Overview from Kelly and Michèle
It is hard to fathom the extent of what our world is experiencing with regards to the perilous flight of refugees from their homes and countries: over 60 million fellow humans forced to flee because of life-threatening conflicts and calamities. In fact, there are estimates of up to one billion people who are currently in some significant form of transition geographically, international or internal, voluntary or involuntary (
International Organization for Migration -- Global Migration Trends: An Overview, December 2014).
This
Update focuses on
Migrant Care, with an emphasis on opening up our hearts of hospitality on behalf of the growing numbers of internationally and internally displaced people (forced displacement). We share a wealth of materials including video reports, technical documents, and perspectives in order to further orient and equip our colleagues in the member care and the church-mission/aid community. The relevance for member care in particular is seen in three areas of application:
1. Staying informed as global citizens about current and crucial issues facing humanity.
2. Better understanding the challenges of mission/aid workers who work with people in migration and in unstable settings.
3. Equipping ourselves as member caregivers and mission/aid personnel in order to directly work with migrant populations and related areas.
This was not an easy
Update to put together, especially since the personal stories behind the statistics are at times gripping (some are also inspiring and encouraging too). We believe that going through the materials will be well-worth your time and that ultimately, as they circulate widely, they will practically benefit our fellow humans in forced migration who are desperately in need of hospitality in its many forms (protection, physical resources, emotional support—a home permeated with migrant care!). So we would be grateful if you could pass on this
Update to your colleagues and networks. Thank you!
Warm greetings from Geneva,
Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers,
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Hebrews 13;2, ESV
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you,
and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt:
I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34, ESV
Click HERE for 86 quotes related to hospitality from the Christian Scriptures
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Migrant Care
Hospitality for Humans
Contents:
Overview (see above)
Opening Videos: Home and Pope Francis at the UN
Faith-Based Resources
Brief Video Reports
Technical Guides for Helping
Final Thoughts--Attitudes Towards Human Hospitality
Opening VIdeos
1. Home: Earth from Outer Space
Shown 25 September 2015 at the United Nations General Assembly, New York
(note the Home video starts 45 seconds into this UN video; length: 4 minutes)
“People love their homes. And if they don’t feel they have a home,
they will risk everything to find it…“It’s the whole planet that’s our home.”
Note: The UN General Assembly just passed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Transforming Our World) on 25 September 2015. This is truly historic. It is worth carefully studying this document. The Agenda is a moral imperative for and political commitment by all 193 member states to promote well-being for all people and our planet, especially to eradicate poverty in all its forms. It includes 17 goals and 169 targets. You can watch the General Assembly live (25-27 September) and view video archives on UN Web TV.
Pope Francis addresses the United Nations General Assembly, 25 September 2015
with the majority of the world’s heads of state present.
2. Click here: for the video and full text (from PBS) of Pope Francis at the UN
The excerpt below relates to migration.
“I must renew my repeated appeals regarding the painful situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement.
These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international affairs. Not only in cases of religious or cultural persecution, but in every situation of conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan interests, however legitimate the latter may be. In wars and conflicts there are individual persons, our brothers and sisters, men and women, young and old, boys and girls who weep, suffer and die. Human beings who are easily discarded when our only response is to draw up lists of problems, strategies and disagreements.”
Image from GlobalPost article "Seven Armed Conflicts the World Failed to Stop (8 April 2014). "Relatives mourn over the body of 1-year-old Ali, who died of malnutrition 21 June 2004 in a refugee camp in El-Geneina in the Darfour, Sudan..." Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)
Some Faith-Based and Faith-Related Resources
1. International Bulletin of Missionary Research (October 2015) Special Issue on Hospitality, Humility, Hope Examples of articles:
--“Often, Often, Often Goes the Christ in the Stranger's Guise”: Hospitality as a Hallmark of Christian Ministry
--Migration, Diaspora Mission, and Religious Others in World Christianity: An African Perspective
--Hospitality as a Life Stance in Mission: Elements from Catholic Mission Experience in the Twentieth Century
2. Brigada Today
--Migrants and Refugees; What’s a Body to Do? (13 September 2015)
“Imagine a world that would force half of a country out of their homes…Imagine a world in which one out of every five displaced persons is from that country…You don’t have to imagine any more. Welcome to Syria. Most started by fleeing to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. But now, more and more are headed to Europe…” (click here for video of CNN report 11 September 2015)
--Could You or Your Church Host a Refugee Family? (20 September 2015, via Brigada)
“What if each church (or family?) were to embrace the problem personally by adopting a refugee or a refugee family? “
Image of Syrian refugees coming ashore on the Greek island of Lesbos
that accompanied the Guardian‘s editorial (9/3/15) (photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/Getty)
3. New Book
Faith, Secularism, and Humanitarian Engagement: Finding the Place of Religion in the Support of Displaced Communities (2015). By Alastair Ager and Joey Ager. New York: Palgrave.
“Strengthening local humanitarian engagement requires stronger partnership with faith groups and communities.This demands not only rethinking dominant understandings of religion but also revisiting the principles and practices of humanitarianism. This book articulates key aspects of the ‘transborder discourse’ necessary for the dialogue that must characterize in 21st century humanitarianism.”
4. Webinar
Faith and Religion in Humanitarian Action (online learning session, 4 June 2015; audio and powerpoint archived). Professsionals in Humanitarian Assistance and Protection (PHAP)
“This learning session [provides] a brief overview of the history of the relationship between religion and humanitarian action. It [looks] at recent and current initiatives in the humanitarian sector, highlighting challenges, recommendations, and examples of good practice that have been identified.”
Image from The Nation, 5 June 2015
Turkish soldiers help Syrian refugees as they cross into Turkey on the Turkish-Syrian border, near the southeastern town of Akcakale in Sanliurfa province, Turkey
.
Brief Video Reports
1. Video Playlist: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Some suggestions:
Greece: Peril on the Sea (22 September 2015)
“I have just been floating around in the water and then they found me and brought me here.”
Refugee Crisis Reaches Europe (21 Sept 2015)
“We are seeing thousands of people coming every day.”
Lake Chad: The New Normal of Conflict (17 September 2015)
“When Boko Haram took us from our village in Chad…”
Central African Republic: Displaced at Home (11 August 2015)
“The Central African Republic has been marred by conflict since December 2013, displacing more than 830,000 people.”
Indonesia: Rohingya Rescue on Smugglers' Boat (28 August 2015)
“ "We were starving, there was no food or water. The children were crying." - With no help in sight, Roshid, a young Rohingya man, made a brave decision.”
Image courtesy IOM 2015;, evacuating Ethiopian immigrants from Yemen
2. Video Playlist: International Oganization for Migration (IOM)
--Click here to also read the short reports/stories of people in migration
3. Video Playlist: IRIN (Humanitarian News and Analysis)
Some Suggestions:
--The Refugee Crisis; Time for Some Perspective
Europe’s current crisis in light of other regional and global migration realities.
--Soldiers’ Stories
“Soldiers' Stories follows two Ugandan soldiers - a female gunner and a male nurse - serving in the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) at a critical stage in the battle for Mogadishu, between Al-Shabab militants and the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government.”
4. And finally: News Stations and Reports
Just a reminder to tune into news sources for different updates and perspectives on people(s) in migration, as well as accessing the archives. Some of the MANY examples: BBC, Euronews, Al Jazeera, GlobalPost, etc.
Technical Guides for Helping
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergencies
A boat carrying sub-Saharan African migrant workers
arrives in Lampedusa, Italy from Tripoli.
© Kate Thomas/IRIN
1. World Health Organization (examples)
--mhGAP Humanitarian Intervention Guide (mhGAP-HIG) (2015)
--Building Back Better: Sustainable Mental Health Care After Emergencies (2013)
--Psychological First Aid: Guide for Field Workers (2011)
2. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (examples)
--Culture, Context, and the Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-being of Syrian Refugees (2015)
--UNHCR Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Persons of Concern (2013)
--UNHCR Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for Staff (2013)
3. Inter-Agency Standing Committee (examples)
--IASC Guidelines on Mental Health and {psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings (2007, in various languages, and foundational for many other materials from IASC)
4. American Psychological Association (examples)
--Immigration section on the website: contains several resources including Working with Immigrant-Origin Clients (2013) and Crossroads: The Psychology of Immigration in the New Century (2011).
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