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Arlington Diocese observes World Refugee Day

Christine Stoddard | Catholic Herald

The diocesan Catholic Charities’ Migration and Refugee Services observed World Refugee Day with a lunch featuring food from Africa, the Middle East and Central American countries.

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During World Refugee Day, participants played a game similar to Model United Nations to gain a better understanding of the political and social challenges refugees must face.

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Bianca Nelson (left) and Melissa Kirks, Catholic Charities’ Migration and Refugee Services employees, wear traditional dress from their countries of heritage: Honduras and El Salvador, respectively.

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Since the year 2000, the United Nations has called upon the
global community to observe World Refugee Day as a way to
raise awareness about the plight of refugees. In honor of the
event, the Arlington Catholic Charities’ Migration and
Refugees Services hosted an afternoon of cultural activities
June 19 at the Diocesan Center in Arlington.

Programming included lunch, crisis mock negotiations similar
to Model United Nations, a short video screening and music
and stories from a former refugee.

The lunch featured traditional Afghan foods, as well as
touches from other Middle Eastern, African and Central
American countries experiencing a migration and refugee
crisis.

The premise of the mock negotiation included the imaginary
land of Burgland that recently decided to develop a nuclear
plant to “increase its global influence and strengthen
national security.” Suspicious of the government, a rebel
group formed to oppose the plant, which displaced large
numbers of citizens. Negotiation participants were divided
into groups such as “rebels,” “royals” and “refugees.”

Following the mock negotiations, Bianca Nelson, school
liaison for the Virginia Refugee Student Achievement Project
said, “The takeaway (of the game) was the intricacy of this
situation.”

According to the video, “2014 World at War,” screened at the
event, the number of refugees escaping their homelands is
equivalent to “a small city fleeing every day.” If the more
than 40 million refugees in the world formed their own
country, its population would be in the top 50 nations in the
world. Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia are the main countries
refugees flee; Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Ethiopia and Jordan
are the main countries where they seek refuge.

Find out more

To learn more about how the diocesan Catholic Charities’
Migration and Refugee Services finds homes for refugee
families, provides job development and vocational job
training, assists refugees in enrolling in English classes
and more, email [email protected] or call
703/841-3841.

Stoddard can be reached at [email protected].

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