About Global Refugee Aid Foundation
(GRAF)
MISSION & PURPOSE
At GRAF our mission is to serve the refugee community by providing education and vocational training for both children and adults to assist with resettlement and integration into their new communities. We aim to restore confidence in their respective fields of work to help them ultimately lead flourishing and fulfilling lives and families once again.
Our Committee Members
JC Moon
Christina Stevens
John Moon
Ah Yhun
Emily Marchione
Brandon Marchione
Grace Moon
More volunteers...
Our History
GRAF was founded by JC Moon and this is her story:
FOR KIDS - Kids Learning Center
"In early March of 2017 a friend drove me to an undisclosed location 15 minutes away from my home. It didn't take long to get there, we had arrived at a rundown and dilapidated shack. Immediately all I could feel was heartbreak. Who lives here and why? How? Why are there children running around barefoot? Shouldn't they be in class? It was the kind of scene you only saw on television. I quickly learned through my friend that this neighborhood was home to many Rohingya refugees who had fled Myanmar. My friend asked me to open a school there. I had never run a school before.
Witnessing the heartbreaking reality and gravity of the situation, I did not stop to think about the logistics of running a school and the following week with the permission of their parents I gathered the children I had met prior and organized an impromptu day of classes with whatever materials I could find.
In the beginning we temporarily held class at the home of a very generous donor, each bedroom served as a different classroom. What started as one day of classes quickly became two, four, and five day schedules. It wasn't long before the local community saw the value that came from what little education we could offer, and they began to raise funds to rent a little abandoned three-bedroom house to serve as a school. We named the school Sunshine Learning Center (SLC). We were able to expand our class offering to English, mathematics, art, taekwondo, science, and computer skills. It was our hope that in the future, these skills would equip the students to resettle in another country. Through word of mouth alone the school grew about to sixty children from surrounding neighborhoods. Opening the physical doors of a school was just part of the battle. Both the children and their parents had to acclimate to this new lifestyle as the concepts of arriving at school on-time and completing homework were foreign. It took about six months of teaching the rules and knocking on doors in the mornings to bring sleeping or eating children to school before they became disciplined.
Also I reached out to the UNHCR a very kind officer started providing UNHCR card to all members of the community. Other needs were not as easily met. Safe and hygienic living conditions proved to remain a bigger challenge. The refugee community often lived in abandoned homes, most of which were unsafe, wooden shacks raised on unleveled beams in marsh-like, swampy areas. Despite all the challenges and obstacles thrown our way, school became a source of fun and joy for everyone involved. The children grew to love school and the staff grew to love the students as their own children. Volunteers from all over the world from various universities, organizations, and missions teams came to serve the school and our children.
Opening and running SLC was one of the happiest and most beautiful times of my life. It's hard not being able to see them daily and watch them grow, but we entrust their well-being and future are in good hands. While the pandemic of 2020 has unfortunately forced school closures temporarily, the Lord continues to give us opportunities to love and serve the Rohingya community by distributing much needed food aid and other supplies. We look forward to continuing to share the love and hope to our Rohingya family."
FOR MOMS - TOGETHER MOM CENTER
"In February 2021, my son gave birth to a baby, and I was taking care of my son's house in San Francisco for a while. One night I made a kimchi but I found out there was no scallions. So I couldn't put it in the container because kimchi wouldn't be tasty without scallions in it. I desperately needed scallions. I went to bed planning to go buy green scallions the next morning.
Early in the morning I saw the picture of the scallions in the dream which I was going to buy, a very clear picture of the green scallions that was neatly trimmed and tied together. I questioned myself “Why Scallion?“ but I couldn't figure it out so I quickly forgot about it. When the pandemic started I read an article of a refugee mother who had given birth and was arrested. Her hands were handcuffed so she couldn't give the baby breast milk, she had no diapers, no sanitary pad and she was just holding on with the same clothes she was wearing. I had to suffer from unhelpful pain after reading that article. Before I went to buy scallions, when I prayed about who is suffering the most during the pandemic. The article reminded me at that moment and they are refugee widows and single mothers. The goosebumps broke out on my body because the picture of the scallion was symbolic to me as for refugee widows and single moms. Therefore, refugee widows and single mothers came to my mind who wandered had no one to care for, and had no concerning even if they dying. I began to think that desperately needs someone who could take care of refugees of widows, single mothers, and their children.
I realised the vision I saw was a revelation that desperately needed shelter for refugee single mothers just as I desperately needed scallions. That's the story I started a home for global refugee widows and single mothers. Every time I get an opportunity to work for the underprivileged I am so glad that I get to know more about the True Love. More than a year after the pandemic, I continued to distribute food aids to 200 families of refugees. Because they couldn't make a living in lockdown as daily workers. The voices of salvation kept coming from here and there. On one occasion I distributed food and some money to 40 families of refugees. When I got home, I mourned for half a day and prayed “Please give them manna from heaven to feed them!”After dinner with a sad and frustrated heart, I opened the phone coincidently. I couldn't believe my eyes to see that some donor sent the offering is enough to feed them until the lockdown is over. There was also a miraculous message to buy a shelter from the same donor that night. The love is unending.
I realized that the precious thing discovered in my life is that the way we can all be happy is to love and take care of those who are lost in difficulties and hope."