Written by Melissa Dalton-Bradford
Melissa published an article with BYU (Brigham Young University) Magazine about the nature of volunteer refugee work in central Germany. You can read the original article by clicking here.
Excerpt:
Eyes speak. That morning at the Limburg refugee camp, I heard volumes.“Guten Tag,” I said, tipping my head toward the man sitting alone at the end of the table. One of the dozens of refugees I’d met while volunteering as a German teacher in camps near Frankfurt, he had drawn my attention more than once.
He was hard to miss: his shoulders were nearly as broad as the table; his steady, weighted gaze from under the brim of his baseball cap gave him the air of a once-imposing but now-cowering animal, bruised from repeated blows.
His eyes had been watching, speaking while I worked. Two minutes earlier, a dozen or so children and I had been rowdily chant-singing “Kopf, Schulter, Knie, und Fuß” (“Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”), our laughter like splashes of yellow in the slate-gray atmosphere of the camp. But after an hour of language instruction and songs, the kids had lost interest and run off the instant there was a lull.
My First Asylum Case: An Attorney's Perspective on Asylum in the United States
I took my first asylum case in 2016, when our national dialog on immigration took a decidedly negative turn. As a corporate attorney, I had no experience in immigration law, but my license allowed me to represent individuals fleeing severe persecution and I signed with a local non-profit to offer my help. My first asylum client was a young mother and her two small daughters. I could see myself in Saba.
Their Story is Our Story Applauds the Signing of Virginia House Bill 995 and Continues Efforts to Open Doors for Foreign-trained Medical Professionals in Other States
Their Story is Our Story (TSOS), a non-profit organization that collects and shares the experiences of refugees to deepen understanding and influence action, applauds the signing of Virginia House Bill 995 into law by Governor Glenn Youngkin, after its unanimous passage through the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate. It will create a pathway for foreign-trained doctors who have immigrated to the state, including those whose careers were interrupted by forcible displacement, to fill workforce gaps in medically underserved communities.
Idaho One Refugee Conference
Last fall I was able to attend the 1Refugee Conference in Idaho. The event was well organized and everyone who approached our table was interested in what we did and wanted to know how to get involved. There were at least 100 students majoring in a variety of things who attended the event and we had 20 students give us their contact information. Most were interested in our internship programs.