A single photo woke up the world to the Syrian refugee crisis: the haunting image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a Turkish beach.

The tragedy led Pope Francis to call on churches across Europe to host refugee families, declaring, “Every Catholic parish, every religious community, every monastery and every sanctuary in Europe should accommodate one family.”

His call reached across the Atlantic to Dr. Diya Abdo, Lincoln Financial Professor of English at Guilford College and the daughter of Palestinian refugees.

“I thought that was such a brilliant idea—to call on a small community to do the work of radical hospitality,” Abdo said. Recognizing Guilford’s ability to house refugees and its deeply rooted Quaker values, she felt compelled to take action.

“We’re like a parish or a small city. We have all the things,” Abdo said. “This idea makes sense for Guilford College because Guilford is a Quaker school, and Quakers value justice, equity and using resources in a way that aligns with those values.”

Abdo founded Every Campus a Refuge (ECAR) at Guilford College in 2015 to provide on-campus housing and support for newly arrived refugees in Greensboro. The organization has since expanded to more than 20 colleges and universities nationwide.

ECAR uses campus resources to house, feed, teach English to, and help establish employment for newly arrived refugees, Abdo said. It also works to support their cultural transition and build long-term stability.

But the organization’s mission has become more difficult in the face of shifting immigration policies.

“The challenges currently facing ECAR are the hostile policies against refugee resettlement,” Abdo said. “Under the first Trump administration and now the second, we are seeing record-low refugee admission rates.”

In response, ECAR is sponsoring Afghan evacuees, supporting strained resettlement agency partners, and expanding resources to serve asylum seekers.

ECAR Program Coordinator and Outreach Coordinator Rhiannon Kelly recently established a partnership with the New Arrivals Institute and New Garden Friends Meeting to continue ECAR’s work despite the slowdown in new refugee arrivals.

“We are changing our approach to focus more heavily on the local families we currently serve, since no new refugees are coming in,” Kelly said.

In January, Kelly spearheaded a new after-school tutoring program for local refugee children at New Garden Friends Meeting. For two hours a day, four days a week, students receive homework help, English-language support and a chance to build friendships.

Student volunteer Udaya Sri Parthiban said the tutoring program fills a critical gap.

“There is a systematic issue of refugee children being given coursework that they cannot understand,” Parthiban said. Tutoring, she added, is one way to help children avoid falling behind.

“What makes ECAR impactful is that it doesn’t put any weight on the refugees,” she said. “We do everything from safely getting kids off the bus and walking them to and from tutoring to providing the service itself.”

Kelly said the program’s “ultimate goal is to provide softer landings and stronger beginnings.”

That goal extends beyond Greensboro to ECAR’s global mission.

“ECAR’s vision is that every campus becomes a refuge, and we hope to make this movement an international one, not just U.S.-based,” Abdo said. “If the world’s 50,000 colleges and universities each provided refuge to five families, millions would receive dignified resettlement support.”

Refugees around the world remain in urgent need of assistance, a need that continues to grow.

ECAR is working tirelessly to meet that need, Kelly said, but the organization cannot continue without more volunteers.

“We desperately need more volunteers,” Kelly said. “Some days we are forced to stop our tutoring program because we don’t have enough people to help.”

Guilford students can support the global refugee crisis by starting locally. Tutoring sessions take place Monday through Thursday, 2:30–4:30 p.m., at New Garden Friends Meeting, and student volunteers are welcome.

For more information about volunteering or ECAR’s work, students can contact Kelly at [email protected] or visit the ECAR website.