June 20, 2019

GUEST COMMENTARY: Helping refugees come home to the Pioneer Valley

REGIONAL
By Hannah Parrott, Special to iObserve

SPRINGFIELD – In 2017 there were 68.5 million people who were forcibly displaced. Since then, that number has only been growing, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). Of that number of people, 25.4 million are refugees and about half are under the age of 18.

Shockingly, only 102,800 refugees have been resettled and developing nations are hosting more than 85 percent of refugees, even though they possess a much smaller fraction of the world’s wealth, according to a UNHCR report. 

In fact, the U.S. has actually restricted the number of refugees that it resettles despite the need for resettlement being greater than ever. The Pew Research Center reports that over the course of 2017, the U.S. resettled a mere 33,000 refugees, down from 97,000 in 2016. Yet, the need to resettle innocent civilians remains paramount.

With armed conflict flaming across the globe, from Syria and Sudan to El Salvador and Myanmar and beyond, one innocent bystander is being displaced every two seconds, according to the UNHCR. It is crucial that we act to assist and support refugees who will be assimilating and working in our community.

Currently, communities in Amherst and Northampton are doing just that. In the U.S., refugees are resettled by designated agencies, one of which is Catholic Charities. Through the hard work of a coordinated team, primarily consisting of volunteers, including University of Massachusetts students, the Catholic Charities Agency of Springfield is supporting more than 50 refugees in the Pioneer Valley area.

Catholic Charities supports refugees in their first year of living in the United States by providing them with support for housing and helping them find the jobs they need to jumpstart their new lives. A dedicated team of volunteers also helps resettled refugees in other ways, including cultural assimilation, and teaching English language classes, job skills, resume building and mock interviews, as well as providing transportation, child care, and much more.

Catholic Charities’ work in the Pioneer Valley continues to need support from the Pioneer Valley and surrounding areas. Local residents can assist this work by making a charitable, tax deductible donation to the organization’s work that will be put towards housing costs and other important social services that are necessary to get these families back on their feet.

Residents can also support resettlement in the area by working with Catholic Charities to provide permanent housing for refugees, by employing refugees, and by volunteering with Catholic Charities or donating household items to help set up new homes for refugees.

More about how to get involved and local resettlement efforts can be found on instagram @refugeeresettlementproject; and on Facebook at Welcome Home Refugee Resettlement Program.

 

Hannah Parrott, an intern at the Catholic Charities Agency of the Springfield Diocese, is a sophomore participant in the Human Geography program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; she plans to become a doctor and work with refugee populations.

 

 

 

 

Following are more photos of refugees and volunteers in Northampton: