Darfuri refugees in the CROP Hunger Walk


January 12, 2011

Pictured front: Saeed (8). Second row: Vista volunteer Marta Baran, Halia (3), Tyba (6), and a student from Mercyhurst. Third row: Ali (13), Muhammed (14), Ibrahim Juma Tira and Esta Saeed Niman. In the background: Howard Wright, chair of the Erie County CROP Hunger Walk. Photo: Katie White

Pictured front: Saeed (8). Second row: Vista volunteer Marta Baran, Halia (3), Tyba (6), and a student from Mercyhurst. Third row: Ali (13), Muhammed (14), Ibrahim Juma Tira and Esta Saeed Niman. In the background: Howard Wright, chair of the Erie County CROP Hunger Walk. Photo: Katie White

A recently resettled refugee family from Darfur, Sudan, braved a cold, pouring rain to participate in last fall’s CROP Hunger Walk in Erie, Pa. The Tiras raised nearly $200 for CWS work to fight hunger in Erie and around the world.

“Katie White is the Community Outreach Director of the International Institute of Erie (IIE), which resettled the Tira family to Erie,” said Kathleen Clark of Pittsburgh, an associate director in CWS’s Greater Mid-Atlantic Region. “Every year, she invites refugees to participate in the Walk as a way to learn about volunteerism and raise money to fight hunger — a problem refugees are familiar with.”