The Villager Voice ~ from Alan

Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS, is a non-sectarian, independent nonprofit refugee resettlement agency that has welcomed, supported and helped integrate more than 5000 refugees in the state of Connecticut since their founding in 1982.  The original impetus was in response to families fleeing Vietnam in the wake of the end of the SE Asian conflict and has gone on to assist Sudanese orphans (you may have read about “The Lost Boys of Sudan”), Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian families following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, Iraqi Kurds, Cuban rafters, Kosovar Albanians, Syrian families fleeing ISIS, and the list goes on.

On the local level, The Valley Stands Up, our local iteration of community organization for human rights advocacy, is teaming up with IRIS to create a team to help settle and support refugee families.  There are about seven or eight members of the team so far, and more volunteers are needed; ideally, it will consist of about fifteen members.  The families to be welcomed will have been cleared by the US State Department, and be granted permanent residency status.  The plan is to place them in Middletown, where a variety of services will be available to them.

If you are interested in becoming part of the volunteer team, or if you’d like more information, you may visit the TVSU Facebook page (https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/The-Valley-Stands-Up-1036068869835412/), visit www.irisct.org, or call 860.303.0658.

The Hebrew Scriptures are clear that we bear a special responsibility for the refugee and the immigrant; this is an opportunity to shoulder it and make a real difference for families seeking a new life for themselves.

Would you like to help resettle a refugee family?

Now is the time to put your concern into action.

The Valley Stands Up (TVSU) is forming a team to be Co-Sponsors with
Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) to resettle a refugee family.
This is your chance to make a tangible contribution to the worldwide refugee crisis
and welcome a family to America.

The families have been extensively vetted by DHS and the U.S. State Department,
Are, on arrival, legal U.S. permanent residents with valid work papers.
Some are former translators who have assisted the U.S. military,
and because of this, are in danger in their home countries.