I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received
me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; (Matthew 25:35)
Our Refugee Families
Since 1988, in cooperation with the Virginia Council of Churches and Refugee and Immigration Services of Hampton, St. Luke’s has helped ten refugee families resettle in our area. The Lawryniuks came from Poland in 1988, followed by four families from Bosnia: the Blazanovics (1994), the Hadzirics (1996), the Mastilovics (1997), and the Salkics (1999). Svetlana Mastilovic is now the director of our church nursery program. The Jau family from Sudan arrived in 2001. In 2005, we helped five refugee families of Meskhetian Turks from Russia, the three Supiayanov brothers, their sister, and a married daughter and her family, the Fazliyevs, 19 people in all. They are now all homeowners. In 2007, we helped a family of 14 Congolese resettle – the Mombos are a 34 year old mother with three children, and 10 nieces and nephews between 2 and 19 orphaned by the violence in the Congo. At present, we’re helping an Iraqi family, the Hannas, who attend our church. They were forced to leave their country in 2006 when their daughter was killed by the increasing violence against Christians.
Refugee Statistics
At the end of 2008, there were about 42 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, including 15.2 million designated as refugees. A refugee is defined as a person who can’t return to his/her country of origin because of a well-founded fear of persecution for race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. The UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) makes an annual determination of refugee status for displaced persons, and asylum countries indicate the number they will accept by region: Africa, East Asia, Europe/Central Asia, Near East/South Asia, and Latin America/Caribbean.
The UNHCR presented 121,000 refugees for resettlement during 2008. The US accepted 80,000, of whom more than 200 resettled in Hampton Roads. The 2008 US allocation by region was 28,000 from South Asia, 20,000 from East Asia, 16,000 from Africa, 3,000 from Central Asia, 3,000 from Latin America, and 10,000 other. Afghan and Iraqi refugees account for almost half of all refugees under the UNHCR. One out of four refugees in the world is from Afghanistan (2.8 million) and they are located in 69 different asylum countries. Iraqis are the second largest refugee group, with 1.9 million having sought refuge. In Hampton Roads, the bulk of refugees for 2008 were from Iraq and Myanmar (Burma).
Our Refugee Resettlement Challenges
St Luke’s Refugee Ministry partners with Refugee and Immigration Services (RIS) to help incoming families. The agency receives only $400 per person to fund food and lodging- the rest of their $500,000 annual budget comes from grants and donations. Refugees arrive with only what they can carry in a suitcase, so every family requires furniture, bedding, and other household items to get settled. The agency depends extensively on donations of such items, so give them a call at 247-3600 if you have serviceable household goods you no longer need. They also depend on volunteers to teach English as a second language, and help in their office and warehouse. We budget several thousand each year to help fill some of these gaps when needed.
