Huskies for Refugees, a new student organization at the University of Connecticut, will have their first general body meeting Monday night in CHEMT309.
Imran Husain, seventh-semester chemical engineering major and president of Huskies for Refugees, put this club together to raise refugee awareness.
“I noticed that there weren’t any student organizations that represented refugees, and with so many different refugee crises happening the past few years around the world, I just felt that creating a student organization that educates students would be beneficial,” Husain said.
Meetings are open to all students, and encourage an open dialogue between members and board members.
“We also want to do a bunch of fundraisers, charity events, clothing drives, food drives and any other ideas students bring to the meetings,” Husain said.
Student input is essential to the goals Huskies for Refugees is working to achieve.
“Our goals are long term; we have chosen two for this semester,” Husain said. “Education is our first, so we are looking at what kind of education options refugees have, because there are statistics that show refugee children are not able to get higher education, so it traps them in a poor socioeconomic cycle. But we are opening up for suggestions at our general body meetings for what our second theme should be.”
The executive board is still searching for off-campus organizations to work and partner with.
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“I noticed that there weren’t any student organizations that represented refugees, and with so many different refugee crises happening the past few years around the world, I just felt that creating a student organization that educates students would be beneficial.”
“We are talking to Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, an organization based in New Haven, to set up some long-term partnerships and potentially have them come up to UConn and have a panel come talk about what they do,” Husain said.
The agenda for each meeting is indicative of world events and student turnout.
“Were starting off with a few general body meetings [and are] just starting to open the platform to discuss different situations going on and what students want to talk about going on around campus,” Husain said.
Husain only uses reliable sources for information and statistics.
“We often refer to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We look to them for a lot of our information and use what they publish to lead the discussions we have at general meetings using facts and statistics,” Husain said. “We also post facts and statistics on our Instagram page @hruconn.”
Naiela Suleiman is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at naiela.suleiman@uconn.edu.
