington D.C.

2007-07-04T05:01:05Z

Photo: Emmanuel d'Harcourt/The IRC Anne Richard, IRC vice president of advocacy, testified about the plight of Africa’s refugees before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 20, World Refugee Day. Richard told the representatives that of the world’s 12 million or so refugees, a little over 25 percent are in Africa—and that Africa also has about half of the world’s 25 million internally displaced persons: In my job here in Washington, D.C., I try to find ways to get policy makers and citizens to learn more and care about Africa, especially Africa’s neglected or forgotten crises. Despite the glut of depressing news that daily fill our newspapers and computer screens about far-flung crises, I can report some modest reasons for hope. First, Americans in large numbers want to help refugees and displaced people, and this issue enjoys bipartisan support. We have real champions here in Congress, on both sides of the aisle. Congressional leaders sponsor legislation, increase funding and travel to international hot-spots to see first-hand the problems that we and other NGOs are trying to address, often supported by US aid dollars. There are also some champions in the media. In the past two years, IRC has presented our “excellence in media” award to Terry George, the director of the film “Hotel Rwanda”, and Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times for his coverage of humanitarian crises. Celebrities are also helping to raise awareness about some of these crises. Thanks in part to these efforts, there is a growing interest among Americans – churches, communities, citizens’ groups – and especially American youth in doing more to help. Although we are grateful for the attention brought by celebrities, this is also a problem: movie stars should not be filling the void in the foreign policy debate and generating policy solutions; this is the responsibility of policy-makers in this very city, in this very room. Not too long ago, colleagues in Kinshasa asked us to try to organize a grass-roots organization to care about the Congo. I admit to greeting this idea with skepticism: while we have supporters across the United States, the IRC is not a grass-roots advocacy organization. Nonetheless, several of my colleagues decided to pull together as many concerned NGOs, church and student groups, ex-Peace Corps Volunteers, academics and expatriate Congolese as they could find. The result is Congo Global Action [LINK to http://ga3.org/campaign/Congo_Global_Action], a fast-growing coalition that will advocate for Congo and urge increased local and international response, beginning with governments. Keep an eye out for them – they will be visiting your offices in the near future! One more attempt to draw the attention of Americans to crises in Africa.