Help Rogers Park refugees with ‘Giving Trees’

There are still ornaments hanging on Loyola's Giving Tree in CFSU that say the age and gender of refugees who need help. Any student can pick up an ornament and buy their assigned refugee a holiday gift for $15 or less before Dec. 9. (Photo credit: Jessica Cilella)

With just a little more than three weeks left before school is over, holiday and end-of-the-school-year celebrations are sure to be abundant around Loyola.

Annalise Weck, a senior environmental studies major, suggests that before celebrating with lots of food, drinks and gifts, students should keep in mind those who need our help this holiday season through an effort she helped start called the Giving Trees.

How to give

Located in Simpson Hall and CFSU, the Giving Trees are decked in paper ornaments asking for a maximum $15 donation of anything from toiletries to hats and gloves for refugees – people who are outside the country of their nationality due to a well-founded fear of persecution for anything from race to religion – living in Rogers Park.

All students are welcome to take an ornament and bring  gifts back to the Giving Trees on Wednesday, Dec. 8 or Thursday, Dec. 9 from 3 to 5 p.m.

“It’s easy,” Weck said. “You can just drop it off right where you got it from.”

The gifts donated for this year’s second annual Giving Tree will benefit 30 refugee families, which includes a total of 56 children.

The families who have now successfully settled in Rogers Park are happy and thankful to be here and to receive gifts from the Giving Tree. But the following is a very typical example of the life of a refugee before they settle somewhere secure, like Chicago.

History behind the tree

The refugees, who often come from Burma, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iraq and Congo, are currently being helped by the Loyola Refugee Outreach club, the Ethiopian Community Association of Chicago (a group started by Ethiopian refugees more than 25 years ago) and Dr. Daniel Amick’s “Issues in Cultural Anthropology: Refugee Resettlement” class.

Amick, who is chair of the anthropology department, started the class in Fall 2009.

Weck was one of the 40 or so students enrolled in his first refugee class. By the end of the semester a group of students in the class who wanted to help the refugee families out for the holidays partnered with her to begin the annual tradition of the Giving Tree.

According to a sign on each Giving Tree there are about 15 million refugees worldwide and only about 1 percent of those refugees resettled in a third country last year. In 2009 the U.S. took in about 80,000, or about 0.5 percent of the world’s refugees.

Weck said these numbers are startling, but is hopeful that their efforts are helping in some way

“We live in the neighborhood and they do too,” she said. “They are our neighbors and we should help them if we can.”

Good feelings

Sophia Bairaktaris, a 21-year-old journalism major, was very excited when she first heard about the Giving Trees and quickly went to pick up two ornaments from CFSU.

“It felt a little more real to me [than donating to something else] because it’s people from the area,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to work with refugees so I feel like this is a step in that direction.”

Bairaktaris’ ornaments listed an 8-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy from Iraq. She said she couldn’t help but spend a little more than $15 on each, buying them hats, gloves, Play Doh, Silly Bandz, Connect Four and other games.

Weck is hopeful that with the help of people like Bairaktaris the Giving Tree will give even more joy than it did in it’s first year.

“We’re doing the same amount of families, but I’m hoping for about $3,000 [worth of presents] to improve it from last year,” she said.