Blog
Celebrating CWS Harrisburg’s Growing Impact
Durre Sharif | June 27, 2024
CWS Harrisburg is a dynamic and enthusiastic office, having completed our first full fiscal year in 2023. Initially, we planned to resettle 110 refugees, but ultimately resettled 135. We began the next year with a stated capacity of 250, increased it to 440 by January, and approximately four weeks ago, raised it again to 567. For this upcoming fiscal year, …
Daughter of Immigrants: A Look Back at My Roots
Jessica Rivas | June 24, 2024
As an American daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, I am dedicated to creating meaningful opportunities for immigrant children and youth in the United States. My advocacy work is deeply rooted in personal experiences and heritage. This heritage includes my parents’ journey escaping the civil war in El Salvador during the 1980s, my father’s solo journey as an unaccompanied minor at 15 …
The Power of Advocacy: One Pastor’s Reflections
June 20, 2024
My mom always said she would join me in Grand Rapids. After decades of waiting in the Nyarugusu refugee camp in Tanzania, she promised to join me and my siblings, our families, and the new home we built, here in Michigan. We buried her last year. Not here, with our community, but in the camp. She never left Nyarugusu. Her …
Jalali’s Family: A Story of Resilience and Triumph
Murtaza Jalali | June 18, 2024
World Refugee Day is crucial for me because it recognizes the strength of my fellow refugees who have fled their country’s conflict and persecution in the hope of finding and living a better life. World Refugee Day aims to promote understanding of the refugee plight, showcase refugee resilience and courage in rebuilding their future and offer an opportunity for everyone to comprehend …
Reflections on Six Years of Impact at InfoPark
Jovana Savic and Stevan Tatalovic | June 17, 2024
In all of CWS’ programs, there is an element that allows us to thrive: our partnerships. We recently took the time to appreciate one of these partnerships when our PCUSA friends and colleagues Ellen Smith, Regional Liaison for Central & Eastern Europe, and Luciano Kovacs, Middle East and Europe Area Coordinator, visited our programs in Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina …