Many Duke students have seen the "Free Burma!" banner that hangs outside Kilgo Quadrangle, but few know that the Triangle is increasingly becoming a hub for resettled Burmese refugees.
From July to September, Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas-a non-profit agency that serves both North and South Carolina-helped resettle 153 refugees in the Triangle area. All but 11 of them were of the Karen and Chin ethnic groups from Burma, most of whom fled their homes because of political persecution.
The agency resettles approximately 250-300 new refugees annually in the Triangle area.
This year's arrival numbers have been much higher than in the past, due largely to increased overseas processing of hundreds of Karen refugees who had been living in Thai refugee camps, Megan Erickson, Trinity '07 and LFS refugee resettlement case manager, wrote in an e-mail.
The Duke Community Service Center recently asked Erickson and Liz Lawley, volunteer coordinator at LFS, to speak at Duke as part of the Community Service Week about the Burmese refugee community in the Triangle and to recruit volunteers for their organization.
"We addressed the incredibly difficult experiences that refugees have endured-many being chased out of their villages; denied the right to hold [an] ID, travel, go to school, work; seeing friends and family killed; living in an overcrowded camp for sometimes as long as 20 years; and landing in the United States with often very little knowledge about their new country," Erickson said.
Despite a small showing at the speech, Erickson said she was pleased with the event.
"The students that were there seemed very interested and asked a lot of great questions," she said.
Senior Caitlyn Toombs, a student co-director of CSC, said the poor attendance was probably due to a lack of awareness more than a lack of student interest.
"It was an opportunity for students to learn how to engage in the community in a different setting-by helping others integrate into it," she said.
A large portion of the Burmese refugee population lives in Carrboro, which is close enough for Duke students to be involved, Erickson said.
"Duke students would be great volunteers to help teach English, tutor schoolchildren or simply help people learn to ride the bus," she added. "This is a great opportunity to become personally involved with an international crisis that may otherwise seem very far away."
Once the U.S. government grants refugees legal status, they can stay in the country indefinitely. Refugees remain in America as long as they are unable to return to their home country or until they become permanent residents, Erickson added.
The Burmese refugee community in the Triangle is fluid because people constantly migrate to and from the area.
"Many refugees resettled in the Triangle decide to remain here, but they are free to move as they like after an initial period of agency assistance," Erickson said.
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