Today is World Refugee Day! And it’s also the observed day for Juneteenth, USA’s newest national holiday (officially yesterday but not observed then since it was Sunday). I didn’t know much about either of these days until recent years, which is surprising given my education and career. But I’m glad to honor them now.
I’m sure you’ve heard about Juneteenth by now, and the event that it commemorates. What I didn’t know was that it started out as church-based celebrations in Texas only a year after freedom for enslaved black people there was proclaimed, and has been going in some form ever since. It spread to other parts of the country thanks to the Great Migration, and Texas officially started recognizing it in 1938. And now it is officially celebrated throughout the country.
Today is also World Refugee Day. I was hoping to go up to Salem tonight for an event hosted by Salem For Refugees at the Riverfront Park, but I got sick. So I’m just writing about it. Obviously we don’t celebrate the fact that there are refugees. This is tragic. But we take the time to honor the experience of refugees and reflect on how we can help them. You can read about the official holiday here: https://www.un.org/en/observances/refugee-day
In the news today is an amazing example of how someone reflected on what he could do for displaced people. Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov is auctioning off his Nobel Peace Prize and donating the money to Unicef to help Ukrainian children displaced by the war. I love hearing stories of Russians doing what they can! You can read more about it here: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-dmitry-muratov-journalists-9a6bb6e61350e1bb8221924c1bfe30a3
Giving money isn’t of course the only thing we can do to help refugees and other displaced peoples, but it is one of the easiest ways to help. Here are some links to places you can donate to:
Based in Oregon: https://www.salemforrefugees.org/ and https://www.mercycorps.org/
United Nations High Commission on Refugees: https://www.unhcr.org/
UNICEF (focuses on children): https://www.unicefusa.org/
And there are many more great organizations out there! Feel free to comment with ones you know about, or with ideas of ways to raise awareness or help in practical ways. Thank you for reading!
The Compass Rose Queen 