Each year on June 20—World Refugee Day—the world commemorates the strength, courage, and resilience of millions of refugees. At the IRC in Atlanta, we also take this time to celebrate the vast contributions that refugees have made to our state for more than 40 years and advocate for refugees, asylum seekers and the restoration of the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
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The IRC in Atlanta kicked-off the week’s events with a live World Refugee Day Panel Discussion on Wednesday, June 16, where Executive Director, Justin Howell, spoke with local program leads about what is on the horizon for #TeamIRC as we continue to close the COVID loop with vaccine access, support the community to recover from the pandemic, and prepare to welcome more newly arriving refugees to Georgia! Justin spoke with Amal Abdi, Logistics Manager, Dr. Omar Aziz, Community Health Response Manager, Jennifer Potts, Microenterprise Development Coordinator, and Hayat Ahmed, Community Integration (Immigration Services) Manager in this one-hour webinar.
WATCH: World Refugee Day Panel Discussion on YouTube
We were also honored to be featured as part of the UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency World Refugee Day videos, alongside UNHCR ambassador and actor, Kat Graham. Earlier in June, Kat Graham met with Community Health Response Manager, Dr. Omar Aziz, and the IRC-CORE-DeKalb County COVID Response Team to celebrate their amazing work providing 16,000 COVID tests and over 6,000 doses of the COVID Vaccine! Stay tuned for the full interview with Kat Graham and Dr. Omar and check out the preview video here.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) profiled 23-year-old former refugee, Emory University graduate and EMT, Abdallah Al-Obaidi, to commemorate World Refugee Day and uplift his incredible story, read it here.
READ: Emory grad’s refugee story began with finding his voice
Finally, along with our Coalition of Refugee Service Agencies (CRSA) partners, we celebrated World Refugee Day in-person in Clarkston on Sunday, June 27. Special thanks to our incredible performers, amazing vendors—including Aleppo Kitchen—and our guest speakers and continued supporters of welcoming refugees to Georgia, Congressman Hank Johnson and Clarkston Mayor Beverly Burks. Be sure to check out photographs from this event from our friend, Pouya Ramzi, in this Facebook album and check out more photo stories and write-ups from the event below:
The Tucker Observer: Refuge Coffee in Clarkston hosts World Refugee Day
The DeKalb Champion: World Refugee Day hosted in Clarkston
Saporta Report: World Refugee Day – Clarkston – June 27, 2021
To learn more about the work of the IRC in Atlanta and for information on how you can get involved with the IRC as a donor or volunteer, please contact Development Manager, Kalie Lasiter, at Kalie.Lasiter [at] Rescue.org or 678-636-8941.
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