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REFUGEES: AS FEWER ENTER US, ONE CHICAGO GROUP DECIDES TO GO TO THEM

Exodus Refugees1

EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER, of Religion News Service, reports on how Chicago-based Christian organisation Exodus World Service, is bridging the gap between Americans and refugees…

Chicago, US
RNS

“I didn’t used to live like this.”

The words resonated with Elizabeth Shuman. The speaker – a woman dressed in beautifully designed fabrics, a scarf covering her hair — had invited Shuman and other volunteers into her home in Lebanon and taken great care to show them hospitality.

But the home was a tent made from tarps, insulated against the crisp air as best as possible.

The woman and her family were refugees from Syria and the tent housed all the belongings they had remaining.

Exodus Refugees1

Exodus World Service volunteers visit with Syrian refugees during a trip to Lebanon in September, 2019. PICTURE: Heidi Zeiger

It was a moment of connection for Shuman, who could see herself in the woman’s place.

“I value serving people well. I like to make tea for people. And I was imagining, what would it be like if I didn’t have my grandma’s teapot that I could serve or didn’t have a special room that I could make tea for people in and just had to serve them wherever I was?” she said.

“It’s easy for us to think of refugees as ‘those people’ and not be able to think of ourselves in their position.”

– Elizabeth Shuman, Exodus World Service volunteer.

“It’s easy for us to think of refugees as ‘those people’ and not be able to think of ourselves in their position.”

The encounter was part of a pilot trip organised in February by Exodus World Service for volunteers to learn from Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

As fewer refugees are arriving in the United States, organisations that work with refugees – many of which are faith-based – are finding new ways to reach out to those who have been forced to flee their home countries.

That includes the nine agencies authorised by the US Government to resettle refugees, which have closed offices and laid off staff over the past few years. Six of those agencies are faith-based.

It also includes groups like Exodus, a Christian non-profit based in the Chicago suburbs that works to build bridges between Christians and refugees who are resettled in the area.

Exodus hasn’t been decimated in the same way refugee resettlement agencies have – in fact, it’s grown, partly because of increased interest and awareness, according to the organisation – but it also has shifted its programming. That means adding programming for refugees who have been in the US longer.

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A Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. PICTURE: Heidi Zeiger

The drop in refugees arriving in the US also means Exodus now is going where the refugees are.

A team of eight Exodus volunteers recently traveled to Lebanon, where they met refugees, heard their stories and learned more in order to better advocate for them at home.

The volunteers also distributed food in tent settlements and partnered with another organisation on the ground to lead a three-day Kids Club for refugee children.

And the organisation started fundraising to support a classroom for those children after hearing requests again and again from parents for education.

“So many of them did want to share their stories and begged us to share their stories with others and just wanted to feel seen and heard, and it was such a deep honour to get to be with them and hear their stories.”

– Elizabeth Shuman

“So many of them did want to share their stories and begged us to share their stories with others and just wanted to feel seen and heard, and it was such a deep honour to get to be with them and hear their stories,” Shuman said.

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