A child runs to hug the warm leg of his mother, who is cooking his favorite meal, ma'alouba. We each find our own corner in the small room, yet we share grandiose dreams of an imagined world. This was back in 2018 in Jerash Refugee Camp, where I worked with a children's charity and came to understand the profound value of psychosocial care in the healing process for those fleeing their homes.
The UNHCR has traced the journeys of refugees around the world and calculated that collectively, people forced to flee travel approximately two billion kilometers every year to reach the first point of safety. As of the end of June 2024, there are an estimated 122.6 million people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes.
In honor of their journeys, I kindly ask you to support my community in New Haven by contributing to the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) (https://irisct.org/). Besides aiming to run the fastest 5K, I will dedicate my February 16 Austin marathon to the hundreds who walk tens of kilometers a day in search of a new home. I'll run so you don't have to, lol! Even $10 can go a long way in enabling the NGO to provide case management, legal services, and more. Our wellness, at the end of the day, is interconnected. Let us remember:
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
--"Home," by Warsan Shire, a Somali-British writer and poet
