I remained in contact with Therese after the event and she was kind enough to invite me along to one of the sessions
ARC holds on a monthly basis in which people can visit their offices, they must be one of the few if not the only major US charity headquartered in Minneapolis, to learn more about the charity's valuable work and decide if they might want to volunteer some of their time. These sessions are known as
Border Crossings.
One of the first things I learned was the origins of ARC. And like many things in life it was not a conscious decision somebody made one day to go out and help the world's refugees. More a case of somebody, Chicago businessman Neal Ball in this instance, being confronted by a situation he did not realize existed to the extent it did and over time doing something to address that situation. Given the nature of what Neal found himself dealing with I am slightly loath to call what he eventually became engaged in as serendipity. But it must have been a pleasant surprise for him to discover the talent he had for helping improve the lives of literally millions of people.
In 1978 Neal, touched by the plight of a young Laotian refugee he had learned about, made some inquiries and agreed to become the young man's sponsor. Believing that he was just required to send off a check on a regular basis to ensure the well-being of the young man, imagine his surprise when he received a call one day informing him that the young man he was sponsoring had arrived at Chicago's O'Hare Airport and was waiting to be collected.
But, after overcoming his initial surprise, Neal welcomed the young man into his home and over time began making arrangements for the young man's family to join him in the USA. However what Neal had not anticipated was the difficulty many of the family members would encounter in the refugee resettlement process, because of the poor state of their health. The various diseases that they carried prevented them from entering the United States and they had to return to the often appalling conditions they thought that they had left behind for good.
Neal was not discouraged however and set about raising the funds and recruiting the staff who could then take the medicine to the people, if they could not come to the medicine. And how things have changed since that small beginning.
With the support of people such as the late Nancy Roberts and the late Joseph P. Sullivan, Neal has now seen
ARC grow to an organization that employs 1700 people around the world, including 30 at its HQ in Downtown Minneapolis, and is currently engaged in projects that are seeking to transform the lives of 2.5 million people in eight different countries and regions. There are also five staff based in Washington DC, where they can be much closer to the people in Congress and the Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with whom they need to communicate. As a slight aside, the reason ARC are based in Minneapolis is a simple one. Their first ever employee was from the city and did not want to move!
Talking of the HQ, Therese told me that at one time her organization held something like 80 bank accounts worldwide, such were the intricacies of the financial structures that were in place within the various countries where ARC were active. In Therese’s own words these were “places often in the midst of conflict with no formal banks or financial institutions”.
It is important here to emphasize that ARC are not simply endeavoring to provide food, shelter and basic health care for the refugees that they work with. Theirs is an effort to encourage self-sufficiency and sustainable development too. Local people providing solutions for themselves, their families and their neighbors.
Therese gave a Power-Point presentation that contained images of some of the projects in which ARC have been involved or are currently engaged in. I watched the presentation with a sense of ambivalence I suppose. On the one hand it was distressing to see the suffering of so many people, caused in the main by their fellow human beings. On the other hand it was heartening to see how so many other human beings recognized that suffering and were prepared to make their own personal sacrifices in order to help address it. And one image had its own special relevance for me.
It was of a Roma camp in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. If it was not the exact same one, then it was one very similar to the camp I had witnessed during my own brief visit to Belgrade last year. And I also saw others like it in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. A necessary reminder that organizations such as
ARC operate in some areas that are at the very heart of continents, in this case Europe, that most people would probably consider too modern and prosperous to require their presence. Indeed, as Therese told me, it was only in 2005/06 that ARC closed down its operation in the Balkans, where there had been much displacement of civilians and acts of brutality during the Bosnian and Kosovar conflicts.
Other images were of Darfur in Western Sudan, an area that has attracted much international attention. Then there was Pakistan, which has seen an earthquake, a cyclone, fighting between militants and the government and an influx of Afghan refugees all in a short period of time. Rwanda, a country that suffered its own internal conflict in the 1990s but which, as it attempts to rebuild, has seen large numbers of refugees arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony where 5.4 million people have lost their lives in a war that began in 1998 and has turned into the deadliest conflict since World War II. Many of the Congolese refugees arriving in Rwanda are women who have suffered quite horrendous sexual abuse, including rape.
There were not necessarily images from all of the countries in which ARC are currently working but I feel that I would be failing in my task if I did not at least mention them. Darfur, Liberia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Thailand and Uganda. Visit the
ARC website and see for yourself what problems there are in those regions and what is being done to help.
And what is it that ARC does, other than provide the sustainable development I have already told you about.
One of the most immediate needs in many instances is shelter, so camps must be constructed and clean water supplies and sanitation made available. Many refugees will be suffering from health problems, for example Polio has reappeared in Darfur, so emergency treatments are often needed. From there more preventative health care will need to be provided. HIV/AIDS can be a particular issue, not just because of the numbers all already infected but also those at danger of infection because they do not understand fully how the virus is transmitted and what they can do to protect themselves. Future good health often needs to start with the right education.
Security is an important issue. Whilst many of the refugees will be much safer in the camps than they would be outside, large numbers of dispossessed people living in a confined area with the most basic of facilities can create tensions and women especially can be very vulnerable.
And then the means for people to rebuild their lives must enter the equation. For that micro-enterprise has become a popular method by which refugees and their families can both regain their self-respect and start planning for a better future. The concept of micro-enterprise is not really complicated at all. It is the provision of small loans for those whose circumstances preclude them from obtaining credit through the regular financial institutions. In essence it aims to create a new wave of entrepreneurs. And it appears to be working very well. Therese quoted repayment rates of between 90 and 95%, figures that the more established providers of finance would doubtless wish to emulate at this moment in time.
How ARC is financed is of course a most pertinent question. Their primary sources of funding are the United Nations, the US government and other Western governments. During the last financial year those organizations contributed some $25 million towards the valuable work that ARC does. But private donations are essential too. They totaled $2 million in the last financial year and whilst that is nowhere near the amount donated by the UN and the various governments, it does make a big difference Therese said as it gives ARC much more flexibility to allocate money to emergency projects as they arise. Projects like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
Indeed, on the evening I visited the
ARC offices, there was a team of volunteers writing Thank You cards to those who had given private donations. It is likely that the only thing those donors really wanted in return for the money that they had given was the satisfaction of knowing that they had helped some of their fellow human beings. But as we all know a Thank You really does not cost anything to say and is always appreciated.
I will repeat the sentiment that I expressed when I wrote about the World Refugee Day. I wish that it was not necessary. But it is and likewise ARC. We human beings are funny creatures and we often hear tales about our darker side. However one visit to ARC, or other charities like them, and your faith in human nature can find itself restored.
