Refugee Care & Advocacy

Albuquerque’s International District is home to a growing population of refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan. Many arrive after years in refugee camps with limited formal education, speaking Kiswahili or Kinyarwanda, and carrying the weight of severe trauma — war, displacement, and loss.

Resettlement agencies provide initial orientation, but the gaps in that process are often life-threatening. Families may not know how to list emergency contacts with a hospital, how to use a U.S. oven, or what to do when a police officer pulls them over. These aren’t minor inconveniences — they are crises waiting to happen.

What We Do

Mission ABQ’s refugee advocacy work has grown organically from the relationships our Kingdom Builders teachers built with refugee families. When no one else stepped in, our staff did — helping with school registration, interpreting at CYFD appointments, visiting families in the hospital, and walking parents through systems that were designed without them in mind.

Today our advocacy includes: translation and interpretation (Swahili, Kinyarwanda, French), navigation of government agencies (CYFD, DHS, SSA, APS), medical appointment support and emergency contacts, transportation assistance, driver’s license and state ID support, job search and workplace orientation, and cultural orientation to daily life in America.

"We are here due to wars in our countries. Many refugees spent more than 10 years in camps with little to no education, no job skills other than farming, and no understanding of how the American system works. When we arrive, we are expected to fit in like Americans. These people need a support system." — Desire Kasi, Refugee Services

The Need Ahead

Right now, our Kingdom Builders teachers are being pulled from their primary jobs to serve as de facto caseworkers for refugee families. We urgently need funding to create dedicated, bilingual family advocate positions — Swahili-speaking caseworkers who can follow families across agencies and systems, providing the holistic support that no single agency currently offers.