One of my favorite statements is by Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
That statement captures how Refugees International was founded 30 years ago, and why RI has such impact since. [1]
In 1979, Sue Morton, the wife of a Pepsico executive in Tokyo, went to Thailand to witness the plight of refugees escaping the genocide in Cambodia. While there, she watched in horror as Thai troops forced 40,000 Cambodians back across the border.
“Overburdened by refugees and with resettlement to third countries down to a trickle, Thailand had closed its borders to refugees,” she wrote 15 years later. “The living skeletons of men, women and children who had escaped were forced back into Cambodia. Soon Malaysia followed suit, as Vietnamese boat people were pushed back out to sea, many never to see land again. The world no longer cared.”
Sue established Refugees International to force the world to care, and she was immediately successful. The 1979 summit of the world’s leading economic powers was held in Tokyo in June, and Sue and a small group of friends worked around the clock to put refugees on the agenda. Leaders of six of the seven nations at the summit agreed to double the number of refugees they would accept for resettlement. They also called for a Geneva Conference to seek increased resettlement opportunities in other countries.
In July, Sue came to Washington to testify before Congress on the Asian refugee crisis. During her trip, RI ran a full page ad in The Washington Post calling on the U.S. to use the Seventh Fleet to rescue refugees at sea. President Jimmy Carter, meeting informally with Sue and a group of refugees, agreed to use the fleet for humanitarian rescue. “I cannot let your people die,” he said.
In just two months, Sue and a small group of volunteers who constituted Refugees International, had focused world-wide attention on the refugee populations in South East Asia and convinced the world to take live-saving action.
The passion that Sue Morton brought to Refugees International 30 years ago continues today for the 53.9 million refugees, internally displaced and stateless people around the world.
With today’s new conflict in Gaza [2], the decades-long crises in Burma and Colombia, and the hidden suffering of refugees from Iraq and Somalia, our work is more necessary than ever. Refugees International provokes action from policy makers that protects and assists displaced people throughout the world and find solutions to displacement crises. We believe that a world with fewer refugees is a safer, more stable, and more prosperous world.
We will celebrate our 30th anniversary throughout the year, but especially at a gala dinner in Washington on May 7th. Every month we’ll feature a post from a special guest blogger on WorldBridge. As we celebrate our successes we also realize how much more there is to do, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, Burma, Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and many other countries with displaced populations. We could not do this work without your support. [3]
--Kenneth Bacon