Yesterday when I reported on the ‘Refugees 101’ course recently taught by Barbara Day of the US State Department, I asked if there was a complaint hotline at State or at the Office of Refugee Resettlement in Health and Human Services where citizens and refugees could register a complaint. No one has yet reported to me that there is such a place, so I am assuming at this point that there is none. And, don’t say contact the Inspector General’s office—they never listen!
Here is a story about the large number of refugees in Ft. Wayne, IN and about how World Relief has just opened an office there in competition with Catholic Charities (that is my view of it anyway!). Back in June, I called this a volag cat fight!
You can read about all the issues in Ft. Wayne yourselves, but near the end of the article the new World Relief director, Jeff Keplar, inadvertently mentions a big no-no on the part of World Relief in Aurora, IL.
“We have such an opportunity to reach out, to get out of ourselves,” Keplar said, to not let selfishness, even in uncertain times, thwart compassion. Such was the case for Keplar recently while in training with World Relief in Aurora, Ill., when he and a caseworker visited a new Burmese refugee family.
“There were three generations in one room that had come over together. When we arrived, the grandfather grabbed my hand. He had a very big smile. There was one piece of furniture, a futon pad – no frame, just the pad on the floor. He motioned for me to sit on it. … It was his way of showing me honor and how grateful he was that we had come to help.”
World Relief has signed a federal contract to supply the basic needs of a refugee family, go back to see Barbara Day’s presentation linked above. This is why we need a hotline.
At RRW we continue to maintain that we can debate about how many refugees come to the US and from where, but when we do admit them, these agencies contracted to resettle them, must do their jobs!
We will give the Obama administration a little time to institute such a tips hotline and if they don’t do it, maybe we will.