Benefit concert raises money for refugee camps

A Pitt refugee advocacy group raised awareness about the plight of refugee camps and… A Pitt refugee advocacy group raised awareness about the plight of refugee camps and resettlement at a benefit concert Thursday night.

The organization, FORGE, is a nationwide nonprofit group for which college sections work to increase interest in knowledge of refugees.

FORGE raised money for school supplies for local refugee children by asking for $3 donations at Thursday night’s benefit concert in Nordy’s Place.

Pitt students and FORGE members gathered to listen to the musical stylings of local bands Ban Alper, Vindell and Joy Ike.

Arielle Juberg, a Pitt student and FORGE member, said, ‘It’s important that college students and everyone becomes more aware about refugees because refugees’ experiences can be made so much better if people helped them.”

She said the issue doesn’t get enough publicity.

‘So it’s even more important just to make people realize how many refugee families there are in Pittsburgh,’ she said.

Evangeline Berube, a Pitt sophomore and FORGE member, said that the group helps people learn about other cultures.

‘ ‘Through FORGE, college students get the experience with international relations that they might not otherwise have,’ said Berube.

The refugees whom FORGE mainly works with are from Somali, Bhutan, Bhurma, Burundi and Iraq, said Juberg.

‘One of our main projects is the refugee resettlement initiative,’ said Juberg. ‘We work with families individually and teach them English and help them at their houses with reading their mail and anything else they might need.’

Jong Ham, co-president of FORGE at Pitt, introduced the concert by encouraging students to join FORGE. She compared it to another service-learning group on campus.

‘It’s kind of like Keep It Real, but slightly better,’ she said.

In between sets, FORGE co-president Liz Reali talked about the 14 million refugees who are living in camps and being resettled around the world.

‘Our mission is to make people realize that a refugee is first and foremost a person,’ she said.

Reali said throughout the world, refugees are warehoused, which means they are kept in refugee camps that are like prisons.

‘They aren’t given even the most basic needs like food and water.’

Jenna Meredith, a Pitt junior who attended the concert, said she came because of a friend’s recommendation.

‘A friend told me about FORGE, and I thought it sounded like a good cause and something I could learn more about.’

Nicole Boss, on the other hand, attended because her best friend is Jong Ham, FORGE’s co-president, and because she ‘saw a flyer with a cat on it.’