Refugee Support Alliance
Refugee Support Alliance (RSA) is a non-profit organization based in Austin, Texas that works to provide COVID-19 relief to local refugees. Immigrating to a new country is a difficult, complicated, and arduous undertaking- trying to immigrate in the middle of a pandemic certainly doesn't make it any easier. Refugees face many challenges in a new country like overcoming the language barrier, trying to find jobs, trying to find housing, trying to get insurance, and much more. On top of all of this, refugees now also have to worry about keeping their family safe from COVID-19. Refugees are especially vulnerable given that COVID-19 impacts underfunded and impoverished communities the most, which is where most refugees live. RSA reaches out to refugees, through emails and phone calls, to offer to answer COVID-19 related questions, provide them with information about topics such as where the nearest vaccination or testing center is, and offer to assist in scheduling vaccination appointments or COVID-19 tests. Although currently based in Austin, TX, RSA hopes to expand its services to other parts of the country or world by establishing more branches. Ultimately, our goal is to help refugees adjust to their new lives by giving them one less thing to worry about. By eliminating obstacles like COVID-19, RSA works to help refugees establish a new life in a new country.