CHARLOTTE — Nearly 100 people gathered Feb. 22 at St. Peter Church’s Biss Hall to learn more about the Catholic response to the refugee crisis that involves more than 65 million displaced people around the world.
The “Justice on Tap” event featured keynote speakers Giulia McPherson from Jesuit Refugee Service and Kailey Otten from Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte’s Refugee Resettlement Office.
Bob McPherson, the event organizer and St. Peter parishioner, started the evening by explaining his personal connection to JRS.
“I met JRS for the first time in Rwanda, in 1996. It was chaos and crisis. I don’t care what color your skin was, you were shocked, you were afraid. We were right on the border of care between the Congo and Rwanda – 800,000 people fleeing in one way or another. Could you imagine 800,000 people running with kids and all their possessions on their backs? I noticed a little group, off to the side, with a sign saying ‘JRS.’ I said to someone, ‘Who are they?’ The one thing I noticed was JRS over there, being patient with parents and children. They were organized and had a steadiness and trustworthiness about them. I wasn’t a practicing Catholic at the time. I couldn’t tell you what a Jesuit looked like if I came across one. It wasn’t like I was enamored by all of this. The fact is, I was probably more on the secular side, but I kept watching these people and they did a magnificent job.”
Giulia McPherson, JRS advocacy coordinator, noted, “What comes in mind to me is the word ‘dignity.’ JRS is not just about programs and services. It is about treating refugees as human beings. It is about the dignity they need. Being forced to leave your home and fleeing is hard to even imagine.
“Currently, 65.6 million people have been displaced. They are not leaving their homes because they found a better job or they want to reunite with family. They are being forced to leave due to war, persecution or natural disasters. This is the highest number of global displacement we have experienced since World War II.”
McPherson said, “The Jesuits are called to work on the margins, to help the most venerable. Arguably, refugees are the most vulnerable.”
“JRS has been serving refugees for the past 38 years. We are an international humanitarian organization operating in 51 different countries,” she said. “The majority of the work we do is oversees. We work with refugees and displaced peoples mostly in refugee camps.”
“Our primary focus is education. We run programs from early childhood up to adulthood,” she said, including a preschool program for refugees escaping ethnic conflict in Darfur, Sudan.
She continued, “300,000 refugees are living in a series of 12 camps in a desolate part of Chad. It is unsafe for them to return home and there is no hope of going back. We are working closely with them, sorting out ways that they can have a sustainable future. Education is one of those ways. Through programs like this preschool, we are working to educate and give them an opportunity for their future.”
McPherson used pictures, stories, and examples to present similar programs in Lebanon, Uganda and other countries in the scope of JRS.
“Refugee children are five times more likely to be out of school than their non-refugee peers. Only 60 percent have access to primary school, and it drops dramatically when we talk about secondary education; it drops to 23 percent. Only 1 percent are able to attend college,” she said.
JRS provides educational services as well as transportation services to schools to make sure refugees’ needs met. JRS also provides vocational training and small business loans for start-ups, she said.
“Not only do we want to deliver programs that treat basic needs, we are trying to devise creative and realistic ways for refugees to fend for themselves,” she said. “They want a home, they want to build a life for themselves, they want a future for their families. They are no different than any of us.
“The challenge is that they are in this limbo. Basic human rights – like the right to attend school, the right to work – is all they want. They do not want a handout. They want to be given an opportunity to be able to do something for themselves.”
Otten explained how Catholic Charities’ Refugee Resettlement Program plays an active role with refugee assistance in the Charlotte diocese. Since October, the agency has welcomed 40 refugees, she said.
“We are in charge of the primary 90-day post-resettlement period after refugees arrive in the U.S.,” she said. “Just imagine: moving to a new country where you have no idea how to speak the language, you have no idea how the systems work.”
“We try to lay the groundwork for them,” she said. “We find apartments to live in and get fridges stocked up with culturally appropriate food. We get refugees ready for employment with our employment services. We help get kids enrolled in school, we set people up with food stamps and assistance – all the things they are going to need to help get their footing when they first arrive here.”
“It is so easy to see someone that comes to the USA and say, ‘Oh, you’ve been through something so hard.’ These are people who had lives, who were truly successful. Yes, they have gone through horrible things, but they are so capable. We are just trying to get people to see that, given the right foundation,” Otten added.
Martha Schmidt, who participates in the refugee mentoring program at St. Peter in connection with Charlotte Charities, ended the program by reminding the audience, “Most refugees just want to know someone cares, someone is welcoming them to this country, someone is glad that they are here.”
Serving as a mentor in the program has been a gift, Schmidt said.
“As part of a refugee mentoring team at St. Peter’s, I have had direct contact for the past eight months with two different refugee families, one from Iraq and one from Myanmar. We were matched through Catholic Charities. This has profoundly affected the way I look and respond to God’s people. When I have a so-called ‘bad day,’ I just think about what a bad day can really mean when you have permanently left your country and know you will never go back. You have left all that you know, all that you are comfortable with and have to start over in a strange place.
“Their courage overwhelms me.”
— Lisa Geraci, correspondent
Learn more
At www.jrsusa.org: Find out what Jesuit Refugee Services is doing in response to the refugee crisis
At www.ccdoc.org: Learn how you can help refugees resettling right here in the Diocese of Charlotte