Ridgway’s Danika Gilbert is mentoring women climbers from Afghanistan as they explore new lives far from Taliban rule.
refugees
Posted inEquity, News
Dozens of Ukrainian refugees have found a temporary home in a Polish palace. A Colorado coalition is paying for their stay.
Each week, Valeria Baklanovski’s aunt stops by her family’s apartment and waters the flowers. They’re one of the few remaining signs of life in their home in Ukraine, still blooming at a time their city has shriveled under occupation by Russian forces. It’s been more than two months since Baklanovski and her parents fled Kherson, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: In any age, the questions confronting refugees are the same
Like many Coloradans and Americans, I was deeply moved last month by the pictures of President Joe Biden holding up a young Ukrainian refugee in his arms. The jubilant smile and the loving energy of the embrace between our president and the refugee child struck a particular chord with me, reminding me of my hopes […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Newsletters
The nearly 2,000 Afghan refugees who recently arrived in Colorado have found a community ready to help
When Rafi and his family left Afghanistan in 2014, they feared both for their lives and the unknown ahead. Like other Afghans who worked alongside U.S. forces, the former interpreter and investigator was forced to leave behind his parents, siblings and hometown, Kabul. When he arrived in Colorado on a special immigrant visa, he had […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado farmworker rights and wages bills signed into law, along with other measures aiding immigrants
By James Anderson, The Associated Press Thousands of immigrant farmworkers in Colorado will soon have state minimum wage, overtime and labor organizing rights under Senate Bill 87, signed into law Friday by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. Polis also signed into law a measure to create a state fund to help indigent immigrants get legal representation […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: America’s refugee program has been dismantled. Here’s how we should rebuild under Biden.
Just over a year ago, though it seems longer for various reasons, Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning made the difficult decision to permanently close Denver’s beloved Spring Café. The eatery and meeting spot was popular among Capitol Hill residents, tourists, and workers alike, but it was founded on a mission we were struggling to fulfill. […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health
On Edge: With family missing in Ethiopia’s civil war, Denver woman says her “mind is the hardest place to be”
Millete Birhanemaskel, a refugee, long-time Denver resident and businesswoman, grappled with 2020 as many others have: She tried to protect her family, her employees, her tenants from COVID’s reach. She worried about the presidential election. And she managed to keep her coffee shop, the Whittier Cafe, from going under. She knew already what it was […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, Health, News
Coronavirus has left an Aurora clinic for refugees busier than ever and facing big challenges
“If she was my mom, I would take her to the hospital,” Dr. P.J. Parmar said through a barely cracked car window to a refugee family from South Asia on April 11. Parmar, who runs Ardas Family Medicine in Aurora, had been the family’s doctor for years. He knew the woman sitting in the backseat […]
Posted inBook Excerpts, SunLit
An El Salvadoran refugee family sparks a Colorado author to reflect on the impact of childhood memories
Kelsey Freeman is a writer and educator born in Denver and raised in Carbondale. Her writing focuses on immigration policy, Indigenous rights, social justice, and public policy. After graduating from Bowdoin College, she received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach English and study migration in central Mexico. She currently lives in Bend, Oregon and runs a college-readiness program […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Politics and Government
Asylum-seekers find compassion, resources at “House of Peace” once released from Aurora immigration center
Gurwinder Singh Aujla was unsure of what to do after winning his asylum case and being released from the privately owned Federal ICE Processing Center in Aurora. The 19-year-old from India was legally allowed to reside in the U.S., but he knew no one in Colorado, had little money, no phone and nowhere to go. […]