65th Anniversary of World Church Service Celebrated

  • Opinion by Denis Foynes (united nations)
  • Inter Press Service

'It has been 65 years but please don’t retire' Vincent Cochetel United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees joked from the podium in the Museum of the City of New York.

'Many more refugees need your great help and your precious hope going into the future. After all, today over 153 million people are displaced in the world. Hopefully we can have another 65 wonderful years of your wonderful work.'

Founded in 1946, Church World Service involves 37 Christian denotations in the United States. The group was set up to help refugees resettle in the United States from World War 2 ravaged Europe and Asia.

The foundation provides vital assistance to refugees from around the world resettling in the United States. They were carrying this aid out before there was a U.N. Refugee Convention or U.S. Refugee Program.

Their progress was rapid and by 1957 Church World Service had resettled its 100,000th refugee.

Jan Dragin a Church World Service spokesperson told IPS 'The lines between who is a refugee and who is not are blurring as new issues arise an d the world becomes more complex hence our job is getting more and more challenging for us.'

With more than 11.3 million people in the Horn of Africa facing drought, thirst and starvation thousands are fleeing across borders to seek relief.

Hence Church World Service decided to use their 65th anniversary event to simultaneously raise awareness about the crisis and voice their concern.

Present at the event were officials from the United Nations, the United States government and other non-governmental and faith based groups along with the worlds press.

Donna Derr, Church World Services Director for development and Humanitarian Assistance told IPS 'We are looking to carry at two streams of assistance for the crisis in the Horn of Africa. One is short term and the other over a longer term.'

'In the short term, Church World Service is sending family food packages and helping to provide drinking water with a longer term target of achieving livelihood diversity and crop diversity to help prevent this level of crisis reoccurring.'

Regarding the possible increase in influx of refugees from the troubled region Mrs. Derr stated 'It depends if the US government increases its allowance numbers but obliviously we would love to help if they do so.' By 2060, the number of displaced people in the world could reach over one billion.

Asked what would be the main factors behind this number, Donna Derr stated 'Climate Changes effects are now starting to take hold. In the next 15 to 20, conflict will remain the main cause for displacement but afterwards Climate Change is likely to overtake conflict and become the main cause for increasing numbers of refugees.'

Asked after 65 years of World Church Service, if it’s easier to be a refugee today she didn’t believe so. 'In some ways it is but 65 years ago it was easier for refugees to move into America and become part of the community.'

'Today you may apply for refugee status and have to wait 3 years for entry. So in a process sense it is unfortunately not.'

Also announced at the event is the group’s appointment by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to carry out a new international study into the protection of the world’s growing numbers of urban refugees.

The yearlong study will explore successful models in 'host countries' in the United States and other countries that allow refugees to integrate into the community quickly and adapt to the urban setting and new culture.

The level of commitment in World Church Service can be seen in John Backer who spoke at the event. A former refugee from Germany himself, he has worked for World Church Service for 61 years and shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

It is these kind of levels of hard work, generously and commitment that has allowed World Church Service to welcome and found new homes for over half a million refugees since 1946.

With the upcoming challenges presents by increasing levels of conflict over a shrinking bowl of resources, their work is needed now more than ever. This doesn’t look set to change any time soon.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service