The Refugee Experience Series (TRES) seeks to

raise awareness and promote a deeper understanding

of the plight of global refugees.

 


World Refugee Fundraiser Celebration

 Saturday, 27 June 2009

Join the festivities with TRES, the IRC, and USA for UNHCR in honoring and assisting global refugees! 

The TRES World Refugee Fundraiser Celebration will feature the Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars documentary, UNHCR and IRC speakers, cultural performances, a delicious taste of the world buffet, and world music by FunkDC's DJ Neil Payne.

Event proceeds will directly benefit the IRC and UNHCR. 

Click here for event details. 

 

 Sarah's Blog

 

The Refugee Experience Series is a grassroots organization made up of dedicated volunteers passionate about raising awareness on the reality of refugees around the world and in the United States. 

 

We have been hosting informative and heart-warming events since the fall of 2007. Along the way, we've been joined by various interesting individuals who have helped prepare and put on our community events.  Sarah Maxwell is one of these dedicated individuals. Read her blog, I Heart Idealist, on why she is an Idealist at heart and how she became involved with The Refugee Experiences Series in 2008. 

 

 Iraqi Refugees Dinner Discussion

 

 

                                                                Event photos can be seen on the Events page. 
 
On March 13, 2009, The Refugee Experience Series hosted an Iraqi Refugees Dinner Discussion at Cafe Chopsticks with honored guest speakers:
  • Zahra Alkabi, Director of Save Refugees and former Iraqi refugee,
  • Merrill Smith, Director of International Planning and Analysis, U.S. Committee for Refugees & Immigrants, and
  • Michael Springmann, a District of Columbia immigration attorney. 
 "Five years into the US military intervention in Iraq, the country is dealing with one of the largest humanitarian and displacement crises in the world. Millions of Iraqis have fled their homes – either for safer locations within Iraq, or to other countries in the region – and are living in increasingly desperate circumstances. Failure to address the needs of Iraqis will have dramatic impacts on security inside Iraq...approximately 1.5 million Iraqi refugees [are] living in Syria, Jordan and other neighbors of Iraq, as well as the 2.7 million internally displaced persons within Iraq. Most are unable to access their food rations and are often unemployed; they live in squalid conditions, have run out of resources and find it extremely difficult to access essential services." - Refugees International
 
We were honored to hear directly from Zahra Alkabi, who spoke about the situation of Iraqi women and children refugees in Jordan as well as the difficult situations of Iraqi refugees here in the U.S. and specifically in her home city of Portland, Oregon. 
 
Merrill Smith gave us a fascinating background into the world of refugee warehousing and its tangent to the Iraqi refugee situation in the Middle East.  He also co-authored the World Policy Journal article, Iraq's Refugee Disaster with Ben Sanders.
 
Michael Springmann recounted the Iraqi refugee struggles from his powerful Global Research article, The Refugee Crisis: The Pain and Suffering of the Iraqi People.    
  
Please take a moment to learn about and help Iraqi refugees:
 
You can learn about the Iraqi refugee crisis in the above articles and join TRES and USCRI to ask President Obama to not forget Iraqi refugees.
 
Would you like to write to Iraqi refugees in Jordan?  Contact Zahra to participate in the Apology and Forgiveness Campaign and tell her you heard it from The Refugee Experience Series.  She will be delighted to hear from you and so will the Iraqi refugees in Jordan.
    

  

2008 Conference on Refugee Warehousing

 

The University of Pittsburgh hosted the 2008 Conference on Refugee Warehousing from October 10 to 12, 2008.  The Refugee Experience Series' Vivian Nguyen attended the conference and met with inspirational leaders who addressed the meaning of refugee warehousing and recommended next steps.

 

The situation of refugees stuck in 'temporary' shelters with the denial of basic human rights is unacceptable.  However, finding alternatives to the situation requires consideration of complex issues.  The 2008 Conference on Refugee Warehousing offered a forum to consider the issues and strengthen the movement against refugee warehousing. Learn more at www.refugeeconference.org. 

 

Read articles by the conference speakers: 

 

Warehousing Refugees: A Denial of Rights, a Waste of Humanity

by Merril Smith, U.S. Committee for Refugee and Immigrants Editor

 

Refugee Warehousing Vis-à-vis Refugee Rights

by Judy Wakahiu, Executive Director, Refugee Consortium of Kenya

 

 

endwarehousing2

 

Watch an interview with Dr. Barbara Harrell-Bond, world-renowned expert on refugee situations, speaking about the inhumanity of human warehousing with the U.S. Committee for Refugee and Immigrants (USCRI) here.

 

Join the USCRI in a campaign to end refugee warehousing.  YOU can make a difference, clickhere.

 

Did You Know? 

 

Refugee   A refugee is a person who is outside of any country in which such person habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

 

Asylee   An Asylee is a person who travels to another country, applies and is granted “asylum” status by that country's government, which allows him/her to remain in the country, because he/she is unable or unwilling to return to his/her country due to persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution. 

 

Internally Displaced People   Internally displaced people (IDPs) are people who fled for the same reasons as refugees, but remain inside their own country and are therefore still subject to its laws, rather than international refugee law.

 

Visit the library...to learn more,

for book & movie recommendations, &

for links related to refugee issues.