Between 2010 and 2014, the city and Harris County have become home to 71 percent of the United Nations-referred refugees who are permanently resettled in the United States. Resettlement organizations help them navigate the process of learning English, finding jobs, and adjusting to their new lives.
These agencies focus on assisting adults; children and youth aren’t included in their services for the most part.
In 2006 six Rice University students learned about the needs of refugee youth. They decided to work with the youth after school to help them adjust, access higher education, and find work. They organized PAIR, an acronym for “Partnership for the Advancement and Immersion of Refugees.”
“Ten years later, PAIR Houston is celebrating a milestone as a community leader in after-school programming for refugee students,” said Miriam Velez O’Quinn, who was recently hired as the new PAIR Houston executive director. “At its annual luncheon May 5, the community will recognize the founders who created an organization that now assists more than 400 student refugees.”
They are Chethana Biliyar, Elaine Chang, Steve Dictor, Christina Lagos Triantaphyllis, Rajen Mahagaokar, and Alex Triantaphyllis. Kirstin Doyle, the first executive director, and Renee Stern, the first board president, will also be honored.
The Youth Empowerment Luncheon will be at noon Friday, May 5 at the Junior League, 1811 Briar Oaks Lane. A reception begins at 11 a.m.
Sponsorship tickets are available for $150 and $250. Tables of ten begin at $1,500. Sponsors must purchase tickets before the April 11 deadline. Visit pairhouston.org for online payment options.
Today, PAIR works in partnership with local school districts to help refugees like Sanjay Pulami Magar, a Westbury High School student who has been involved with PAIR for six years.
He said his PAIR mentors were an important part of teaching him English and helping him to succeed in school. Magar was born in a refugee camp in Nepal. He was 11 years old when his family resettled in Houston. He will present his story at the luncheon.
Today he is a varsity soccer player, a mentor to youth at his church, and president of the PAIR Leaders program at Westbury High School. He plans to become a middle school history teacher.
To raise funds to help students like Magar, PAIR organizes an annual luncheon. Hadia Mawlawi, who has been active in educating Houstonians about the situation of refugees worldwide, will be the honorary chair. She works with the Arab American Cultural and Community Center and as a research associate for the National Association for Latino Arts & Culture.
Judy Le, who escaped Vietnam as a child with her mother in a fishing boat, will provide the keynote address at the major fundraising event. She now owns her own company, TakeRoot Leadership Coaching and Consulting.
O’Quinn knows that stories like Judy Le’s are all too common in Houston, and is confident about PAIR’s future.
“We provide services to 400 students, but there are an estimated 1,500 middle and high school refugee students in the Houston Independent School District, as well as another 1,500 in Alief, and several hundred in Spring Branch right now,” she said. “PAIR will continue to provide services for our current students, and is seeking ways to expand the depth and breadth of our programming, and procure funding for expansion.”