Canopy NWA is headed to Washington DC, March 15-16 to meet with our representatives. As a country, we have committed to resettling 45,000 refugees this year, but so far, we are on pace to admit about a third of that. Here in Northwest Arkansas, we are supposed to receive 75 refugees—and we already know 40 of them…
Read MoreCanopy to Unveil Art Installation in Fayetteville
At 11 am on Tuesday, January 30, Canopy NWA will hold a press conference at St. Martin’s Campus Center (814 W Maple St.), to unveil a new temporary installation on the church’s property titled “Absence.” The installation will symbolize our community’s sorrow and frustration over efforts to hamper refugee admissions to the US—efforts that have…
Read MoreWhere are our Families?
It has been 169 days since our community welcomed our last refugee family. Since then, President Trump’s third and final refugee travel ban has ended and a new federal fiscal year has begun. After much deliberation, President Trump announced that 45,000 refugees would be admitted to the US in this new fiscal year (from October…
Read MoreStepping, Determined, into 2018
Happy New Year, Northwest Arkansas! We hope you all go the chance to take a break sometime in the last two weeks and spend some time with your families. 2017 was a big year for our community! It was full of challenges to our young refugee resettlement program: three separate refugee travel bans, cuts in…
Read MoreThe Ones we Wait for
It’s been five months since Safi and Watata last saw their son John or their daughter Leticia. On July 4, the two parents faced an impossible choice: they could leave the refugee camp with nine of their children for a new life in the US, but leave behind two of their adult children who were not…
Read MoreHome
From the desk of our director, Emily Crane Linn. I remember vividly that moment in the airport when I first laid eyes on our first refugee family. It was just before midnight on the night of December 14, 2016. I remember watching them appear from around the corner—no, I did not wait for them at the…
Read MoreBuilding American Dreams
To become a mechanic. To start a company trading in precious stones. To serve in the United States military. To become an imam. To manage a hotel. To get a computer science degree. To become a nurse. When refugees find out that they get to resettle in the United States, they start dreaming—and they dream…
Read MoreChildhood Restored
First the war took *Mary’s hearing (* not her real name). She was walking through a Baghdad market with her brother when the bomb ripped through her eardrums, leaving her deaf. Then the war came for her father. A militia took him, so they say. Mary still hopes he is alive somehow and will come find her when the…
Read MoreGive Thanks
As you gather with your families around your Thanksgiving tables, please join us in giving thanks: For the 55 men, women and children who have brought their gifts, perspectives and tenacity to our community: for the new foods they have fed us, for the overtime hours they have worked,…
Read More120 Days Later… Still no End in Sight for the Refugee Travel Ban
120 days later… still no end in sight for the refugee travel ban Yesterday was Day 121. After 4 very long months of waiting, yesterday was the day the ban on refugee travel was supposed to end. But it hasn’t. Not really. On Tuesday (Day 120), the Administration issued yet another executive order announcing severe…
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