Refugee Health Initiative at UNC

Welcome to the RHI page! Learn more about who we are and how to get involved here:

If you are interested in Refugee Health and want to get involved with the community, check out this class for students attending The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University!

This coming Monday, April 23, there will be a lecture given by Dr. Hirokazu Yoshikawa. The event will be held from 2:00-3:15pm in the University Room at Hyde Hall, located at 176 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514. Food will be provided!

The title of Dr. Yoshikawa’s talk is: “Effects of Unauthorized and Refugee Status on Child Development: Implications for Programs and Policy in the United States and in the Syrian Refugee Response Region.”

We are recruiting for the 2018-2019 leadership team. If you are interested, please read the information on the flyer below!

Documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis – in pictures More than half a million Rohingya refugees have flooded into Bangladesh to flee an offensive by Myanmar’s military which the United Nations has called ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’. Photographer Kevin Frayer is in Bangladesh to document the crisis

So I have the best news ever. Do you remember Aya? She's an Iraqi refugee, and nearly two years ago, we put over one million signatures on a petition to resettle her family in America. Unfortunately that didn’t work, and her appeal was rejected. Perhaps it was a blessing because the political climate for refugees had begun to take a turn for the worse. I didn’t provide any updates because her lawyers asked me to keep a low profile while they explored other options. After several setbacks, I began to conclude it was a lost cause and was forced to accept the limits of good intentions. But her lawyers never gave up. Lara Finkbeiner and Betsy Fisher, the heroes of our tale, worked for years on Aya’s case. For zero cost. As a result of their unending advocacy, Aya and her family have just arrived in their new home—Switzerland! Aya can finally pursue the education she's dreamed about. I can't wait to see what she does with her life.

I've attached a donate button to this post. Please consider honoring Lara and Betsy by donating to their organization: International Refugee Assistance Project. IRAP provides cost free legal services to refugees around the world, just like Aya. It’s a small organization. And every dollar goes a long way.

Join us Thursday evenings this fall for our "What's the Big Idea?" lecture series featuring "Refugees: A Global Crisis." Engage in discussion with leading faculty and community experts as they share research from a global, local, and humanitarian perspective. Register now: http://fri.center/bigidealecture

Photo © Tom Stoddart

This week, the Trump Administration made a decision cutting annual refugee admissions to a historic low. Now, more than ever, it is critical to stand with refugees. Here are 12 ways you can help make a difference today: http://bit.ly/2hyZons

Help stranded families now Trump slashes the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. in 2018.

Reports are saying that the Trump Administration will allow only 45,000 refugees to be resettled in the next fiscal year.
No U.S. president, not even in the wake of 9/11, has so turned their back on refugees.
Now is not the time to turn our backs on refugees. Share this post if you, too, .

The Friday Center will be displaying a free art exhibit organized by the Annenberg Space for Photography, Sept. 25 to Nov. 3. Complete with 125 photos and a documentary film, REFUGEE explores the lives of refugees from five continents who are dispersed and displaced throughout the world. The Friday Center will also host weekly programming discussing the refugee crisis from a global, local and humanitarian perspective.

Plan your visit: The Annenberg Space for Photography's "REFUGEE" is a free multimedia art exhibit on display this fall at the Friday Center. Explore the lives of refugees from a host of diverse populations dispersed and displaced throughout the world.
More info: http://fri.center/refugeeexhibit

Photo © Tom Stoddart, "Le**os, Greece" 2015