Anne Lizette Sta. Maria | October 18, 2021
While gardening in Sedona, AZ, Helena Sigman heard a sound that, she says, paralyzed her completely. The city was putting on a show of old airplanes. Although over 70 years had passed, she recognized one of the planes as the same kind that would swoop down and shoot during and after World War II. At the time, she and …
September 30, 2021
Washington, D.C.—CWS today celebrates the passage of the FY 2022 Continuing Resolution, which will, in part, extend necessary welcome measures to help Afghans seeking refuge in the United States integrate and thrive. CWS notes, however, that the administration and Congress must do more to offer stability to arriving Afghans following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and at-risk Afghans who remain …
September 21, 2021
For Immediate Release: September 21, 2021 Media Contact: media@cwsglobal.org Churches Unite to Launch Ecumenical Declaration to Welcome Afghan Refugees Washington, D.C.—Church World Service today released an ecumenical statement of support for Afghan refugees seeking safety. The statement, endorsed by CWS, the National Council of Churches, and 37 member denominations, calls on the Biden Administration, Congress, and elected officials on the …
September 20, 2021
CWS welcomes the proposed goal of 125,000 refugees for FY22 New York City — CWS today praised the Biden Administration’s proposal to Congress to substantially increase U.S. refugee admissions to 125,000 individuals in Fiscal Year 2022, which begins October 1st. In response to the growing humanitarian needs for at-risk Afghans and other humanitarian crises, the organization urges the Biden Administration …
September 3, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 3, 2021 Washington D.C. – Church World Service today celebrated the introduction of the WELCOMED Act, bipartisan legislation which would allow our Afghan allies and friends to access the critical services they need to rebuild their lives in their new home. “Thousands of Afghans who left everything behind in search of safety are arriving in our …
March 16, 2021
Appeal Code: 6303 Situation In February 2021 the Biden administration issued an executive order signaling the administration’s promise to restore and rebuild the life-saving program and committing to raising the refugee admissions goal to 125,000 for Fiscal Year 2022 with a revised refugee admissions goal of 62,500 for FY 2021 — an important step toward returning the resettlement program to …
March 5, 2021
In honor of International Women’s Day, three refugee women in Cairo are sharing their wisdom and experiences. Laila from Sudan, Salam from Somalia and Najat from Eritrea are all part of the community at our local partner, St. Andrew’s Refugee Services. NAJAT Najat is an Eritrean mother who is passionate about handicrafts. She fled her city due to war, which …
Top: Erasmo holds one of his daughters during a meeting with CJ staff. Middle: Yovanny and his mother pick up food packages. Bottom: Frank holds a food package.
Erasmo Hurtado was living in the United States before the coronavirus pandemic. He was given a deportation order in March 2020, just as COVID-19 was starting to spread. He had four months to leave the country, or he would be put in a detention center. Erasmo and his wife packed up their six daughters and left for San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He has relatives in San Miguel de Allende who he hasn’t seen for 30 years.
When Erasmo’s family arrived this summer, however, his relatives were unable to help. They were facing their own challenges as the pandemic ravaged Mexico. Erasmo’s family didn’t know how they would find a place to live or food to put on the table.
Through our partner Caminamos Juntos, CWS helps families like Erasmo’s in San Miguel de Allende. Thanks to support from CWS, Erasmo’s family found a safe place to live. Each month they pick up a food package from CJ. This has given the family a bit of breathing room while they assimilate into Mexican culture and create an action plan for what comes next.
Yovanny and his mom are also among the 80 people that CWS is helping through CJ. Both were deported to Mexico about a year ago. Yovanny, 29, had been living in the United States since he was just 9 years old. He struggled with Spanish when he arrived in San Miguel de Allende, since he had been speaking English for so long. Regardless, he has worked hard over the last year to focus on his education.
Because of his English, Yovanny was able to find a job in a well-known restaurant. That restaurant closed when the pandemic hit San Miguel de Allende, though. Yovanny and his mother were worried about how to pay rent and buy food. Thanks to the emergency fund at CJ, they have been able to meet their basic needs while continuing to look for work.
Not everyone who walks through the doors at CJ has returned from the United States. Frank, for example, is a 22-year-old from El Salvador who sought asylum in Mexico two years ago. He lives in San Miguel de Allende under refugee status now.
Like Yovanny, Frank had a job before the pandemic. But as the economic toll set in, the business could no longer afford to pay his salary. They won’t be able to pay him again until business picks up again. CJ has been helping Frank meet his basic needs in the interim.
Our partners at CJ wrote, “Caminamos Juntos thanks CWS for its continuous support, through which we implement our programs that provide legal advice, facilitate training for linguistic and cultural adaptation, provide advice on finding and accessing sources of work and education for employment, support training in different crafts and abilities and facilitate the access to study certifications from abroad, offer psychological support for the adaptation process, as well as the emergency fund that supports deportees and returnees and their families.”
Naw Paw Lue Lu and her daughter.
Naw Paw Lue Lu and her husband are raising two children in Umpiem Mai camp in Thailand, which is home to refugee families from Myanmar. Their son is 6 years old, and their daughter is 18 months old. Naw Paw Lue Lu hasn’t had access to information or parenting classes, so she mostly followed the example of her older relatives and neighbors. Unfortunately, that meant that her son didn’t have a nutritious diet. She didn’t know about exclusive breastfeeding, when to start supplementing her breastfeeding or how to diversify his diet. As a result, she only fed her son rice, oil and salt.
During her pregnancy with her daughter, Naw Paw Lue Lu learned more from the health and nutrition staff in the camp. She got the information she need to develop healthy habits during her pregnancy. She understood how to keep herself and her baby healthy. When her daughter was born, Naw Paw Lue Lu knew the benefits of breastfeeding her exclusively for the first six months, and how breastfeeding benefits both moms and babies. Then when her daughter was six months old, Naw Paw Lue Lu joined the “Healthy Babies, Bright Futures” program. It’s implemented by The Border Consortium with support from CWS.
In addition to continued nutrition education support, Naw Paw Lue Lu began to attend cooking demonstrations. She learned about BabyBRIGHT, which is a complementary baby food. She saw how to cook with it and understood its benefits.
Naw Paw Lue Lu recalls worrying about her daughter in her first few months, wondering if her little one was growing as much as other children the same age. But as she began to implement more and more of what she was learning in the infant and young child feeding program, her worries eased. She could see her daughter growing well. She could clearly see the difference between her two children as infants. This was due, in part, to adding BabyBRIGHT to their routine. It’s also, she admits, because she was able to spend more time with her new baby (she had been a teacher when her son was very young).
Naw Paw Lue Lu says that she better understands how to feed both her children a nutritious and diverse diet. She spends time creating new menus for her daughter that include BabyBRIGHT and vegetables from her garden. And she sees how having the nutrition program is helpful for her whole community, especially families with young children.
Ramazabee and her daughter.
Thirteen people live in Ramazabee’s household in Umpiem Mai, a camp in Thailand for refugees from Myanmar. Among the 13 are her three children–two sons and her 8-month-old daughter.
Remazabee says that she used to not fully understand how to care for her young children properly. She watched what others around her were doing and tried to do the same, but she didn’t have experts to talk to. When she was pregnant with her daughter, however, she joined the “Healthy Babies, Bright Futures” offered through CWS partner The Border Consortium.
Through this program, Ramazabee joined nutrition education sessions led by health and nutrition specialists. When her daughter turned six months old, Ramazabee joined an infant and young child feeding program. She accessed extra nutrition information and education from other refugees who now serve as Food Security and Nutrition Specialists in the camp. From them, Ramazabee learned the importance of eating nutritious foods and how to feed her children well according to their age. She learned how to use BabyBRIGHT, a complementary baby food. Then she received a monthly portion as incentive to stay engaged. During group cooking demonstrations, Ramazabee better understood the important nutrients in it that can be found in other foods in the camp. So, with BabyBRIGHT and locally sourced nutritious food, her daughter and is healthy and growing well — as confirmed during monthly Growth Monitoring appointments.
During a visit with staff from The Border Consortium, Ramazabee’s brother joined the conversation and said he recognized that his niece is quite happy and seems healthier than her older brother had been as a young child. He especially noted that she is not often sick.
Ramazabee expressed her happiness with young child feeding program activities, which inspire her to take care of her daughter every day.