Posts Tagged ‘world refugee day’
Refugee Stories: Meet Malian
There’s someone we’d like you to meet. At just 16, Malian was forced to flee his home in Burma. For the next 15 years, he and his young family waited for a place where they could rebuild their lives. This is his refugee story.
Every June, we invite people like you to celebrate World Refugee Day — a day that honors the strength, courage and refugee stories of people like Malian. Will you help ensure more families like his can find a safe place to call home?
A Prayer for Refugees
Every June, we at World Relief invite people like you to join us in honoring World Refugee Day. And we believe one important way we can walk alongside our refugee neighbors is through prayer.
Prayer is a source of power and light in dark times. As we face the largest displacement crisis in recorded history with over 108 million displaced people and 35.3 million refugees worldwide, prayer is an essential part of our response.
For me, prayer has been integral to my growth as a Christian. It has given clarity to big life decisions, healing to sicknesses and physical pain and it has been a practice of vulnerability and unity within Christian community. Prayer is the simplest act of being and communicating with God our Father.
Will you join me today in his presence as we pray for refugees together?
Father, I still my heart and mind to focus on you. Speak, your child is listening.
(Pause in silence and prayer)
Read: “The Lord your God is supreme over all gods and over all powers. He is great and mighty, and he is to be obeyed. He does not show partiality, and he does not accept bribes. He makes sure that orphans and widows are treated fairly; he loves the foreigners who live with our people, and gives them food and clothes. So then, show love for those foreigners, because you were once foreigners in Egypt.” — Deuteronomy 10: 17-19 (GNT)
How wonderful and powerful you are, Lord. Help me to reflect you and love like you.
(Pause in silence and prayer)
Today, I pray for those who are vulnerable and who may not be able to see your might and presence in their lives at this moment. I pray for those fleeing violence, wars and persecution; be their guide and comfort. For the millions of refugees around the world, waiting for justice and a new home.
(Pause in silence and prayer)
I pray for my city and community. May it be a place of safety, support and solace for those in distress.
(Pause in silence and prayer)
Lord, I think about our nation’s leaders and government. May they use their positions of power to work towards justice and righteousness.
(Pause in silence and prayer)
I pray for your church, that it would be a city on a hill, shining bright as a beacon for all who seek a new and better way.
(Pause in silence and prayer)
Lastly, I stand firm, covered with the armor of God, and pray against the work of the enemy, who comes to kill, steal and destroy.
(Pause in silence and prayer)
I offer this prayer to you and declare that yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Want to learn more about refugees and how you can celebrate their lives and stories this World Refugee Day?
Nou Huse works at World Relief as the U.S. Good Neighbor Team (GNT) Program Coordinator. She formerly served as the Volunteer and GNT Coordinator at World Relief Fox Valley. Before joining the World Relief team, she lived seven years abroad working in education and serving in urban missions. She aims to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God in all things.
Was Jesus a Refugee?
“Jesus Was a Refugee.” Recently, I’ve seen that message all over — on billboards, TV ads, on t-shirts, debated on social media and beyond. Much of this messaging is part of a broader campaign called He Gets Us that aims to help people recognize that Jesus was a human being who can identify with us in our humanity.
That’s a powerful reality for the more than 32 million refugees in our world today, a number unprecedented in recorded history. Jesus “gets” them because, early in his human experience, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that he was forced to flee the threat of Herod’s persecution. He was carried by Joseph and Mary to Egypt, beyond Herod’s dominion, where they would be safe from the genocide inflicted by a jealous ruler on the little boys of Bethlehem.
Many of today’s 32 million refugees know viscerally what it means to awaken in the middle of the night and to flee with what little they could carry, as an angel instructed Joseph to do. To feel danger just behind them. To complete a grueling journey only to arrive in a new land and a new culture with the ongoing grief of the loss of one’s homeland. Jesus presumably lived all of that in his fully human flesh as a small child. And millions today find solace in that reality. He gets them.
But was Jesus really a refugee?
We now have formal legal definitions for the term “refugee” in both U.S. and international law: refugees are those outside of their countries of origin who are unable or unwilling to return because of a well-founded fear of persecution on account of their race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a particular social group. But, of course, these definitions did not exist when the holy family made their journey.
Some, especially on social media, have vehemently insisted that Jesus was not a refugee — perhaps defensive at the implication that their preferred refugee and immigration policies to keep most, if not all, refugees out might actually have harmed the incarnate God.
But while it is clear from the biblical text that Jesus was displaced by a credible threat of persecution, it’s fair to ask just how he would fare under our contemporary policies — as theologian Glenn Butner Jr. does in a new book, Jesus the Refugee: Ancient Injustice and Modern Solidarity.
Butner argues that Jesus largely satisfies the contemporary legal definition of a refugee, but it’s debatable whether the journey to Egypt took him “outside of his country of origin,” since Egypt and Bethlehem were both part of the Roman Empire. Perhaps it’s more precise to characterize the holy family as “Internally Displaced Persons” — those, including more than 60 million people in our world today, who have been forced to flee their homes but remain within the boundaries of their countries.
Would Jesus have faced the barriers many families fleeing persecution face today?
Perhaps Jesus was actually an asylum seeker: asylum seekers profess to meet the definition of a refugee. They say that they’re afraid of persecution on account of one of the enumerated grounds — but they’re not ensured protection under the law unless and until they have demonstrated (to the satisfaction of the governing authorities of the country where they hope to find refuge) that they indeed qualify. Sometimes they lack documentary evidence of the credibility of their fear. Would Joseph have cited an angelic message as his evidence that persecution was likely for little boys in Bethlehem? Would that have satisfied an Egyptian immigration judge?
Fortunately for our Lord and Savior and his earthly parents, there’s no evidence in the biblical text that they faced any barriers to finding refuge in Egypt. But the Gospel of Matthew gives us very few details about their experience there. We’re left to speculate: were they welcomed, seen as a potential threat or simply ignored? Did Jesus learn to speak his first words with a different accent than his parents? Did Joseph easily find work, or was he told that he would be “stealing” a job from an Egyptian carpenter?
Decades later, in one of his final sermons before his crucifixion, Jesus commends certain individuals for having welcomed him when he was a stranger. The disciples are confused: “When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?” (Matthew 25:38). They did so, Jesus says, when they welcomed one of “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine” (Matthew 25:40). Jesus identifies himself perpetually with the vulnerable and the stranger — which, at least early in his life, he himself was.
Does Jesus’ story shape how we respond to refugees and other immigrants?
Whether Jesus would satisfy the precise legal definition of a refugee or not, what’s clear for those of us who profess to follow him today is that an unprecedented crisis of forced migration — with more than 100 million people forced from their homes, experiencing displacement similar to what Jesus experienced as a child — presents an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate love for Jesus himself.
At World Relief, it’s our great privilege to partner with local churches both across the United States and in various other parts of the world to welcome and care for refugees and others who have been displaced. From our U.S. refugee resettlement program’s foundations in the 1970s, we — and the tens of thousands of church-based volunteers who have partnered with us — have resettled more than 300,000 individuals, motivated by Jesus’ challenging words in Matthew 25. As Evelyn Mangham, the cofounder of World Relief’s refugee resettlement program said, the Christian response to an unprecedented global refugee crisis is “simple”:
“Respond to what Jesus said, that’s all: ‘I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger’ — refugee — ‘and you took me in… Inasmuch as you did unto of the least of these my brethren, you did unto me.’ It’s simple obedience.”
Are you ready to create a more welcoming and just world for refugees and other vulnerable immigrants? Learn how you can join us today.
Myal Greene has a deep desire to see churches worldwide equipped, empowered, and engaged in meeting the needs of vulnerable families in their communities. In 2021, he became President and CEO after serving for fourteen years with the organization. While living in Rwanda for eight years, he developed World Relief’s innovative church-based programming model that is currently used in nine countries. He also spent six years in leadership roles within the international programs division. He has previous experience working with the U.S. Government. He holds B.S. in Finance from Lehigh University and an M.A. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Global Leadership. He and his wife Sharon and have three children.
Worth the Wait: A Story of Faith, Perseverance and Love, Despite the Odds
For seven years, Congolese refugees (and newlyweds!), Mbimbi and Goreth, didn’t know if they would ever see each other again. Separated by continents, Mbimbi was stuck in Burundi while Goreth resettled and began her new life in America. In spite of the long wait, the two of them never lost hope, their love growing by the day.
“No one can do what Goreth did,” Mbimbi said about his wife’s commitment not to remarry. Instead, Goreth chose to hold onto hope, believing God was faithful and would bring Mbimbi back to her in America.
Where It All Began
In 2008, Goreth was a wife and mother living in Goma, a city in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Her day began like any other day – she woke up, brushed her teeth, made some tea and headed to the market to sell clothes at her stand. It became a day she would never forget when “the fighting broke out.” She recalls, “My daughters, [Christine and Valentine], and I started running, and we found a way to get past Goma to Burundi. That’s when I started my life as a refugee. My [first] husband died in the fights.”
Goreth and her daughters ended up in a Burundian town filled with other refugees. Upon arrival she shares, “I felt relief because of sleeping in a house and churches help us and Christians help us.”
While Goreth and her daughters were refugees in Burundi, Mbimbi was working as an auto mechanic in Baraka, a city south of Goma in DRC.
In 2014, an armed civilian group put pressure on him to “join them for the fight and to be a soldier.” These groups were once formed to defend the Congolese against rebel armies. But tragically, they have created more chaos and violence than protection for the Congolese peoples.
So, when Mbimbi refused, they threatened him. With a target on his back, he reflects, “That was the night my uncle called me and said, ‘They are looking for you.’” That same day, “I told fishermen what happened and ask if they can help me to another place. They hide me in the boat and carry me down river.”
From there, Mbimbi went to Boku, where “they [gave him a] motorcycle to go to Boda.” From Boda, he traveled to Burundi where he ended up in the same town as Goreth.
Having arrived in the same town six years apart, Goreth and Mbimbi met, by chance, while filling out paperwork to earn refugee status. Goreth was farther along in the process while Mbimbi was just beginning his paperwork. Despite crossing paths at different stages in their journey to flee DR Congo, they formed a connection “and began a relationship.” Within a year, they were married.
Oceans Apart
Even though they were living in a safer town than the cities they had fled, Goreth and Mbimbi couldn’t escape the violence. In 2015, their Burundian town experienced fighting; so, when Goreth was given the opportunity to go to America, she agreed. The catch? Mbimbi wouldn’t be able to join her and her daughters. It was a bag of mixed feelings for Goreth.
“To be a refugee is not an easy thing,” she says. “It’s just a thing you have to do to pray to God. God helped me because I became strong and fight for the kids to grow up…in a safer place.”
Leaving behind her new husband, Goreth and her daughters traveled to America not knowing when and if they would ever be reunited with Mbimbi. When they arrived in the U.S., their new lives began right away.
Goreth remembers they were greeted by World Relief staff and volunteers. “[They] had already found an apartment for us,” she recalls.
Staff and volunteers came alongside Goreth and her kids, taking them to doctors appointments and helping Goreth find a job in manufacturing, packing hospital-grade linens. Goreth expresses sincere gratitude for all of World Relief’s help, especially in “the first three to six months.”
Even though Goreth felt “sad sometimes” she shared with deep conviction that she “still waited and prayed to God” for Mbimbi.
At Last, Together Again
Both her and Mbimbi’s prayers were answered when he was resettled to America in July 2022. Finally reunited with his wife, Mbimbi is taking a World Relief “Zoom job class and language class.”
He takes comfort in knowing that once his job and language classes are complete, he can still count on World Relief.
“It’s not like they abandon you,” he said. “If you still need something, they are there to help.”
Mbimbi and Goreth are currently renting a one-bedroom apartment. Now able to dream together, the couple says, “for the future, we are praying to God that we can get our own house.”
Knowing that God has provided for them before, they are trusting, through prayer and perseverance, that anything is possible!
As crises converge, and global conflict forces more people to flee their homes, it takes all of us, to move forward together, to build peace and lasting change. When you give today, you help us build peace in places like DR Congo while also welcoming those like Goreth and Mbimbi who have been forced to flee to the United States.
Michelle Visk is a freelance writer passionate about sharing compelling stories of individuals impacted by nonprofits throughout the world. In addition to writing for nonprofits, she recently launched her own interior design e-consulting business, geared at making interior design more accessible to the middle class so everyone can create a home they love. When she’s not writing or doing e-consults, she enjoys spending the majority of her time with her husband and pouring into her two feisty little girls (ages 3.5 and 5) as a stay-at-home-mom. Before becoming a stay-at-home mom, Michelle worked in ministry for 10 years, serving as a Communications Director for a multi-site church. She holds a BS from Butler University.
20 Ways to Learn More About Refugees
Around the world, 103 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes — the highest number in recorded history. Of those, 32.5 million are considered refugees, having fled across an international border due to war, violence, conflict or persecution.
That’s millions of mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, teachers, doctors and friends — each created in the image of God — with full lives and identities long before they became refugees.
As we enter World Refugee Awareness Month and look toward World Refugee Day on June 20th, we’ve compiled a list of books, podcasts, videos and more to help answer your questions about refugees. As you engage with and share these resources, we hope you’ll be inspired to join us in creating a world where everyone can thrive.
READ
Some advocates have described Jesus as a refugee. But was he really? World Relief CEO Myal Greene tackles that question and how the answer should shape the Christian response to refugees and other vulnerable immigrants.
Blog: Drivers of Mass Displacement
People are displaced from their homes for myriad reasons, including persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and climate-related factors. World Relief’s Lydia Dawson explains the drivers of mass displacement and how World Relief is responding globally.
Blog: Worth the Wait: A Story of Faith, Perseverance and Love, Despite the Odds
For seven years, Congolese refugees (and newlyweds!) Mbimbi and Goreth didn’t know if they would ever see each other again. Read their story to learn more about the challenges and uncertainties that many refugees face as they rebuild.
Book: Inalienable: How Marginalized Kingdom Voices Can Help Save the American Church
U.S. churches are at a critical crossroads — blurred lines between discipleship and partisanship have compromised our witness and confused our national and individual responses to refugees and “the stranger.” In their book, pastor Eric Costanzo, missiologist Daniel Yang and World Relief’s Matthew Soerens find hope in the witness of global Christians, the poor and the ancient church.
Book: Beyond Welcome: Centering Immigrants in Our Christian Response to Immigration
Karen González invites Christians passionate about serving immigrants to explore how we can create welcoming communities that put our immigrant neighbors at the center of the conversation.
Book: Everything Sad is Untrue: (a true story)
Following his mother’s vocal embrace of Christianity, Daniel Nayeri, his mother and his sister were forced to flee Iran. In this memoir, he retells the tales of his family’s history from his perspective as a misfit middle schooler in Oklahoma.
Book: The Girl Who Smiled Beads
When Clementine was six years old, she and her 15-year-old sister, Clair, fled the massacre that was happening in their home country of Rwanda. In this riveting memoir, Clementine tells their story of rebuilding and reclaiming life on their own terms.
LISTEN
This World Relief mini-series offers a global and a biblical perspective on the subjects of immigration, mass displacement and refugee resettlement, diving into current policies and practices and sharing stories of our collective human experience.
This six-part series traces the U.S. refugee resettlement journey through the eyes of those directly experiencing it. Follow along as each episode brings the listener into the daily lives of refugees adjusting to life in the U.S.
Podcast Episode: Holly Andrews on How the Church Can Walk Alongside Refugees
In episode 4 of our Forward Together podcast series, Holly Andrews explains how churches can use the resources they already have to help refugees and other immigrants rebuild their lives.
WATCH
TEDx Talk: One Refugee’s Life Experience | Come Nzibarega
Born and raised in Burundi, Come Nzibarega shares his story of escaping torture and civil war and why he thinks refugee camps are the richest places in the world.
For Ibrahim’s family, the road to resettlement, reunion and rebuilding has been long. Learn more about the obstacles families like his can face as they seek safety.
Video: Who are Refugees and How Do They Arrive in the United States?
From flight and displacement to arrival and integration, this 7-minute animated video tells the true story of a refugee family’s experience in each stage of the refugee resettlement process.
STUDY
World Relief Workshop Course: Intro to Resettlement
Have you ever wondered what actually happens in the resettlement process or what a resettlement agency does? This FREE, 45-minute course will answer those questions and explain how you and your community can support refugees resettling in the U.S.
World Relief Workshop Course: Navigating Friendships
Navigating friendships with those who are different from us can be rewarding — and challenging! In this self-paced, online course you’ll learn essential skills for building empowering, long-lasting friendships with those who may differ from you in culture, socioeconomic status and religion, and best practices for supporting a friend who lives with trauma. During the month of June, enroll for 50% off with code WORLDREFUGEEDAY50.
Bible Study: Christ Like Welcome
Jesus astonished the culture around him by giving voice to the speechless, frustrating the powerful and humbling the wise. In this 5-week study from our partners at Women of Welcome, learn how your welcome can become like his — wonderfully surprising, deeply challenging and firmly rooted in love.
Bible Reading Plan: The I Was a Stranger Challenge
Take the challenge and discover God’s heart for those who have been displaced. Over the course of 40 days, read one Bible passage a day that speaks to God’s love for foreigners and refugees.
FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Children’s Book: Marisol’s Dress
In the midst of a revolution, young Marisol is forced to flee the life she knows and loves in vibrant Cuba. In this beautifully illustrated book, Emily Ozier follows her mother and grandmother as they journey to the U.S., facing challenges and celebrating along the way.
Children’s Book: My Two Blankets
When Cartwheel moves to a new country as a refugee, everything is strange: the animals, the plants, even the wind. An old blanket comforts her when she’s sad, and a new blanket just might change her world. A story about leaving home, arriving in a foreign land and finding a new friend.
For parents and teachers wondering how to talk about mass displacement with children and teens, the UN Refugee Agency offers teaching materials on refugees, asylum and migration, as well as guidance for teachers working with refugee children in the classroom.
Are you ready to take the next step towards creating a more welcoming and just world for refugees and other vulnerable immigrants? Learn how you can join us today.
Karen Spencer is World Relief’s U.S. Marketing Partner and serves U.S. offices in the area of identity and messaging. She previously served as Mobilization Director for World Relief in Memphis, where she lives. She is a connector of people, places, passions and purpose.
Kelly Hill serves as a Content Writer at World Relief and previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.
The Drivers of Mass Displacement: Ukraine and Beyond
Nyakaar abandoned her home in South Sudan when armed conflict threatened her village. She found safety in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians camp, a U.N.-run camp for internally displaced South Sudanese people where World Relief operates health and nutrition programming. Shortly after arriving, Nyakaar gave birth to her son, Bone.
In the world today, a record-breaking 117.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes. That’s about 1 in every 78 people that live across the globe.*
While many of us think of refugees when we hear the words “mass displacement,” the majority of displaced people worldwide are actually internally displaced people like Nyakaar and Bone.
The causes of mass displacement are many, and the repercussions reach far and wide. Today, we’re taking a bird’s eye view of the topic of mass displacement to help you understand what causes people to leave their homes, who is fleeing and how people across the globe are joining World Relief to address the drivers of mass displacement and care for those who are displaced.
*These numbers reflect the latest estimates from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. This blog was originally written May 10, 2022 and updated on April 11th, 2023.
What causes mass displacement?
People are displaced from their homes for myriad reasons — persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and climate-related factors to name a few.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the most recent example of how war can force millions of people to flee their homes. However, there are many other conflicts and crises occurring in the world which are also causing people to flee their homes.
For example, violence in the Darfur region of Sudan has caused many to flee in search of a safe place to live, farm and raise their children. Some of these families remain internally displaced while others have fled across international borders into Chad and other surrounding countries. Apart from the unfolding crisis in Ukraine, 68% of the world’s refugees have come from the following five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. Though crises like these have received varying levels of media attention, the needs of the displaced remain critical.
Refugees, Asylum Seekers and IDPs
Many times, displaced people flee to regions or countries surrounding their home region, while a smaller percentage relocate to a more distant country. A displaced person can fall under several categories:
- Internally Displaced People
- Refugees
- Asylum Seekers
Internally Displaced People make up the largest category. These are people who have been displaced within their own country. They have been forced to flee their home and region, and have resettled in a different part of the same country in which they already lived. Currently, 61.2 million people are classed as Internally Displaced People.
Refugees make up the next largest group of displaced people. These are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. It’s likely that you’ve read stories of refugees like Bohdan, Abdinasir and Amira — all people who left their home countries due to conflict or persecution, applied for refugee status and were resettled right here in the United States.
Today, there are about 29.3 million people with refugee status in the world.
In 2022, the U.S. has agreed to resettle up to 125,000 refugees plus an additional 100,000 Ukrainians who have fled the Russian invasion. As is evident, there are far more refugees in the world than can be resettled even in a country as large and as resourced as the U.S.
Asylum seekers make up the third and smallest category of displaced people. These are people who have fled to another country, but who have not yet been granted official refugee status. These women, men and children may have to wait years to receive an official status.
Currently, there are about 5.6 million asylum seekers living around the world today.
Host Communities
One final impacted group remains to be identified, and these are the host communities.
Host communities have not been displaced from their homes, but the swift influx of refugees into their communities severely impacts those who already lived in the region. Often host community members need the same support that refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people typically receive.
A large number of refugees can mean reduced access to land and water and can cause a scarcity in resources. For example, in Sudan, conflicts have broken out over land usage, as host communities and displaced people seek to utilize the scarce land and water resources available in the host community area.
World Relief works within these communities to increase access to clean water as well as facilitate peace committees to solve interpersonal conflicts before they grow.
What else is World Relief doing to help?
After a person is displaced, they can either choose to return to their home, or they can resettle in a new location. However, for many, the option to return home is not a viable one, as drivers of displacement often last for generations. World Relief is currently serving displaced people across the globe in several ways:
- In DR Congo, a country that’s facing one of the world’s worst hunger crises, World Relief works with host communities and with displaced people who have returned home by providing agricultural training and farming supplies to help families grow crops to feed their families and sell the surplus in local markets to earn an income.
- Globally, World Relief serves refugees who have crossed the border into our international countries of operation, working with local partners to provide emergency aid to families living in temporary shelters.
- In the U.S., World Relief partners with the U.S. government to resettle refugees. We also serve asylum seekers and other immigrants by providing community connections, legal services and other vital services like ESL classes, job training and more.
- In Sudan, South Sudan and DRC, World Relief serves internally displaced people by equipping local village peace committees and providing health, nutrition, WASH, education, agricultural programming and more.
- World Relief also advocates for the vulnerable when injustice occurs. We believe speaking up along with the poor and oppressed is an important witness to a watching world about the character of Jesus.
Mass displacement remains one of the largest and most challenging crises of our time — a truth that will take intentional coordination and investment between local and international communities, churches, governments and non-profit organizations to address.
At World Relief, we believe Jesus came to earth to love the vulnerable. Jesus didn’t bring hope and salvation from a distance. Instead, he came to us, showed us love and suffered with us. Whether we are welcoming refugees and asylum seekers into our own communities or providing relief to those displaced overseas, we get to be the hands of feet of Jesus, sharing his love to a world in need.
To learn more about how you can help refugees and displaced people in the U.S., visit our private sponsorship page.
Lydia Dawson served as World Relief’s Humanitarian and Disaster Response Unit Program Officer in Sudan, and in disaster response worldwide. Prior to joining World Relief, Lydia worked in homeless services and community development in Oregon and California. She is passionate about equity and honor for underrepresented groups, both locally and internationally.
Resettled: One Woman’s Journey Beyond Rebuilding
As the number of refugees arriving in the U.S. continues to increase in the coming months, we invite you to partner with us as we welcome them. Today, we’re excited to give you a glimpse at the lasting change that can happen when we move together.
A Crossing of Paths
At World Relief, we’re honored to walk alongside refugees and immigrants from around the world as they rebuild their lives in the U.S. Sharing their stories with you is a privilege. Often though, the stories we share are limited to a short and intense part of people’s lives.
Years later, you may wonder along with us, “How is that family doing now?” I never expected to get an answer to this question when I moved from North Carolina, where I worked at World Relief Triad, to Utah. But that’s exactly what happened.
Two weeks after moving, I bought a plant on Facebook marketplace from a woman named Buthainah. It didn’t take long for us to realize our shared connection: she had been resettled by World Relief Triad in 2009. Hearing her story reminded me of the lasting impact we can have when we move together. Buthainah eagerly agreed to share her story with us today.
When Everything Changes
Buthainah grew up in Baghdad, Iraq. Although the country was tightly controlled by Sadam Husain’s regime, she remembers having a happy childhood.
Her father worked as a major general at the naval academy, and her mother was an architect. Buthainah did well in school. She was a child of imagination — drawing, reading and writing stories in which she was the heroine. “Life was simple for us kids and family,” she said, “we were happy and content!”
But then war broke out, and everything changed. At 13, Buthainah fled with her parents and four sisters to Jordan. Two and a half years later, they were selected for resettlement in the U.S.
Flying to the U.S. was stressful. As a family of seven, they struggled through the airport with two suitcases each. Buthainah remembers bringing clothes, drawings and a memory book from elementary school with notes from her friends and teachers. “I’m a very sentimental person. [They’re] silly things, but they hold a lot of value for me.”
Buthainah’s family arrived on June 25, 2009. From geography to environment to culture, Buthainah was immersed in a world of difference. And a world where she, herself, was labeled as different.
“You have your life, and all of a sudden, it’s taken away from you,” she said. “And then you are labeled as a refugee, not who you are. It makes you feel unseen and it diminishes your value… or at least it did for me.”
Someone to Walk With
But someone did see Buthainah and her family — former World Relief Case Manager, Brian Boggs. “Brian was one of the very few people early on to really understand us,” Buthainah remembers. “He spent time to explain the system to us.”
Brian drove the family to appointments and made sure the kids were enrolled in school. He helped them navigate their new home, finding grocery stores and bus routes.
“[Case management is] basically like helping somebody start their life over in a new place,” Brian explained. “If you think about all the basics people just take for granted — children going to school, parents, if they need it, getting English classes — you’re trying to guide people in a way that will help them be successful later on.”
In the midst of hectic transitions and changes, Buthainah remembers that Brian was there for her family when they needed him most. “He was a stranger to us, [but he] made it easier to feel people cared and saw us for who we were, not just another number or another person who is going to be a burden.”
Life After Resettlement
With Brian’s help, Buthainah’s family adjusted to their new lives in America. The girls settled in at school and their parents found work. Their lives were being rebuilt. Eventually, Brian became busy caring for more recent arrivals, and Buthainah and her family transitioned out of World Relief programs, pursuing new dreams of their own.
Buthaina’s parents both went back to school for master’s degrees and then PhDs in computational science. Her mom is now working as an energy analyst and her dad is retired.
One sister is completing her residency in Delaware. Another is working as a paralegal and plans to go to law school. The third is in college, and the youngest, who was only five when they were resettled in the Triad, is hoping to finish high school in just three years.
As for Buthainah, she graduated high school with excellent grades, went to college, and worked as a process chemist at a pharmaceutical company. She then decided to attend graduate school in Utah.
Today, she’s moved back to Greensboro to be closer to family and has successfully completed a PhD in organometallic chemistry. She’s now dreaming of starting her own business and maybe even a reform movement.
“Like reform of education and reform of the way we think,’ Buthainah said. She wants to help people understand the many ways we can learn and approach life. “Exactly how I’m going to get there?” she laughed, “I don’t know — but I have faith that it will all work out.”
When We Move Together
Twelve years later, Buthainah’s had time to think about her experience of resettlement. When asked what she would say to her younger self, she said, “Just know who you are. Be true to who you are, and don’t be ashamed of where you come from.”
She also had some advice for those welcoming refugees now. “You have a choice to judge another human being and make them less than you or not,” she said. “We’re very thankful to the people who really gave us a chance and gave us a start.” People like Brian.
When Buthainah and Brian recently reconnected, she told him, “You made us feel seen and you made us feel like we’re humans and we have equal chance. Because of that, we were able to believe in ourselves. It just takes some people sometimes to have that faith in you at your lowest when you doubt yourself.”
But Brian is reluctant to take credit.
“When you know people who are going through some of the hardest things not only that they’ve been through, but maybe all of humanity could go through,” he said, “you see potential. I don’t take credit for any of it… [Buthainah’s family] worked hard and believed in themselves. It’s theirs. It’s really nice to be invited into their journey.”
For refugees, the road to rebuilding their lives is long. You can help Pave the Path for more families like Buthainah’s by joining our community of monthly givers who are committed to helping refugees and immigrants thrive today, tomorrow and long into the future. Will you join us in building lasting communities of welcome?
Kelly Hill serves as a Content Writer at World Relief. She previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina before moving to Salt Lake City. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.
I Never Expected to Be a Refugee
When Life Felt Almost Perfect
I never expected to be a refugee. I joined a university when I was 18 years old, enrolling in the English department at Basra (the Port of Iraq). At the end of my time there, I graduated second in my department. After graduation, I stayed two more years as a researcher’s assistant and then five more years when I was accepted for my master’s in the linguistics program.
I became a professor in 1987 and moved to Baghdad in 1992 to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students of the English Department at Baghdad University College of Education for Women. Life felt almost perfect, and it seemed I had great success.
For the next 10 years, I continued teaching, translating for the women’s newsletter, participating in academic, cultural and social activities, and supporting needy students during the 12-year blockade. I especially enjoyed my big extended family’s weekly gathering to have our authentic food and spend the most precious time together.
Then, in 2003, the unexpected happened. The United States invaded Iraq. This is when my life would change forever.
In hopes to rebuild my country, I stayed three years after the U.S. military arrived. However, the targeted people were the Iraqi brains. Doctors, professors, scientists and engineers were receiving life threats daily. I knew it was only a matter of time before they reached me. It was then I knew I had to leave. My sister, niece and I packed our bags to escape the ongoing danger.
Becoming a Refugee
Life had taken a sudden turn. The complete unimaginable came to be. We had never expected to be refugees. I took a one-year leave to live in Jordan, just to rethink and find some rest. However, the war continued on and when we were accepted into the States, we took our chance to go.
All I knew of America was what I had studied in literature and what I had seen from Oprah and Dr. Phil’s shows. I had an idea of what American culture would be like, but it proved to be very different.
In the beginning, our time in America was really tough. Our family had come from a comfortable background. We were different than refugees that had come from impoverished countries or refugee camps. We went from having everything to nothing and it was a shock.
My sister, niece and I cried for the next two weeks. We were depressed and longed for what life had been. But we had to move forward. Surviving a war together, we knew we were not weak, but strong. We made the decision to do whatever it took not only to survive, but to be successful again.
Razkya, my sister, took on the responsibility of home life. My niece, Shatha, was the first one to begin working and thriving (she later got her diamond star from JC Penney and now she is furthering her education in make-up artistry and fashion marketing). I applied for community college, but was rejected, even though I had studied the same courses others at the school had. My degree was not from the States and this was enough to receive their rejection.
Three months later, a glimmer of hope came. World Relief offered me a job as an Arabic interpreter and I eagerly accepted it. Not only did they offer me work, but they embraced me. They became my second family, a family I had lost from my home country. I knew this job was meant for me.
[Re]Building
Eventually, I went from working part-time with World Relief to a full-time position as a program caseworker. I now have the opportunity to advocate for refugees and immigrants just like myself. I have also served as a member of the Refugee Advisory Council for the past three years, along with starting a WhatsApp group to build community for refugee and immigrant women. This group shares needed information on health services, employment opportunities, educational support and even recipes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have felt so loved during my time at World Relief. I have gained a community I never imagined having in America. I have been participating in many cultural festivals in order to create a mutual understanding about our Iraqi-Arabic-Islamic culture. World Relief has given me the chance to teach about my country and culture and offers this same opportunity to other refugees.
This past year, the support and love I have received from World Relief was so important, as I endured the painful loss of my sister, Razkya. She recently passed from COVID and life has just not been the same without her. My grief is so deep. However, my niece and I do our best to press on. We are turning our grief into honor and success for Razkya.
By giving back, our family has been able to show our gratitude. My sister always did this through her cooking and had even taken on the nickname of the “Iraqi Martha Stewart.” Every year, Razkya would make her favorite dish, biriyani. She served it to our office, police station and community. It was her way of saying thank you.
It has been a long journey. Looking back, I am able to see all the ways God has worked through my life. I never expected to be a refugee. It has not always been easy, but He has always provided, from sunset to sunrise. Even through all the pain and struggle, God has given me a second family and a job I love through World Relief. I continue to give back and advocate for other refugees in hopes of bringing help to those that are experiencing the same pain I once did.
We are so grateful to Amira for sharing her story today. You can join Amira and the rest of the World Relief family as we help refugees and other immigrants [Re]Build their lives in the U.S. by giving today.
Summer Lecas interned for World Relief in Spring 2021. She is a recent graduate of Liberty University with a degree in Strategic Communication.
Amira Al Salami is a Preferred Communities Caseworker at World Relief Tri-Cities. She holds a master’s degree in linguistics and has more than 10 years of experience teaching as a professor in Iraq. After fleeing war in her home country, Amira came to the U.S. as a refugee in the early 2000s. Today, she is happy to advocate for refugees and teach others about Iraqi culture through her role at World Relief.
In Celebration of Resilience
In my work at World Relief, I am constantly reminded of the strength and resilience found in people who have faced great hardship to not only come to the United States, but also to rebuild their lives here.
Now, with a worldwide health crisis and a national reckoning of racial injustice, many refugees and immigrants must once again stand firm in the face of struggle and find power in their resilience.
Take for example, the story of twin sisters, Sona and Hana Barichi, who are not only standing strong for themselves and their families but are working hard every day to provide care for their entire communities as the country continues to struggle with COVID-19.
Sona can’t hug her young son when she gets home from work even though he cries for her and doesn’t understand why. First, she has to take a shower. She leaves her work clothes and shoes in the garage until they’ve aired out for at least 24 hours, and then she washes them separately from her family’s laundry to prevent contamination. She takes these precautions because she is a respiratory therapist at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, IL where she works with COVID-19 patients.
Her twin sister, Hana, works as a phlebotomist for Elmhurst Hospital, about 40 miles down the road, where she, too, cares for COVID-19 patients. Both sisters tell me they are doing their absolute best to help every single person that comes in through their hospital’s door, regardless of race, religion or country of origin. As religious refugees from Iran, they know all too well what it feels like to be forgotten and refused, to be in danger with lives on the line.
Life for Hana and Sona was not always easy or safe in Iran. As non-Muslims, their lives were often at risk because of religious extremists who often terrorized local communities.
“We are not Muslim, so it was hard,” Sona said. “We [had] to take a lot of caution [in Iran]. My uncle’s shop was recently robbed at gunpoint because he is not Muslim. And the government never helps over there. Every day, people are going hungry. People sell their kidneys just to eat. It’s a bad situation.”
The sisters fled their home to escape persecution and were resettled in the United States in August 2006. Soon after, they connected with World Relief Chicagoland who helped them secure their first jobs as factory workers for Home Depot. But despite their good work performance and praise from their supervisor, the sisters were eventually fired because neither of them could pass their English test.
“Our supervisor liked our work,” Sona said. “But we couldn’t pass our English test and he had to let us go.”
That’s when Kara, a World Relief volunteer and friend to the sisters, decided to help out. The women enrolled in an English class in the Chicago suburbs. Hana’s husband, who is American, helped her study in the evenings, while Kara studied with Sona.
“We were working days and nights to learn English,” Sona said. “I was sleeping [just] 2-3 hours a day just so I could have enough time to improve my English.”
“Kara was a big reason I learned English,” she added.
After years of hard work, Sona and Hana were able to improve their English enough to return to school in pursuit of their shared dream of working in the medical field.
“Our dad’s side of the family were all in the medical field,” Hana explained. “My dad was a surgical assistant. He inspired me to be in medicine.”
In 2014, Sona graduated from school and was immediately employed by Delnor. A year later, Hana graduated and was hired by Elmhurst.
“It was always a dream to work in a hospital, and to help,” Sona said. “I see the sickest people get better and go home to live their life. That’s what I love about my job.”
“I feel like I’m here to help every person,” Hana said. She said that people sometimes look at her differently because she’s from a different country and has an accent, but she doesn’t let it bother her anymore.
“I’m here to help everyone no matter what,” she said. “It makes me happy to come to work every day. It makes me happy to help.”
Recently, though, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the risks and challenges of going to work for both women. The stressors have reminded them of the danger they faced back in Iran, and Hana said she hasn’t been able to see her mom or sister due to social distancing guidelines at her hospital.
“Work is now very stressful,” she said “I do not want to get close to people. Every day, I see someone die. That really affects you. Just the other day, I was taking a COVID-19 patient’s blood, and ten minutes after I finished, he went into cardiac arrest and died.”
“It’s definitely scary,” Sona added. “People are very sick. Many are on oxygen. They need a good two months or more to recover.”
Nevertheless, the sisters continue to show up and help those in need at their hospitals in the U.S. while also helping others back home in Iran.
“We send $100 back home to Iran every month,” Sona said. “We donate [the] money to women who are not working due to the virus and who have children. Women are not as respected as men, and they don’t get jobs even in good times.”
Hana has also become a champion for the rights of her countrymen here in the United States.
“There are lots of language barrier problems with this virus,” she explained. “I know the language barrier is the biggest problem for many [COVID-19 patients]. My hospital has translator lines, but there wasn’t a line for Farsi, the native language of Iran. So, I spoke to the hospital administration and a line for Farsi was added.”
The United States is not just a home to Hana and Sona, it’s a community in which they are deeply invested. So invested, in fact, that Hana plans to go back to school to become a registered nurse once the threat of COVID-19 has subsided so that she can expand her field of care to all patients that arrive at the hospital. Resilience is a trait that doesn’t rest.
*this story was originally published by World Relief Chicagoland.
Rob Carroll serves as Communications Manager for World Relief Chicagoland. Rob’s professional background includes time spent in publishing, design, marketing and communications. He has written and edited for numerous outlets, and he even spent a year as the Managing Editor for a respected peer-reviewed science journal published by Oxford University Press. He views his current work with World Relief as a true vocation — a place where his experience and skill can help the greater good.
World Refugee Day 2019
On World Refugee Day we want to shine a light on the individuals, from multiple countries who have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety and future.
