wfn.org | Episcopalians find caring for Kosovo refugees rewarding

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

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Kathryn McCormick
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212/922-5383

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99-115

Churches find caring for Kosovo refugees has its own rewards

by Kathryn McCormick

     (ENS) The effort to resettle thousands of Kosovo refugees 
may be winding down as an uneasy peace descends on the troubled 
Balkan province, but Episcopalians seem to have just begun to 
recognize the extent of their generosity in welcoming the 
refugees to communities across the United States.

     "I've been so impressed by the support of parishes that have 
offered to sponsor families," said Richard Parkins, director of 
Episcopal Migration Ministries, one of nine agencies that works 
regularly with the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees 
from throughout the world. "Hopefully, the seemingly positive 
experience that parishes have had in welcoming Kosovar families 
will extend to other refugee populations," he added.

     He  reported that in mid-July, about three months after the 
first Kosovar refugee families were admitted for resettlement, 
EMM had settled 875 persons. "That's an especially high volume of 
cases for such a limited time period," he said.

     Twenty-three different locations were involved in this 
project, with churches available in most places to assist the 
Kosovars. Detroit, Michigan, received the largest number of  
Kosovars--158 comprising 46 families said. Some of the other 
locations receiving sizable numbers of Kosovars, he said, were 
New Haven, Connecticut; Boise, Idaho; Miami, Florida; Louisville, 
Kentucky, and Fargo, North Dakota. In these locations and many 
others, Parkins said, parishioners worked hard to gather 
supplies, find apartments, locate jobs, arrange for English 
lessons, and do the other hard work to help a family feel at home 
when it is thousands of miles away from the home it knew.

Blessed by the experience

     For example, in early June, more than 20 parishioners from 
St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Louisville greeted 
two refugee families at Louisville's airport. In Sarasota, 
Florida, members of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer took on 
responsibility for a Kosovar family of five. That included 
obtaining and furnishing a two-bedroom apartment. It was one of 
eight churches from the Diocese of Southwest Florida that 
participated in refugee sponsorship.

     "It looks like a decorator came in and did it," said Sandy 
Yow, a Church of the Redeemer parishioner who added that many 
fellow members had joined to "pour out their hearts in doing 
this."

     Denise Vaughn, a deacon at St. Nathaniel's Episcopal Church 
in North Port, noted how much members had enjoyed delivering the 
furniture they had collected to the apartment they had decorated. 
"It was hard work," she said, according to a local newspaper, 
"but when we got done, we felt really blessed by the whole 
experience."

     Parkins said the next big challenge will be in helping 
people make decisions about when or whether to return to Kosovo. 

     "We're trying to discourage people from returning too 
quickly," he said, citing the many dangers that remain, including 
active land mines and the many homes that were destroyed in the 
Serb attack. Many of those who had been in refugee camps in the 
Balkans have made their way back to their hometowns and thousands 
who had indicated they would participate in the program to settle 
in the U.S. have decided against it.

     By mid-July, he said, it appeared that the U.S. government 
would admit up to 14,000 of the 20,000 Kosovar refugees it had 
expected. Only vulnerable medical cases remain eligible for 
settlement here, he said.

     On July 12, the U.S. government announced that it would 
reimburse the travel expenses of refugees who return to Kosovo 
before May 1, 2000.  The reimbursement is part of the initial 
plan covering all Kosovo refugees admitted to the U.S. before 
July 31.

     "It is possible that some refugees may return to Kosovo and 
subsequently decide that circumstances there are such that they 
cannot remain and therefore come back to the U.S., he said. 
"Under certain circumstances refugees may return to the U.S. 
within a year of their departure and retain their refugee status. 
At present, EMM is attempting to determine how many of those whom 
we have resettled will seek to go back to Kosovo," he said.  

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.