December 19, 2020

Refugee Leadership Brings Innovation

Read along as Board President, Cara Kiggins, recollects her experiences of visiting St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) in Cairo, Egypt and offers a tour of its innovative Naimo Center. She reflects on the sense of joy, belonging, and community that these spaces provide for the hundreds of refugees that pass through their doors each and every day.

December 9, 2019

Three Simple Ways to Help Refugees Over the Holidays: The 2019 Gift Guide

This holiday season, due to popular demand, we’ve compiled a second gift guide to help you find special gifts for your loved ones that are created by, with, or in support of refugees. We hope this guide will inspire those of you looking for the perfect gift and alleviate stress for those doing last minute shopping!

June 20, 2019

Naimo’s Story

In 2019, StARS opened the Naimo Center as a refuge for unaccompanied children in memory of Naimo, a young refugee from Somalia. Naimo fled alone from Somalia to Cairo, where she attended the Bridge Program for Unaccompanied Refugee Children at St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) and was subsequently hired by StARS as a youth assistant. Sadly, she perished while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in 2015. Naimo leaves behind a powerful legacy honored daily at the Naimo Center.

June 12, 2019

Refugee Children and the Unique Challenges They Face

Of the over 25.4 million refugees worldwide, the vast majority of them are children. Instead of a childhood many of these children instead find themselves the victims of child labor, married as child brides, and/or robbed of their right to an education. St. Andrew’s Refugee Services, through its Naimo Center, is working to change this.

June 4, 2019

Unaccompanied Youth Find Refuge in Cairo’s New Naimo Center

There are nearly 4,000 unaccompanied children registered with the United Nations in Egypt. They have escaped ungoverned militarized clans in Somalia, Janjaweed raids in Darfur, and political imprisonment in Ethiopia. Mariam is but one of them. At 16, Mariam had to navigate a foreign country alone: looking for a job, trying to find a home, and searching for food to put on the table. However, thanks to the Naimo Center at St. Andrew’s Refugee Services, she and other unaccompanied refugee youth like here do not do so alone.

December 4, 2018

Refugee Reflections: What Does Community Mean to You?

Developing countries host 86% of the world’s 19.5 million refugees, yet they have the fewest resources available. The StARS-Refugees Thrive International partnership not only provides refugees with critical, life-saving services but also offers them a community, a new life, and a home. Read reflections of staff members at St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS) on the importance of StARS.

June 20, 2018

Standing with Refugees: A Guide

The resilience of refugees, their plight, and their journeys can be celebrated not just on World Refugee Day, but each and every day of the year. You can support refugees by contacting your representative, hosting a dinner, or by purchasing products created or in support of refugees. Get involved with advocacy in your community to help change the narrative and amplify the voices of refugees.

May 18, 2018

Bearing Fruit

Refugee aid can be more than “effective.” It can transform individual lives, and through them, entire communities. For Risaa, a young refugee in St. Andrew’s Refugee Services’s (StARS) award-winning youth program, StARS programming provides more than education, legal assistance, medical care, and psychosocial treatment. StARS provides a sense of hope for the future, community, and belonging; StARS provides a home.

December 15, 2017

Refugees Need Partners, Not Pity

My only hope is that my children might live as children,” Yana says, “not as people suffering.” Yana’s concern, that her children not be defined by the tragedy that they have survived rather than their courage, skills, and contributions, contrasts with narratives of victimhood and pity that dominate discussion of refugee issues. St. Andrew’s Refugee Services rises above ‘pity’ narratives and leverages the strengths of refugees.

November 30, 2017

Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts Made By, With, or In Support of Refugees

We compiled a holiday gift guide to help you find special gifts for your loved ones that are created by, with, or in support of refugees. We hope the guide will inspire those of you looking for the perfect gift.