What Refugees in Your Neighborhood Need from You
Dr. Heather Evans shared with Christianity Today her experience from visiting a Congolese refugee camp in 2014 to meeting and welcoming refugees in America in 2015. She sees the influx of refugees as “a mission field arriving in the United States.” A short excerpt is below:
“In 2014, I traveled to Rwanda with a team of psychologists, social workers, and counselors to meet with local caregivers, offering training in trauma healing. We visited the Kigeme Congolese refugee camp. There, children greeted us and followed us around, holding hands. The conditions were humbling and sobering. Most of the camp’s 18,000 refugees had already lived there for two years. They had been separated from their families and unsure when or if they’d be able to go home. Yet, they sang for hope of return.
A year later, some refugees like those we met in Rwanda have made their way to us. The United States plans to resettle approximately 50,000 Congolese refugees, and this year, 250 of them relocated to Kentucky. As I visited these new immigrants in Louisville, as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker focused on trauma, I began to see their dramatic transition firsthand.”
To read the full story, visit Christianity Today.
