Refugee Services

Interfaith Ministries Refugee Services helps refugees make new lives in America.

A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee their home country due to war or persecution based on their race, ethnicity, religion, political opinion, or membership in a social group.

Of the millions of refugees in the world, a small number are admitted every year to the United States as part of the US Refugee Program. Each year, hundreds of these refugee families arrive to Houston through Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. To find out how your group can help, visit our group opportunities page for volunteer options.

Latest News

Director of Refugee Services picked to begin new program in Chile

Refugees from Iraq and Myanmar have specific challenges to overcome

New Arrivals from Burma come with specific challenges
IM is receiving various refugee groups from Burma each with their own unique challenges. Many times Burmese refugees only speak Burmese, Karen refugees speak Karen and sometimes Burmese, and Chin refugees speak Chin. The lack of translators for these languages is one of the reasons that the Burmese group is such a challenge. The level of English in general is very low. Most of the Burmese refugees speak little to no English, which creates obvious difficulties of communication. We recently hired a Burmese caseworker which has helped, but the Burmese refugees are coming in faster and in greater numbers than other groups which stretches our resources.

Several ethnic and religious groups are represented in the Burmese refugee population, including; Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist. Read more about Burma.

Abdi Abdaladr, A Refugee No Longer
In the doorway of a second floor apartment complex stand two young children, cloaked in traditional African clothing and donning tennis shoes. Their father, Abdi, is cooking dinner, letting the smell drift out to the balcony, where his wife Haliimo is sitting with their youngest child. This isn't a picture you could have seen in young Abdi's life. He was born in Somalia, a country with transitional governments that is plagued by famine and civil war. Read More...

Refugee Services to Champion New Domestic Violence Program
Over the next year Refugee Services will be working in partnership with the Houston Area Women's Center to create domestic violence awareness programs for refugees. Many of the clients of Refugee Services come from countries where there are no laws against domestic violence. For refugees, adjusting to a new set of laws and a new way of life can be difficult without help. They may not know that domestic violence is not okay.

The program will focus on education about domestic violence laws, the different types of abuse, warning signs, and what to do if you are a victim of domestic violence. The program will use community meetings, fairs and other discussion settings to get the message out. The program is funded by a grant from the Episcopal Migration Ministries, which is a national organization. Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston is one of the first organizations to receive a grant of this nature, and Episcopal Migration Ministries will use IM as a model for future domestic violence programs across the country.

For more information contact Aaron Tate, Director of Refugee Services, 713.533.4990