Refugee Life Ministry, a partnership with World Relief, was formed out of a need for in-coming refugee families that have no ties in the United States. This partnership provides help to refugee families as they transition to a new home. They ask churches to come along side their ministry in a mentoring role, to build relationships and provide support or services with the family. We are looking forward to building relationships with many refugee families as they move into the Twin Cities area.
Refugees are people who have been forced to flee their home country and are unable to return because of a well-founded fear of persecution due to race, nationality, religion, or membership in a particular social group or political opinion. All refugees coming to the U.S. have been given legal residency status and permission to work upon their arrival in the U.S.
Most refugees who come to the United States have lived for years or even decades in refugee camps outside their home country. More than likely, refugees have witnessed horrific tragedies which have deeply affected their families and communities.
The United States Refugee Resettlement Program is a critical humanitarian undertaking that “demonstrates the compassion of Americans for the world’s most vulnerable people” and “enjoys broad support from U.S. citizens and Congress because it is a life-saving program that creates great opportunities for refugees to renew their lives and futures in the United States” (from the Report to the Congress: Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2009).
All arriving refugees are resettled through a Voluntary Agency (“Volag”) that has a contract with the federal government to provide basic services for refugees during their first 90 days in the U.S. World Relief Minnesota is one of five Volags located in the Twin Cities.
There are 12 million to 15 million refugees in the world at this time. The primary countries for refugee origin are: Columbia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Bhutan, Burma, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
This information is from the World Relief website. If you want to learn more click on the following link: www.worldreliefmn.org.
How to Prepare for a family?
