Women: Refugees and Resettlement

Throughout the world, there are 15 million refugees – people forced to flee their home countries due to persecution.  They leave behind their homes, material belongings, family, and friends. Almost all refugees have been exposed to violence and some lived for years in refugee camps.  The majority of these refugees are women and children.  The New Haven area welcomes about 120 refugee women and children each year – including many single mothers – to start new lives in freedom and peace.  These women come from Congo, Sudan, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, but their goals are the same:  to learn English, find jobs, provide their children with an education, and integrate into their new homes.  What can we do as a community to welcome women refugees and their families and enable them to thrive?  What diverse contributions do they make to their families and the communities in which they live?  What challenges and systemic barriers do women refugees face during the arduous process of coming to the United States and making their lives here? And how have Yale students and the larger Yale community responded to this challenge?

Join us as we explore a different dimension of one of today’s most urgent issues with Kelly Hebrank, BA ’04, Deputy Director of IRIS – Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, New Haven’s refugee resettlement nonprofit, and Alexandra Dufresne, BA ’96, Lecturer in Ethics, Politics, and Economics and Former Dean of Morse College, who teaches undergraduate seminars in refugee and immigration law and policy; and refugee women who have resettled in Connecticut.  Go to http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/sres184/text to read the resolution passed by the 113th Congress recognizing women and girls on World Refugee Day.

RSVP to Susan Lennon, SOM ’85 at [email protected]