wfn.org | CWS Refugee Work Gets State Department Kudo

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Internet: wendym@ncccusa.org

Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227

NCC3/12/98   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CWS REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT WORK GETS
STATE DEPARTMENT ACCOLADE

NEW YORK, Mar. 12 ---- The U.S. State Department--for 
the first time--has ranked the Church World Service 
Immigration and Refugee Program number one among the ten 
national agencies involved in refugee resettlement.

"We are delighted at the recognition of all the hard 
work by staff, affiliates and denominational offices this 
past year," said Dr. Elizabeth Ferris, director of the 
Immigration and Refugee Program.

 To carry out its evalutation, State Department 
representatives visited the CWS/IRP headquarters in New York 
City and three of its affiliates, in Arizona, Oregon and 
Miami, Fla.

In its evaluation, the State Department looks for 
measures such as a low rate of "out-migration"(a term 
meaning that an unsuccessful first placement prompts a 
refugee to migrate to another community) and a high rate at 
which refugees repay the travel loans that bring them to the 
U.S.

The criterion most important to the State Department 
concerns refugees whom it considers employable and who are 
not supported by relatives already in this country.  Last 
year, over 90 percent of CWS-resettled refugees in this 
category found jobs within six months of arrival.

These State Department criteria "are not the only 
measures by which our service to refugees are evaluated," 
Dr. Ferris notes. CWS, which helped to resettle 5,073 
refugees in U.S. communities in 1997, promotes a faithful 
approach to resettlement based on the biblical injunction to 
"welcome the stranger."

CWS works in more than 70 countries, including the 
U.S., in disaster relief, human development and refugee 
assistance.  It is a ministry of the National Council of 
Churches, the nation's preeminent ecumenical organization 
which includes 34 Protestant and Orthodox member communions 
with a combined membership of nearly 52 million.

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