I Zoom for Refugees and Migrants Campaign

The Humanitarian Action Club, sponsored through the Center for Social Impact and in collaboration with Office of Student Diversity And Multicultural Affairs, is rolling out a new zoom campaign “I Zoom for Immigrants & Refugees”.  For the next 2 weeks, we are asking students, staff and faculty to use the attached Zoom background in support of refugees and migrants globally.  The campaign is timed to recognize the recent World Day of Migrants and Refugees which commemorates those displaced by conflict and persecution. This campaign closely aligns with the joint initiative of the Jesuits, Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology, Jesuit Refugee Services, Ignatian Solidarity Network, and Kino Border Initiative, advocating for migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.  This year, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, or UNHCR, again reported an increase in the number of people forced to flee, a number which was already the highest since the Second World War.  Today, there are close to 80 million people who are displaced, including 26 million refugees, around half of whom are under the age of 18. (UNHCR Figures at a Glance)

Please support this initiative by using the zoom background screen. (please email me for the jpeg) This is simple to do!  Download the  image. Once you are on a Zoom call, go to the “stop video” dropdown menu. Next,  select  “choose virtual background.” Finally, chose the downloaded image from your computer.  It’s that easy to show your support and concern for migrants and refugees worldwide!   Then, take a photo and share it to Humanitarian Action Club Instagram page and your social media using #IZoomforImmigrants&Refugees

A huge thanks to Tushi Patel for the beautiful zoom background and to all the students who helped with this initiative – Piper Martin, Jakob Matala, Lissbeth Larrea Ortiz, Micah Marin-Parchment, Monica Gomez, Alessandra Guido and Andreia Guerreiro.

We would also like to thank Lisa Thornell for helping to put together a special ‘section’ of the Human Library dedicated to student stories of migration. 

Best wishes and we look forward to seeing you on zoom!!!

 Julie Mughal  (jmughal@fairfield.edu)

Associate Director, Humanitarian Action, Center for Social Impact