Human Rights Articles

The Human Rights Team's new FAWCO Refugee Network (FRN) offers an opportunity for FAWCO/FAUSA Clubs and Members to inspire each other, share resources and collaborate across club borders in support of the new neighbors in our communities who have arrived from distant and often dangerous places to begin new lives. 

We invite all interested FAWCO/FAUSA members and groups to join this new network by emailing Ann and joining our Facebook group. For those not on FB, watch for posts on the Human Rights Team webpage and in the Global Issues Digest. We are also open to other ideas for quick communication to meet the ever-changing needs of this population.  

As we serve this marginalized community, we would like to share with you a brief article about the difference between "serving" and "helping" or "fixing." We bring a spirit of service to this work and hope you will take a moment to consider the difference.

Below is a guide from Ann Birot-Salsbury, AAWE Paris, Chair of the FAWCO Refugee Network, on how to start your own Refugee Task Force within your club or on your own.

I am sharing this Resource Guide in hopes that it might be a gift for you and your AWC/IWC or other association. I started on this amazing odyssey in early 2016, which lead me to, quite by accident, create the AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force (ACRTF). By presenting ACRTF, along with Clara Siverson, as a model during the 2018 FAWCO Interim Meeting in The Hague to about 50 FAWCO sisters, we have now spawned the FAWCO Refugee Network (FRN), and although Grace Christovasilis was not in The Hague, she was a key force in FRN coming into being . 

Even though I have given a lot, I have received much more than I have given. I have facilitated the Task Force through a lot of changes along the way, changes of focus, changes of players, etc. Even with all these changes, there are now more than 60 members in the Task Force including representatives from at least 11 organizations. And one of the impacts for me is that I now have a sense of community, one that is both cross organizational and truly international, where I live. I can now say that I have friends who also are refugees, and my relationship with them is precious to me!

If you would like to form a Refugee Task Force in your community, below are my suggestions for getting started.

1. To start, it can be as easy as one club member having an interest in connecting with refugees. 
2. A few questions to ask yourself at this moment are: 
   1. What are my intentions for this connection? 
   2. Am I only wanting to contribute or am I open to receiving? 
   3. Do I want to have face to face contact? 
   4. Am I open to a friendship with a refugee?
   5. Do I have any concerns that arise when I think about contact with refugees?
   6. Do I know anyone in my community who already has contact with refugees locally or beyond?
      
      There are no right or wrong answers, yet being as clear as possible about what you are hoping for with this connection will support you in possibly realizing your hopes. As an example, I share with you the Mission Statement for the AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force, and I recommend that you allow yourself several meetings before creating the Mission Statement for your Refugee Task Force:
      The AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force was founded in 2016 in a spirit of generosity and a desire to enrich the lives of others while also enriching our own lives. Today, the Task Force provides a forum for cross-organizational connections and information-sharing, allowing resources to be quickly identified to fill the evolving needs of those arriving from distant and often dangerous places to begin new lives in our community.
3. Check in with a key person at your AWC/IWC (could be the President, a staff member or someone else) to see if there is already some activity related to refugees in place. Even if there is no formal activity, that person may know of others who share your interest. 
4. Call a meeting (ideally in person yet a virtual meeting could work if the group is not too large) to see who else is interested and ask specifically if those interested already have contact with refugees. If someone already has a trusted relationship with one or more refugees it can be quite powerful to include them in the first meeting so that you and the group immediately have contact with refugees and can better understand who they are as human beings, not as a large mass of people or - as some refer to them - as “a problem”. 
   1. The goal for the first meeting is to “listen” and give space for each person to speak about why they came to this meeting. Even if you have refugees as part of your first meeting – it is very important to ensure each person shares why they are in the room in order to create a safe space for all. Only posing lots of questions to the refugees can make them feel separate (or like a curiosity) instead of making them feel a part of the group. Also be careful that you don’t have one or two AWC/IWC members who dominate the conversation, leaving no space for others to speak. Sitting in a circle rather than theater style can also support a sense of connection. You might bring a ball of yarn and have one person start speaking about why they came to the meeting and then hold on to a piece of the yarn while passing or gently throwing the ball across the room – the effect at the end might be a web of connection and it is a good way to give each person space to talk.
      
      Ask for a volunteer to take notes to be shared with attendees and possibly others after the meeting. Ask for another volunteer to write an article for your newsletter about the first meeting and if possible with permission, take a photo of your group (if you do have refugees in the group, ensure that they are ok to have their photos taken, and, if not, take the photo only with those who are ok). And remember to join the FAWCO Refugee Network on Facebook and post something about your first meeting. You may also want to write things that are said on a flip chart so that all can see. Initial actions from the first meeting may look like:
      1. Contacting organizations in the community working with refugees to see if you can meet with a representative to better understand what they are already doing and where there are needs for partnership.
      2. Contacting Anglophone organizations in the community that are service oriented in general.
      3. Spending time with the refugees who attended, sharing a meal, getting to know them better. 
      4. Schedule a second meeting a month later or sooner if you think that you will have enough time to complete your actions beforehand.
5. Organizations to consider asking to join your Task Force. In your community, you may have international organizations that are officially working with refugees, e.g. the Red Cross, and other purely local ones. Also consider contacting the following, if they exist in your community, as the Paris affiliates are already active partners with the AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force in Paris:
   1. American School
   2. American Church
   3. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
   4. American Library
6. Consider creating smaller interest groups to allow each person in your Task Force to be active. Our initial interest groups were:
   1. Education and Advocacy (you may want to consider reading a relevant book together such as When the Moon is Low or download a film, e.g. “Human Flow”, and watch it together and discuss it).
   2. Donations and Fundraising
   3. It Takes a Village to Integrate Refugees and Host Country Citizens/Residents
7. Reminders:
   1. English can be quite helpful in relating to refugees. Even if you are not fluent in the language of the country where you are currently living, many refugees speak some level of English, so you can offer your interest in connecting with them and do it in English. 
   2. Things change rapidly.  Because of the nature of this evolving situation with refugees and migrants, it is very helpful to be flexible and resilient when meetings are scheduled and don’t happen or happen late or needs change.
   3. There may be a thin line between a refugee and migrant. Know that there are important legal distinctions between migrant, undocumented alien, asylum seeker and refugee. The government rules to classify these displaced persons are complicated and often in the end the way they are classified can be quite subjective, so you may not want to limit your focus to only refugees. 
   4. No one organization can address this evolving situation. Partnerships and a network are key to being effective at the local level and quickly filling needs as well as co-creating in a way that works for all. People can be members of your Refugee Task Force without being members of your AWC/IWC. The Refugee Task Force is a community service offered by the AWC/IWC.