Afghanistan, Burma, Kosovo, Somalia, Sudan. These are just a few of the war-ravaged countries the students at the Fugees Academy, the nation's only school dedicated to child refugee education, once called home. Today, the Fugees (short for refugees, like the band) are among the 16.7 million men, women, and children who have fled their home countries amid brutal civil wars, political upheaval, and unimaginable humanitarian crises.
By the time they are granted entry to the U.S., they have lost their belongings and their homes. Many have also lost parents, siblings, friends, and neighbors. One watched as his father was executed by the Taliban. Another, a former child solider, was ordered to kill his best friend.
"It is better here. You can have hope," says Tin Win, a 15-year-old student in the eighth grade at the academy, located in Clarkston, Georgia. He and his family emigrated to the U.S. in 2009 after fleeing their home in Burma.
In the 1990s, the State Department and various not-for-profit resettlement agencies chose Clarkston as an ideal site for refugees due to its affordable housing and public transportation to jobs in Atlanta, 11 miles to the southwest. Each year, as many as 2,000 refugees are resettled in Clarkston and surrounding DeKalb County. That number does not include refugees who move into Clarkston on their own from somewhere else.
[For more of this story, written by Aimee Swartz, go to http://www.citylab.com/work/20...ung-refugees/385358/]
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