This is a story I missed from earlier in the month. It’s a touching story from North Carolina about how a couple of women have been a Godsend to Burmese Karen Christian refugees who felt abandoned. Read the whole story here.
There is a single sentence near the end of the article that caught the eye of one of our readers.
Paw Yeh shared how deserted her family felt when a refugee caseworker dropped them off at their Carrboro apartment with two days of rice and not even so much as a blanket.
Which volag left these poor scared people with some rice and nothing else? Was it Lutheran Family Services, World Relief, or possibly the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, all paid government contractors operating in North Carolina?
Reforms needed
We see over and over again in differant parts of the country where the volags are actually discouraging citizen volunteer help with refugees while one of the important reforms we have advocated is increased involvement by the public with the care and assimilation of refugees, not less. Had a church or other group been lined up to greet and care for this family they would never have been “dropped off” to an empty apartment.