9/19/16
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​Newsdeeply.com provided important background information about the quest for refuge and those looking for political asylum. The page started with a timeline that provided the history of refugees that date back before the First World War. The key page on the website; however, was the page titled, “Who is – and who is not a refugee?” Before this class I was unaware of the definitions that will lay the groundwork for the rest of the class. Refugees have the fear that they will be hurt if they end up staying in their own country so they try to remove themselves from their own country. The second definition that we as a class must understand is asylum or political asylum. These are the people that leave their country or home place, but might not be considered a refugee. There is still much research to do to better understand all the processes of the topic that we are discussing and to be able to tell someone else’s story.
9/22/16
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The crisis in Syria is a recent event starting in 2011 that has killed over 250,000 people thus far. Half of those 250,000 were citizens of Syria. Russia has gotten into the battle by bombing ISIS in Syria. Those bombings have resulted in another 2,000 death count. Those who have resided in Syria have begun to seek out other boarding counties, such as Turkey and then to Greece if they are successful in getting through Turkey. Since there is little means of transportation those who are trying to escape walk for miles each day to find safety. The decision of leaving the Syria typically is triggered when a neighboring area is bombed because they fear that they will be next. According to the Mercy Corp graph 4.8 million people have since escaped and sought out a safe place to reside. The biggest struggles for those who flee their homeland to seek a safe place to live is how to pay for necessities such as rent, food, water, etc.
9/29/16
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As part of my research for the “Quest for Refugee” project I looked at information on the website “Welcoming Rhode Island”. Rhode Island (like many the rest of the country) welcomes the refugees that come to America to escape their country for means of safety. Since we know a lot about what is happening overseas, I thought it best would be learn about what is happening in the United States. “Welcoming Rhode Island” features peoples smiling faces on their homepage of those individuals who have now made Rhode Island their home away from home. The organization also works with the refugees to seek residency, learning English, and welcoming them to the country and state holistically. The organization seeks to help those who are coming to America to make them feel welcome and as if they are living the American life style.
The second article/website that I explored briefly was the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. Their website was actually quite similar to the “Welcoming Rhode Island” with photographs of refuges that have come to America. The U.S. Committee for Refugees has the idea of “Neighbors helping Neighbors”, providing foundations, and making community connections. The committee is very similar to the Rhode Island specific one; however, it is on a national level.
10/3/16
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The idea of refugees and being able to seek refuge to another country we typically think of Syria first because that is what the media has been focused on; however, there are many other countries that are in horrid conditions as well. In Chad (Africa) violence has been an issue for sometime now and people are living in terror because they do not know what to expect. Doctors without boarders presented research on the area and focused on a medical standpoint to the crisis because those people who are under attack have not help other than the limited resources that the country has in place already. Medical facilities are closing rapidity because of a lack of money, equipment, and medicine, to keep the building going to be able to treat people, as they need to be treated. People are so fearful to go back to their homes that they want to leave the are and seek refuge but the concern of financially can they do it comes up.
The second website that I explored discussed the happenings in Mexico. A country that borders the United States and that so many people know little about. On the website in the top corner something that was powerful was a slide show of statistics that just kept flashing on the screen discussing how many people are displaced and without anywhere to go. 33 million people are displaced. What can we do as a society to help and make those displaced find somewhere safe? People are jumping onto trains on the top of them to get transportation away from their homeland. Safety is just more of a concern everywhere now.
10/6/16
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Clement and his wife discussed the hardships that they faced when they were on the Congo. Clement described what some of the people would do which included raids of houses, used females as prostitutes, and people ultimately killed. If I understood Clement right he at one point was tied up and held captive for some time too. Viewers should be able to tell that Clement and his wife were emotional as they were telling what happened to them when they lived in the Congo. The wife at times pulled out a tissue and had to wipe away tears. This was a difficult thing for the two of them to do. Telling and reliving what occurred to them in the Congo on their journey to seek refuge in the United States. An additional challenge that the two faces when trying to seek refuge is that they needed to learn a whole new language. French is the official language in the Congo, coming to the USA they had to speak English for all of the forms they need to fill out. The two decided that enough was enough when on Feb 2, 2008 their house in Congo was entered and shots rung out. Items were taken and there was no remorse by those who committed the act. The husband and wife duo left Congo on foot with their pastor. Since then the two have been strong and independent people who now call the USA their home.
The genocide in Guatemala effective a lot of people as Induvina discussed in her TEDx talk. She first started her talk off by telling the audience that she is proof that she is not “invisible” as her mother describes her to be. Induvina tells the story of what happened at her University when she was studying in the 1970s. When Induvina was studying a group of individuals and began to kill everyone that was at the University. Induvina was able to escape through the crawl spaces, dodging bullets. She had appeared to be invisible. Her friends however did not make it out alive.