Today Is World Refugee Day. Globally, 60 Million Are Politically Ostracized Globally. It Matters

Yesterday, the International Institute of Connecticut hosted a picnic for refugee families relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut and one of the boys who participated in Ubuntu Academy in 2014 was asked to be a speaker. He contacted me on Facebook and asked me to lend my support and I knew, without a doubt, that I would be there. Since working with Sudanese Lost Boys out of my classroom in Louisville, Kentucky, the Syracuse Lost Boys of Sudan Cow Project, and my own research at Syracuse University, attention to such populations in the United States has been a central focus of my work.

I often say that my preference is to think globally, while acting locally, and I readily admit that I've never ventured to refugee camps overseas with my work; instead, populations of displaced people began entering my academic and personal life in the United States. I would argue, too, that this work has become part of who I am and the family of support grows larger and larger every year.

Several of the young men from Rwanda and Congo came up to me at the picnic and I was very impressed by how far their English has come since working with them last summer. I stop often at their school to check up on them and one of my students is now teaching them in their ESL classrooms. Another teacher at the school, Edna Garcia, is a Connecticut Writing Project Fellow at the school and another advocate for the success of these students.

This summer, we already have 18 students signed up for Ubuntu Academy and the numbers are likely to increase as Cesar Batalla will likely send students, too.

To be called a refugee is the opposite of an insult; it is a badge of strength, courage, and victory ~ Tennessee Office for Refugees

I'm proud to hire Abu and Lossine Bility to carry forth the tradition of support as they were on the receiving end when I met them as sophomores in Syracuse, New York. All one needs to do is spend 10 minutes in my house and it will become evident that Ubuntu has really become my life philosophy. Through the young people and their communities, I continue to gain inspiration, purpose, and new definitions for what it means to live with integrity.

There remains much, much more work to be done. For me, the work is through supporting the literacies of such youth in and out of school. The responsibility to speak out remains the same.