Stories are in the spotlight for Henrico refugee resettlement agency fundraiser

War, displacement, resettlement and acculturation mark the refugee experience.

The International Rescue Committee has resettled people from war-torn countries in Henrico for a decade. To mark that milestone, the IRC is holding a fundraiser Oct. 24, that focuses on the lived experiences of the people the humanitarian group has impacted.

The “Stories of Hope: A Decade of the IRC in Richmond” fundraiser focuses on the beneficiaries of the IRC’s services with panels focusing on the refugee experience and also specifically on the experiences of newcomers who arrived as youth.

“All of the panelists have amazing stories and we’re so happy that they are willing to share that with our community,” said John Elwell, IRC Virginia community engagement manager.

 The IRC has made dramatic impacts, giving people from war torn countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and the Democratic of the Congo a chance at stability. Since the IRC opened its doors in Henrico County in 2015, staff have resettled more than 2,000 people from 18 different countries of origin. IRC is not the only nongovernmental organization involved in refugee resettlement. Locally, Commonwealth Catholic Charities and JFS help refugees. And ReEstablish Richmond supports refugees in the long acculturation process.

Nationwide, the IRC has extended asylum and protection support services to 35,000 people in the U.S, fulfilling its mission to “assist people affected by crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives.” Essential services to help refugees become self-reliant include housing and job placements, medical care, and education support in their new communities.

The global humanitarian organization serves all over the world in crisis areas, offering support on the ground. But the work serving refugees is immense; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated in 2024 there were many more people in need than those helped by organizations like the IRC - 42.7 million refugees worldwide.

“The work we do here in the United States is focused on refugee resettlement," Elwell said. "We work with the United States government, bringing people here to our local community who have traveled through a legal pathway as refugees. They come here and we support them in a number of different ways. The main goal is to help them achieve self-sufficiency, and that includes everything from school to employment, and quality of life improvements. We are trying to support them in many different ways to help them build a new life here in Richmond.”

Notable support was offered to people fleeing Afghanistan in 2021 when the U.S. military forces withdrew, the country’s government collapsed, and the Taliban took over. There was an increase in the number of refugees the Henrico IRC settled that year. Crucial IRC programs in Henrico County help the newcomers with health, housing, education, employment and transportation needs.   

The numbers of refugees resettled in the U.S. each year have fluctuated due to federal budgets and policies. In 2024 the federal administration set that number at 125,000 nationwide. But in January, the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was suspended. The IRC reported that thousands of refugees who had been thoroughly vetted and approved and were set to travel to the U.S., including many family members of refugees who were settled in Henrico, were left in limbo with flights canceled overnight for more than 10,000 refugees, even as humanitarian situations worsen for many around the world.

“There is a lot of misinformation and misconceptions about newcomers, whether they be people who came through the refugee process, whether they came as immigrants, whether they're survivors of trafficking,” Elwell said.

“It's important that organizations like the IRC and our partners in this community, Reestablish Richmond and Commonwealth Catholic Charities, are out there and helping share more information and helping platform people who can tell that story so that the greater community has more awareness of the work that we're doing and more importantly, the people that we're talking about, the people that we're serving.”

The IRC is also concerned that refugees will be severely impacted by H.R.1, as the legislation immediately eliminated longstanding eligibility of resettled refugees and people granted asylum from receiving food assistance through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and will cut access to healthcare and other critical support services that had helped recently resettled refugees recover and become self-sufficient.  

The IRC recently held an affordable food workshop with an Afghan language interpreter and earlier this week, held an informative session on Zoom in Spanish on expected changes to SNAP.

Interns, volunteers and donors have been key to helping refugees settled in Henrico County through IRC.

“We are an organization that thrives off of community support,” Elwell said. “We ask a lot of our community when it comes to volunteer support when it comes to intern support, we're very lucky with the institutions of higher learning that we have in our community with University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia Union. We have a wonderful internship program, and we have a lot of local students who come and engage in our work and support us. They become donors and supporters. Beyond that, they become staff members in some cases.”

The event will feature the cuisine of Afghanistan with food from The Mantu restaurant along with nonprofit and government leaders from the YWCA, Henrico County and the Virginia Department of Social Services speaking about the role they play in supporting refugees.

Tickets are still available for the Stories of Hope: A Decade of the IRC in Richmond fundraiser on Friday, at The Workshop by T&D, Scott's Addition, 1400 Mactavish Avenue in Richmond.

Dina Weinstein is the Citizen’s community vitality reporter and a Report for America corps member, covering housing, health and transportation. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.