Today, more than 65 million people are displaced around the world, the most since World War II. While it’s impossible to fully comprehend what it’s like to be forced from your home and live as a refugee, Jesuit Refugee Service/USA has developed

Patty Griffin says refugees are a humanitarian — not political — issue

Aug 30th, 2016 9m 42s

Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Patty Griffin traveled to the Kino Border Initiative at the United States-Mexico border in August as part of a Jesuit Refugee Service/USA delegation to see first-hand what it means to accompany the most vu

Emmylou Harris sees hope while meeting refugees

Aug 26th, 2016 18m 26s

Grammy winning singer/songwriter Emmylou Harris traveled to Ethiopia in June as part of a Jesuit Refugee Service delegation to learn more about issues affecting refugees, particularly the need for education in refugee communities. During a brea

Book Talk: Seeking Refuge

Jul 6th, 2016 35m 23s

Matthew Soerens, the U.S. Director of Church Mobilization for World Relief — an international non-profit specializing in refugee resettlement — joins us today to talk about a new book he has co-authored called Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of t

Eritrean refugee faces challenges with grace

Jun 24th, 2016 13m 48s

Selam (not her real name) is an Eritrean refugee who fled her homeland seeking safety eight years ago. A single mother of an autistic child, Selam holds two university degrees but is unable to hold a regular job due to restrictions placed on re

World must open hearts, ears to Middle East refugee crisis

Apr 29th, 2016 23m 30s

This week we’ll hear from Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, theAdvocacy and Communications Officer for the JRS Middle East andNorth Africa Region. Based in Beirut, Father Prakash was in D.C.recently and spoke with Sean Lengell about the work of

Urban refugee face special challenges

Feb 26th, 2016 18m 16s

Despite popular believe that most refugees are confined in rural settlement camps, the reality is that more than half the world’s displaced people live in cities. And for many urban refugees far from home, the experience can be frightening, as

JRS Malta: providing refuge for asylum seekers

Feb 22nd, 2016 27m 11s

While mainland Europe is just now catching up to the gravity of the Middle East and North African refugee crisis, Dr. Katrine Camilleri, director of Jesuit Refugee Service in Malta, is no stranger to the issue.Dr. Camilleri and her staff have

Accompaniment creates 'communities of love’

Feb 13th, 2016 15m 54s

For those forced into exile far from home, the fear of being alone and vulnerable can be soul crushing. For refugees and displaced persons, just knowing that someone is there can make all the difference. Few people know this power of accompanim

In Profile, Fr. Leo J. O’Donovan S.J.

Feb 5th, 2016 29m 30s

Meet Leo J. O’Donovan S.J., Jesuit Refugee Service/USA’s newest staff member. As Director of Mission, Fr. Leo is responsible for a range of duties, including helping spread JRS/USA’s message nationally and globally, and assisting with fundraisi

Accompaniment and Love put Mercy in Motion

Jan 16th, 2016 11m 12s

As the Catholic Church celebrates the Jubilee Year of Mercy this year, Jesuit Refugee Service is drawing on what we’ve learned in the last 35 years of walking with refugees to put Mercy in Motion.Mercy in Motion reflects the words of Pope Fran

Ripple effects of dignity and hope

Nov 18th, 2015 11m 25s

When it was time for Claudine Leary to leave for college, her whole village in Rwanda came out to say goodbye and wish her luck. But after her country’s brutal civil war in the 1990s forced her to abandon her studies and move to a refugee camp,

Higher education for refugees enables change for good

Oct 20th, 2015 13m 59s

The sprawling, massive Kakuma refugee camp in rural northwestern Kenya at first glance doesn’t appear to be a likely setting for innovative schooling initiatives. Despite the daily challenges of the local environment, Jesuit Refugee Service is

In Chad, refugees from Darfur find hope in education

Jun 26th, 2015 4m 35s

In Djabal refugee camp, just outside the town of Goz Beida in eastern Chad, Jesuit Refugee Service is expanding a partnership with Jesuit Commons Higher Education at the Margins and has started a new program in the camp that will eventually off

Central American refugees flee violence

Aug 11th, 2014 4m 11s

Migration from the Northern Triangle of Central America — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — has risen steadily as violence has increased. Mary Small of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and Shaina Aber of the United States Jesuit Conference explai

Separated families suffer under broken immigration system

Jun 17th, 2014 9m 10s

Last year when speaking at an ad hoc Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., Jesuit Father Sean Carroll said: “With each passing day, we as a country continue to separate family members, through our immigration laws and our detention and de

Update: Statelessness in the Dominican Republic

Feb 14th, 2014 6m 28s

In September 2013, the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic issued a ruling which affirmed the discriminatory and arbitrary denial of nationality to Dominicans of foreign descent which Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and our partners in th

Asylum seekers and refugees benefit from immigration rules change

Feb 10th, 2014 7m 53s

(Washington, D.C.) February 10, 2014 — Provisions in immigration laws passed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, collectively known as terrorism related inadmissibility grounds, have affected thousands of persecute

Syria: Jesuit Refugee Service programs helping the displaced

Nov 21st, 2013 4m 59s

Jesuit Father Nawras Sammour talks about the Jesuit Refugee Service programs within Syria, which are helping tens of thousands of people affected by the conflict. JRS provides food, health services and psychosocial programs — the latter aimed e

Seeking peace, focusing on education in Afghanistan

Nov 4th, 2013 9m 10s

Jesuit Refugee Service has accompanied and served the people of Afghanistan for eight years by providing education at various levels, teacher training, vocational training and livelihoods programs to build up human and material resources for th

Persistent Insecurity: Abuses Against Central Americans in Mexico

Oct 28th, 2013 7m 48s

Jesuit Refugee Service/USA Assistant Director of Policy Mary Small discusses a new Jesuit Refugee Service report: Persistent Insecurity: Abuses Against Central Americans in Mexico. The current context in Central America’s Northern Triangle, t

Jesuit higher education program at Kakuma refugee camp

Sep 23rd, 2013 4m 9s

Jesuit Refugee Service has partnered with Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins over the last several years to bring higher education to more than 500 refugees in Malawi, Kenya, Syria and Jordan. JC:HEM offers a Diploma in Liberal S

Kenya: Higher education delivers a learning experience

Sep 18th, 2013 4m 35s

Liz Lock, the Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins Coordinator at Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, shares some of her personal experiences working with students at the camp in this interview. There are about 120,000 refugees at Kakuma,

Refugees in Panama face long road to stability

Sep 9th, 2013 1m 43s

Despite the ongoing peace negotiations between the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the largest guerilla group, displacements both within the country and across international borders have not slowed.

Jesuit Refugee Service in Jordan

Jun 6th, 2013 31m 22s

Welcome to The Refugee Voice from Jesuit Refugee Service USA. Today we'll hear from Colin Gilbert. Colin is the country director for Jesuit Refugee Service in Jordan. As the Syrian crisis unfolded we began accompanying Syrians and providing