Mursal and Ahmad were evacuated from Kabul in August 2021 as the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan. After two months in Qatar, three months on a military base in New Jersey, and another three months in a hotel in Silver Springs, MD, they were finally resettled in North Carolina, in May 2022. The couple fled their home country because they …
Welcome Doesn’t End Here
A letter from Associate Director for Development Mary Ellen Poe Dear Friend, I know you care about refugees and immigrants. So, I wanted to share the impact of a number of new executive orders from the Trump Administration that reverse decades of precedent for welcoming those fleeing violence and persecution. These executive orders have indefinitely suspended the United States Refugee …
Access and Citizenship
CWS Durham’s role in the N-648 clinics is partially funded by Duke University Health System’s Charitable Grants Fund. On the wall of CWS Durham’s immigration legal services office, you’ll find three bulletin boards covered in pictures of former refugees becoming U.S. citizens. For many of our clients, citizenship and the protections that come with it is a privilege that they …
Where are the refugees?
Fatuma Amisi, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, speaks during a press conference organized by CWS. Photo credit: Casey Toth March 31st marked the halfway point of the federal fiscal year, but only 12,151 refugees have been admitted to the U.S. since October 2018. This means that the U.S. is about 3,000 people behind on meeting the already-low …
AmeriCorps Week Celebration
Siri, Elizabeth, Soni (the AmeriCorps supervisor) and Michael enjoy a photoshoot outside of the CWS Durham office. This week nonprofits across the country are celebrating AmeriCorps Week – a week to highlight the dedication and hard work that AmeriCorps members bring to the nonprofits that they serve. This year, CWS Durham is hosting three wonderful AmeriCorps members – Elizabeth, Siri, …
New Neighbors make Good Neighbors!
This past Sunday, refugees and staff members from CWS Durham drove out to Princeville, NC to help with ongoing disaster relief efforts! Princeville was hit very hard by Hurricane Matthew and residents are still recovering from the extensive damage caused by the storm. We are proud to work with folks who are committed to being good neighbors in their …
Sanctuary and CWS
by Jennie Belle Church World Service is committed to serving the most vulnerable in our world. At the CWS Durham office, this means assisting refugees on the road to beginning a new life in the United States through legal services, assistance with housing, job training and placement, and English classes. However, there are other ways of helping those who …
Giving Tuesday!
A big THANK YOU to everyone who donated to CWS Durham on Giving Tuesday! We hit $4,975 total for the day between Facebook and regular website donations. Not only that, but we earned about $2,000 before Facebook matching money ran out! It was a great day for our office, and we were all walking around with huge smiles because we …
“I will never forget the compassion”: An Intern’s View of CWS Legal Services
Cerina interned with CWS Durham Immigration Legal Services in the Summer of 2018, where she was a huge help to our legal team and got to be a part of the great CWS Scavenger Hunt of 2018 (the context for this ridiculous photo). She hopes to pursue a career in legal services after experiencing both sides of this hugely important …
Enjoying the Little Things: An Update from the Border
This August, CWS Durham case manager Krista Camp was deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border for ten weeks to support a shelter for asylum-seekers leaving detention. You can read her previous updates here and here. Watching twenty-five women, men, and children from Guatemala and Mexico walk through an Arizona university campus wearing ankle monitors is something the students don’t see every day. However, when …
