The Episcopal Refugee Network of San Diego

The Episcopal Refugee Network of San Diego (formerly St. Luke's Refugee Network) started by helping refugees from Southern Sudan, but has expanded to assist refugees from Darfur, Karen and Karenni refugee from Myanmar (Burma), Bhutanese and refugees from Iraq. There are estimated to be over 90,000 residents of San Diego who came here legally as refugees. Of those, at least half are not literate in their own language or English, and do not speak or understand English well. For some languages, there are no English speakers (e.g. Shan). Many of these new arrivals fall through the safety net. Our five employees, who are refugees themselves, speak a variety of the languages spoken by those we serve, and we have over 80 volunteers.