Prepare for Refugees in Your Community

Frustrated by seeing news of refugees but wondering what you can do to help?

It will take a long time for those walking to Germany or waiting in camps to reach the communities where they will eventually settle.

• Prepare for them.
Receiving traumatized people requires some careful thought and sensitivities.
Consider their situation from their point of view.
Train with the organizations in your area.

Indianapolis, IN Area:
Catholic Social Services
1400 N. Meridian Street
P.O. Box 1410
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-236-1553

or Exodus Refugee Org

New Zealanders, train with the refugee arm of the Red Cross. They are brilliant and have offices in the major cities. Hamilton takes an amazing number of refugees!

Learn how to teach English as a second language.
Some Indiana colleges and libraries have programs you can enroll in or volunteer with. IUPUI

• Plot ways to employ a refugee.
A local industry in Anderson, IN employs several Burmese people.

• Consider household items a refugee family will need and assemble them in preparation.

Keep in mind too that just as refugees rarely get to choose their destination, you probably won't choose the refugee you'll come alongside to support. Refugees are on the move from Nigeria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria.....

The U.S. took significant numbers of people from Iraq, Somalia, Bhutan/Nepal, Burma and D.R.Congo.

Settling significant numbers in:
1) Texas (7,211)
2) California (6,110)
3) New York (4,079)
4) Michigan (4,000)
5) Florida (3,519)
6) Arizona (2,963)
7) Ohio (2,812)
8) Pennsylvania (2,743)
9) Georgia (2,693)
10) Illinois (2,578)
North Carolina and Washington state are not far behind.

All of this was happening before that dear little boy washed up on a beach in Turkey,
and before refugees, asylum seekers and migrants started flooding into Italy, Hungary, Austria and Germany.

Libya is a mess. So is South Sudan. Iraq and Afghanistan are unlivable in places. Syria? Unimaginable the dangers that have visited people who are in shock as to what happened to their previous lives.

A refugee is one who runs from immediate threat of torture, persecution, imprisonment, or death.

An asylum seeker shows up without documentation and hopes they
lol be allowed to stay.

Migrants have choices and try to exercise them.

The lines between these categories are often fuzzy, thin or faint.

Defining and leveling people is the job of governments.
Systems and processes require order.
Some of these people just want a safe place for their children to live.

Many of us do not often think of the continuum of survive-live-thrive.


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