Local community organization steps up to support refugee families during COVID-19

Hear from our executive director, Natalie El-Deiry, about important updates happening at the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City.

At the end of June, the IRC in Utah, alongside Summit Journeys and other partners, held an outdoor summer camp for refugee youth from across Salt Lake County—for many, it was their first outdoor camp.

Josephine Bonkongya, a refugee from the Democractic Republic of the Congo, supports the adjustment of other newly-arrived refugee women through the Community Health Promoter Program. Through the program, Josephine helped numerous women adjust to their new lives in the U.S., and emerged as a community leader.

The IRC in Silver Spring is supporting vulnerable refugee women by removing barriers to their employment, by offering English instruction, socialization and specialized cultural orientation.

People arriving at the U.S. southern border should have the legal right to request asylum without being turned back to danger.

This month Haben, an Eritrean refugee who was resettled by the IRC to Missoula three years ago, tells us abut her experience. When she arrived she spoke only a handful of words in English, but now speaks well enough to be interviewed for this story without interpretation.