June 2007 – Reuniting an Iraqi Father with His Wife and Four Children

Starting in 2003, Mr. N* worked as a translator for the Coalition Forces, and specifically, for the U.S. Army in Iraq. He supported the United States and was grateful for “the fact that they had liberated my people.” As a result of his work, he received many threats, including death threats that finally forced him to flee in 2005. After Mr. N received asylum, his wife and four children were granted visas to join him permanently in the United States. They needed to escape very dangerous circumstances as quickly as possible. Thanks to our grant, the family was reunited in June 2007.

July 2007 – Reuniting a Guinean Mother with Her Son

Ms. D*, a native and citizen of Guinea, came to the United States to follow her husband, leaving behind her young son in the care of his paternal grandmother in Senegal. Upon her arrival in the United States, her husband became violently abusive against her and constantly beat her. After several years, Ms. D had the courage to seek protection from the police and cooperate with the district attorney’s investigation of her husband’s crimes. As a result, Ms. D found herself subject to death threats from her family members in Guinea, who believed she had betrayed their honor, culture, and religion. Left with no other choice, Ms. D. sought and received asylum. The grant of asylum was bittersweet for Ms. D. because she knew that her young son in Senegal was being tormented by her in-laws as a result of her actions. They prohibited her son from attending school, and forced him to into a life of servitude. Ms. D. desperately wanted to bring her son to the United States, but lacked the financial means to pay for the plane ticket alone. With assistance from the Refugee Reunification Project, Ms. D was able to purchase a plane ticket for her son. In July 2007, her son safely arrived in the United States, and they are now living together as a family.

December 2007 – Reuniting a Cameroonian Father with His Wife and Two Sons

Mr. Y* was forced to flee Cameroon due to his leadership in a pro-democracy political party. Following Mr. Y’s participation in peaceful demonstrations in 2002 and 2005, Cameroonian security forces beat Mr. Y’s wife, seriously injured his son, and arrested and tortured Mr. Y. After Mr. Y fled the country in 2006, soldiers stormed and looted his home, beat his brother and raped his younger sister. Since that time, Mr. Y’s wife and children have been living in hiding. Our grant to Mr. Y will allow his wife and two sons to join him in the United States in December 2007.

December 2007 – Reuniting a Liberian Father with His Wife and Three Daughters

Mr. A* and his wife are originally from Liberia. During the war of the early 1990s, Mr. A spent most of his time hiding in the bush, refusing to fight and living in fear. During that time, he was subjected to repeated death threats. For example, in 1992, agents of dictator Charles Taylor captured, beat, and tortured Mr. A for weeks, in the mistaken belief that he belonged to an opposing faction. Several months after he had managed to escape, armed soldiers again captured him, held a gun to his head, and threatened to kill him. These incidents forced Mr. A and his wife to flee from Liberia to a refugee camp in Guinea. In Guinea, Mr. A was repeatedly and mistakenly accused of being a Liberian rebel, which resulted in his suffering arbitrary arrest, harassment, inhuman treatment, and threats to his life. He managed to flee to the United States and received asylum in 2005. After he was granted asylum, he immediately sought travel visas for his wife and three daughters, which he finally secured. In his application for funding to the Refugee Reunification Project, he wrote: When I left Guinea in December 2003, I could not afford to relocate my family to another country. As a result, I reluctantly left my spouse and our three daughters lingering in a local refugee camp. They stayed in the refugee camp for about two years after my departure, and then conditions began to rapidly deteriorate. We then made a decision to move my entire family to Conakry. In Conakry, my wife and daughters have constantly faced discrimination and harassment, in part because Guineans blame Liberian refugees for all their country’s problems, in part because of their gender. Females are preyed upon, and as a result, my wife finds it difficult to leave the house. My girls have not been in school because there is no English school nearby. Unless my wife and daughters are able to come to the United States, they will have no one else in Guinea to help and protect them. I have missed my family a great deal, especially my three little girls. I need to rescue them from their lives as refugees, and bring them to the United States to join me in pursuing and living the American dream. My girls need to go back to school as soon as I get them over here. This is the most important aspect of their upbringing and I don’t wish for them to miss out on any more of their childhood. Thanks to generous contributions from individuals like you, the Refugee Reunification Project recently offered a grant to Mr. A, which is enabling him to bring his wife and three daughters to the United States in December 2007.

September 2006 Reunification of Family from the Central African Republic

Mr. H* received asylum in the U.S. due to brutal government-sponsored attacks on members of his ethnic group in his home country of the Central African Republic. Our grant made it possible for Mr. H’s wife and six young children to join him in the United States in September 2006. The family is thrilled to be together again, and the children are very excited about attending their new American school!

July 2006 Reunification of Cameroonian Family and Togolese Family

In July 2006, the Refugee Reunification Project reunited the family of an asylee from Togo. Mr. B* had been a very committed activist for democracy in his home country. In the 1990s, as political repression by Togo’s autocratic regime increased, Mr. B was attacked repeatedly by government forces and he and his family were forced into hiding. Mr. B managed to escape to the United States but did not have the means to bring his wife and children with him. He applied for asylum while working two jobs to support his family. After Mr. B received asylum, his wife and children were granted visas to join him permanently in the United States, but Mr. B knew he would not be able to earn enough money for their airfare before the visa deadline. Fortunately, we were able to grant Mr. B’s family the funding they needed just in time, and they are now living together in safety. In late July 2006, we also helped reunite a family from Cameroon. The grant was made to Mr. M*, an AIDS activist who had been forced to flee his country on account of his political opinions. After Mr. M fled his country, his family was forced to live in hiding for three years while Mr. M applied for, and received, asylum in the United States. Our grant paid for airplane tickets for Mr. M’s four children. According to Mr. M, the kids started school in September and are adjusting wonderfully to life in their adopted country.

January 2006 Reunification of Rwandan Family

In January 2006, the Refugee Reunification Project made a grant to Rwandan asylee Mr. F*. Mr. F, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, was forced to flee his country and leave his family behind when the government began targeting him on account of his peace activism and advocacy for the rights of genocide survivors. After Mr. F received asylum, his wife and four children received derivative asylum and were granted visas to join Mr. F permanently in the United States. Mr. F needed to get his family out of Rwanda as quickly as possible, as Rwandan government agents had been harassing his wife and children ever since he fled the country. Our $1500 grant helped cover airfare costs for Mr. F's wife and four children. The family was reunited in Boston, Massachusetts on January 29, 2006.

October 2005 Reunification of the A* Family