LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Last year, resettlement agencies welcomed just over 1,900 newcomers to Kentucky, from asylees to refugees. Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) is a non-profit resettlement organization that offers a specific program called Refugee Elder Program that assists any refugee aged 60 and older in the Louisville area. 

The program helps address the different challenges elder refugees face.

“A lot of time, the country they came from or where they were, they were very much in charge of their household, and they were very respected, and, a lot of them, when they come here they cannot work at all or right away. And that can be isolating,” said the Services to Older Refugees Program Coordinator, Inez Moore.

Besides feeling isolated, elders also have a harder time learning English because they don’t work or go to school like their kids and grandkids. 

The Refugee Elder Program offers activities such as exercise, art classes, and field trips to create community. English and civics classes twice a week also help the elders work towards the main goal, to become a U.S. Citizen. It’s crucial because elders must become one within seven years or else they are not eligible for social security income.

“So that’s really the driving force and our final goal, and that’s why we need them to become citizens so that they can support themselves,” Moore told Spectrum News 1.

KRM’s Louisville-based Refugee Elder Program began in 2002, and it’s only one part of KRM’s citizenship program in Kentucky. Their immigration legal team assisted 580 people with applying for U.S. citizenship in their most recently completed fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018). 

To learn more about KRM’s work or to become involved, such as volunteer or co-sponsor a refugee, visit their website.