EMM events honor achievements, highlight needs of refugees

EMM, its network of affiliates, and the Episcopal Church will join the global community of refugee advocates in observing World Refugee Day on Monday, June 20.

EMM and the Episcopal Church are marking the occasion by co-hosting a photography exhibit on Capitol Hill featuring photos of refugees alongside the doctors, faith leaders, lawyers, business owners, farmers, case workers, teachers, and many others who welcome them into their communities.

The exhibit features photographs of refugee clients, assisted by EMM affiliates in Boise, Minneapolis, and Detroit, along with community supporters. It will be on display in the Rayburn House Office Building Foyer on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 22, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

A corresponding reception, which is being sponsored by more than a dozen organizations that serve refugees, will feature speeches from a number of community advocates, along with refugee champions in Congress.

Elsewhere, EMM will be sharing the experiences of refugees with the church -- particularly young Episcopalians -- during the Episcopal Youth Event in Minnesota. EMM will deliver an opening night presentation on the refugee resettlement ministry on June 22.

In addition, Episcpal Youth Event (EYE) attendees will have the opportunity to learn more about refugees and the work of EMM during two small-group workshops throughout the rest of the week, as EMM seeks to develop the next generation of refugee advocates within the Episcopal Church.

Cooperation, Dialogue Aids Refugees and Service Providers in Buffalo

Refugees require the support of an entire community to successfully adjust to life in the United States. But those communities also need to be adequately prepared in order to extend a hand in welcome.

In Buffalo, New York, EMM affiliate Journey’s End Refugee Services is taking an active approach when it comes to cultivating welcome for refugee clients.

“Buffalo loves refugees. This is a very welcoming community,” Journey’s End Executive Director Molly Short said. “People are excited, and they want to get involved.”

To tap into the welcoming nature of the community, Short and the staff at Journey’s End are holding quarterly meetings with other groups and organizations in Buffalo who have contact with refugees. 

The first such community meeting, held June 1, brought out a sizable crowd of medical professionals, refugee advocates, city representatives and other service providers who interact with refugees and could benefit from knowing more about the system that brings them to Buffalo and supports them once they arrive.

Short said the opportunity for dialogue, coordination, and education proved extremely valuable.

“It’s good to just get people talking, because they might not realize that there are other people in the room who are also engaged with refugees in a different way than they are,” she said. “And there’s better conversation and better planning.”

Journey’s End will hold its next community meeting in August and will focus on preparing local schools to meet the needs of refugee children who come to learn in their classrooms.

As of May 31, 2011, EMM affiliates had assisted 2,144 refugees since the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2010. This work is carried out with the support of parishes and community volunteers across many dioceses of our church. Those refugees have come from the following regions:

Europe: 12 refugees

Africa: 233 refugees

Near East and South Asia: 1,117 refugees

East Asia: 682 refugees

Latin America: 100 refugees 

This newsletter is produced with support from the United States Department of State. Opinions expressed here may not reflect the positions of the Department of State or the Episcopal Church of the USA.

Resilient Family Survives Persecution Overseas, Near-Tragedy in U.S.

Krishna Katel has spent most of her life in a refugee camp in Nepal. Her family members number among the many thousands of ethnic Nepalese who were driven from their native Bhutan by a hostile government in the 1990s.

In 2009, Krishna, now 18, was resettled in the United States, arriving with her parents, sister, and brother in Tucson in August, where they were assisted by Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest (LSS-SW), EMM’s Arizona affiliate.

Krishna said the initial changes that came with the move were disorienting.

“It was really difficult. We had a lot of struggle in Nepal. We thought that when we came here, we wouldn’t have any struggle,” she said.

But the family was soon to encounter a challenge that was even more trying and nearly tragic. In November, 2009, Krishna’s father Khada was walking to the library with her younger brother Umesh, just eight years old at the time, when they were hit by a truck while crossing the street.

Khada suffered minor injuries, but Umesh’s situation was much more serious. Krishna now recounts the accident as an incredible hardship stacked onto the many that her family had already endured. As Umesh struggled to survive, she watched in desperation and shock.

“He was all alone. He didn’t speak and he didn’t open his eyes. When I see that, I feel so bad. I said to the doctor, ‘This is my brother and I love him, and I want to know what’s going to happen to him,’” Krishna said. “I thought I might have a heart attack if they told us bad news.”

Umesh had multiple surgeries to stop his bleeding and stabilize his condition. He spent two months without being able to open his eyes, and doctors feared he would die if taken off a ventilator.

In time, Umesh was able to breathe on his own, an outcome that was uncertain even as his family made the difficult choice to disconnect the ventilator and test his ability to survive on his own power.

His recovery has been long and difficult; his parents spent months staying in a hospital in Phoenix, more than 100 miles from their home, where Umesh was transferred.

During that time, they were supported and advised by the staff at LSS-SW, including a medical case manager funded through a federal grant administered by EMM. Meanwhile, the family received emergency assistance through funds made available to EMM by the Episcopal Church, which helped pay the family’s rent during the most stressful times.

Today, Umesh is home in his family’s Tucson apartment, able to stand and move without assistance, and he’s beginning to communicate verbally. After numerous operations and 19 months of treatment, he’s making progress toward recovery.

“It’s hard, but we can say it’s good,” Krishna said. “If they continue to provide medicine and treatment, I hope he will continue to get better.”

Khada is working full-time now, and Krishna is hoping to attend college once she wraps up her high-school studies, at the same time helping her family cope with a still-stressful situation. Looking back over many difficult years, Krishna hopes that her family’s story can serve as an example of perseverance through painful and uncertain experiences.

“That’s our experience, and we want people to know our struggle,” she said. “Then they will know how to get through struggle.”

EMM has developed several new outreach and information tools in conjunction with World Refugee Day. A series of new videos featuring stories of new hope and partnership through the resettlement ministry are available on EMM's Vimeo page.

The videos focus on the experiences of refugees and of the community members who welcome them in partnership with EMM affiliates.

EMM and the Episcopal Church Office of Communication have developed a bulletin insert about World Refugee Day for use in Episcopal Churches that can be found here, listed under the date of June 19.

The Presiding Bishop's full statement on the significance of World Refugee Day and the 60th Anniversary of the Refugee Convention is available here.

And the 2010 EMM Year in Focus which provides an overview of EMM's programs, highlights the organization's recent achievements, and offers insight into the experience of our refugee clients, is available for download on our website.

The Episcopal News Service ran a nice piece about EMM's national conference in Tuscon, Arizona, in May.

The Open Arms Shop, an Austin, Texas-based clothing retailer that employs refugee clients through EMM affiliate Texas Refugee Services, received some well-deserved attention for its socially conscious business model.

The contributions of refugees in revitalizing communities in Buffalo, New York, drew the attention of Voice of America. EMM affiliate Journey's End Refugee Services added to the article.

And Bryan Kaplan, an employment specialist with EMM affiliate Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, was honored by the Arizona Daily Star for his efforts to find jobs for refugees in Tucson.