Refugee Stories, GRMR
Victoria Simoni Assuncao
Refugees in Malaysia Find a Home in the Arts

A life begun in gunfire and instability is brought to the stage. Fluid motions and words embody the resilience of the stateless—reframing a narrative of victimization to one of powerful actors, playwrights, and directors.

This is the everyday work of Parastoo Theater.

Gabriela Pieschacon
Election Year Hot Topic: Immigration Policies ...

Many are used to election years bringing highly controversial topics to the forefront of social media and news outlets. It is easy to step back from the political conversations, but what happens when this leaves few advocates for highly impacting causes?

Currently, the US-Mexico border has been experiencing escalating tensions, and Americans have taken notice. With the assumption of front-runners being Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a recent poll in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the importance voters placed on the 2024 presidential candidates’ immigration policies. This poll suggested that 13 percent of respondents chose immigration as the most important issue when voting in November of 2024, becoming the second-most relevant issue, only ranked 8 points behind the economy. A large percentage of these voters also claim to refuse to vote at all if the candidates do not provide immigration policies that align with their immigration views.

GRMR

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Deportation and Mental Health: The Health Implications of Asylum Denial

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Mental health is a well brought up topic in regard to family life, school, and the workplace. Removing yourself from stressful situations and giving yourself time to relax and rest is often articulated by institutions to maintain one’s mental health. But what do you do if you are not allowed to seek asylum in a safe environment? How is mental health maintained when the country you believed was safe sends you back to a dangerous environment?

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Refugees in Malaysia Find a Home in the Arts

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A life begun in gunfire and instability is brought to the stage. Fluid motions and words embody the resilience of the stateless—reframing a narrative of victimization to one of powerful actors, playwrights, and directors.

This is the everyday work of Parastoo Theater.

Reflection on Jordan International Aid Trip

Reflection on Jordan International Aid Trip

In November of 2019 Gators for Refugee Medical Relief (GRMR) joined the organization Atlantic Humanitarian Relief (AHR) to provide medical and humanitarian aid to Syrian, Palestinian, Yemeni, and Iraqi refugees in the Kingdom of Jordan.

I had the privilege of joining Valentina Fandino, Nikka Bakhtiar, Nickou Memari, Nushrat Nur, and Alyssa Quinn from GRMR on this mission. The night before our trip, we all met at Valentina’s apartment and we packed all of the medical supplies we fundraised for as a club to bring to Jordan. We each had one suitcase for our clothes, and one suitcase full of the donations we collected. It took a day and a half of travel to get to Amman. We had a twelve-hour overnight layover in New York City before our flight to Doha, Qatar, and then finally to Amman.

Once we arrived, we all…

Welcome to our Blog!

Welcome to our Blog!

Thank you for tuning into our blog page. Emma, our public relations director, has been working so hard to get it running! So thank you Emma, your work is impeccable. We appreciate you so much.

Gators for Refugee Medical Relief started in the summer of 2017 in response to the growing tension in the media and the world revolving refugees' status and assistance. A group of students at the University of Florida reached out to local communities to provide academic and professional development services to refugee and migrant families relocated to Northern Florida. As mentioned in other sections, the United Nations HCR now estimates the number of forcibly displaced persons at…