Under the leadership of Board member Mimi Frankel, the Goldin Institute was pleased to help host the Chicago celebration of World Refugee Day on Sunday, June 18th. We were proud to join partners like the Chicago World Refugee Committee, ArtWorks Chicago and the Chicago Departmennt of Cultural Affiars (DCASE) in hosting the event at the Chicago Cultural Center.
The days events offered participants a chance to:
– Center Refugee voices and experiences in the city of Chicago,
– Connect social service organizations to the general population,
– Provide interactive educational experiences to all Chicago residents and visitors,
– Engage in cultural food sharing as a way of building community; and
– Provide a space to celebrate the diversity of cultures in the city.
Mimi Frankel, co-founder of the Frankel Family Foundation and Board member of the Goldin Institute, has long been a champion for refuggees worldwide. Mimi helped lead the organizing efforts for World Refugee day as an effort to honor and affirm the rich diversity of the Chicago community, comprised of displaced populations from around the world affected by conflict, natural disaster, and economic oppression. Formally created as a global memorialization and recognition of refugees in December 2000, by the United Nations General Assembly, the significance of World Refugee Day has tragically grown, as the condition of refugees become more precarious given increasingly stringent policies for their admission and resettlement throughout Europe and North America.
By the end of last year, over 65 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes and communities, either to other countries or within their own. It was an increase of 300,000 people from 2015, considered to be relative progress by authorities in the refugee settlement and assistance fields. Despite the fears of Western nations, the three countries taking in the highest number of refugees, globally, are Turkey, Lebanon and Pakistan. Uganda is expected to crack that list due to fighting and humanitarian conditions in neighboring South Sudan.
Download the full report of World Refugee Day Chicago 2017.
