Voice Of Refugees

Putting God's Love into Action through helping Refugees stabilize, integrate, and thrive in the United States.

Voice of Refugees, Inc. (VOR) is a grassroots faith-based Charity, a 501(c)3 non-profit, founded by three passionate individuals who were immigrants in the US. VOR started in a home garage collecting donated furniture and helping neighboring refugees. With an anticipated increase in immigration, VOR expanded its services to help refugees beyond the basic needs of survival, but also equipping them to integrate and thrive in their new home.

Hope serves as the ultimate anchor when one faces loss and upheaval in life - refugees seek this anchor through assistance, community, and faith. VOR stands as this beacon of hope for numerous displaced families in Orange County. In the past year, we extended our support to 118 new refugee families, through helping them getting familiar with the American culture, including their rights and responsibilities. We are grateful for the successful integration of these families into the community, with 67 individuals obtaining their driving licenses, 165 children receiving school backpacks, 54 participating in our summer camps, and 47 graduating from our ESL program.

Our goals for next year are to prioritize women and children, implementing empowering programs to facilitate mothers' inclusion in the workplace and enable them to utilize their talents to benefit their community. Additionally, we aspire to assist children in developing their character by fostering emotional awareness, exploring career paths, and making informed, healthy decisions.

To better serve refugee individuals and families, VOR has identified several pressing needs:

Our primary need for 2024 is to enhance the capacity of our programs through acquiring equipment, supplies, and covering transportation expenses. We require $84,000 to purchase laptops for refugees participating in our online ESL program, furnish our classrooms with tools to facilitate easier learning for beginners, and provide bus passes for refugee families to support with their transportation. Our assistance to the family pours into their children's health and emotional wellness.

Another urgent requirement is to sustain our furniture and food program by procuring supplies and maintaining existing resources. We seek $66,000 to cover annual expenses, including purchasing weekly fresh produce, acquiring warehouse equipment, and covering transportation costs such as fuel and maintenance. Food is a basic need for all families who arrive to the U.S. as refugees and don't have enough resources to put food on the table.

Children and youth summer programs play a crucial role in our services, particularly as many families have multiple children who may be traumatized, disoriented, or feeling isolated. Our aim is to expand these programs to cater to children facing certain challenges and special needs, requiring $50,000 to create an inclusive program that aids in their healing from the resettlement trauma. Additionally, many youth feel isolated and require professional programs and curricula that help them integrate in their new communities.

We provide assistance to an estimated 500 refugee families on a monthly basis through our diverse range of services. Currently, our database includes approximately 1,200 Middle Eastern and North African refugee families residing in Little Arabia and neighboring communities. Since August 2021, we have extended support to over 400 Afghan refugee families who have recently arrived in Orange County.

As per the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 110 Million Displaced People around the world - 62.5 Million are internally displaced, 36.4 Million are refugees outside their native countries, and 6.1 Million are asylum-seekers whom I am a part of. In the past decade, the global refugee crisis has more than doubles in scope, which means that more than 1.2% of our global population have been forced to leave their homes.

As someone who sought asylum myself, I intimately understand the profound pain and anguish of being forcibly separated from one's family, community, and cultural roots. While I may not fully identify with refugees who possess a homeland, I can empathize deeply, having lived as a stateless refugee for the entirety of my life before fleeing to the United States in search of asylum, escaping persecution and violence against individuals like myself.

Today, I see my role as one who brings hope to refugees and asylum-seekers, fueled by a profound sense of love. I firmly believe that there is no better foundation for building strong, inclusive communities than by embracing refugees and extending to them the same love and acceptance as citizens of this country. By acknowledging the plight of refugees, we not only amplify their voices, allowing them to share their stories of pain and struggle, but also infuse them with hope for a brighter future. My vision is to live in a world where refugees are not merely tolerated, but celebrated and embraced with open arms; and I firmly believe that love is the key to achieving this.

Chris Khoury
Executive Director

My passion, along with that of all VOR founders, stems from our own families' experiences of loss and the challenges we faced in establishing and integrating into life in the USA. Despite encountering barriers, we were fortunate to have resources that many newcomers to the USA lack, allowing our families to eventually thrive. Recognizing the profound toll that war, oppression, and persecution take on refugee families, particularly the sudden and complete loss they endure, we were compelled to make a difference. Thus, we began by providing essential household items and furniture to refugees.

As we grew closer to the refugee community, our understanding of the diverse and complex challenges they faced expanded. Consequently, we resolved to broaden our services to meet their evolving needs.

Over the past decade, we have assisted hundreds of refugee and asylum-seeking families in finding hope and establishing themselves in America, embracing its ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We invite you to seize this exceptional opportunity to support those who, despite being in the USA for a year or more, still grapple with feelings of hopelessness. Your donation will enable us to extend opportunities for empowerment and improvement in their lives.

Nazareth Rizkallah
Board President