Q: How much snow does it take to cancel school in Virginia?
A: That much snow. (1.2 inches)
Earlier this month, my office (The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration) posted a year-in-review article about where we’ve come since the beginning of 2011. For the full article, you can click here, but I wanted to share a few highlights from my office (the office of Assistance for Africa) below.
“Africa: In Africa, we supported international organization and NGO efforts to assist some 170,000 Ivoirian refugees in Liberia as well as hundreds of thousands of Ivoirians who were internally displaced as a result of conflict in that region. This spring, turmoil in Libya forced over one million persons to cross into Tunisia and Egypt. In response, PRM supported the emergency evacuation and repatriation of stranded third-country migrants, assistance and protection efforts for refugees and internally displaced persons, and emergency medical care and protection programs for conflict victims and detainees. Our partnership in this effort with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was a model of multilateral humanitarian action at its best. In the Horn of Africa, conflict and famine in southern Somalia forced another 300,000 Somalis to flee in 2011, bringing the overall Somali refugee population in the region to nearly one million. PRM funding to international organization partners and NGOs provided shelter, food, and other assistance to Somalis in need, and we sponsored a series of colloquia in the region to bring affected governments — especially those who have played an important role in hosting large numbers of Somali refugees — and service providers together to begin developing a unified strategic plan to address the crisis.”
As you can see, a lot happened last year. At the same time, though, there remains a lot of work to be done in 2012. It’s often humbling to work on issues like these—it makes me grateful to have the security and comfort that I do, and it makes me realize how hard we (humanity in general) have to work before we’ll get anywhere close to addressing and preventing some of the injustice and insecurity that we create for each other every day. Here’s to more progress in 2012.
Hi Everyone,
Happy New Year! Sorry for our absence in the blogshpere lately. I know we’ve gotten a tad behind on things. But I figured as we launch 2012 why not reflect back on some of our greatest memories from 2011. Cheers to a new year of laughter, community and life lessons!
-Keela-
(To see more details about the pictures, you can click on one individual picture to get the caption.)
Hanging out in Natstown
On Sunday we went to our first Washington Nationals Game. I have to say that it was weird rooting for a new home team—but a hot dog and Dip n’ Dots made it a little easier. Although they lost 6-4 to the Phillies in the 11th inning we had a good day out at the ballpark. We’re still Rockies fans at heart…but this sure was a good way to spend a Sunday.
We finished the night off at a Moroccan restaurant named Marrakesh where we celebrated some birthdays with some of Bryan’s friends from his Peace Corps days. There was belly dancing and a 7 course meal. We ate and the professionals did the belly dancing….absolutely wonderful!
Russell Ferguson (season 6 winner of So You Think You Can Dance) performs for the crowd
Before we busted a move
