For the past eight years, Kari Miller has worked to support refugees in the Charlottesville area through the nonprofit she founded, International Neighbors.

“We equip them with the network and skills needed to thrive,” said Miller in an interview on Charlottesville Right Now. The organization’s new initiative called A Night in With Neighbors is helping that mission and giving Charlottesville-area residents a chance to get to know the families who are settling here after being forced to leave their home countries and enduring unimaginable hardship.

“You say the word refugee and oftentimes people bristle and think, ‘Oh, they’re not legal, or they’re taking from our social benefits’ or what have you,” Miller said. “And these truly are the most remarkable, hardest working folks that have been invited here by our federal government.”

A Night in With Neighbors is a private event Miller organizes, with a Charlottesville-area family serving as host and a refugee introducing guests to their food and culture.

“Any person in the community may have a church group or a tennis club and think, oh, I’d like to go on a little deeper level or just to get information about maybe a population that you’re not familiar with,” she explains. “We have many cooks from Afghanistan, from Syria, some of the most delicious food.”

Miller says most events would include between 10 to 20 people invited by the host.

“It would be a night in with neighbors to learn about this new culture and really your new neighbor,” she said. “Maybe you prefer to have Turkish food and we’ll have a newcomer from Turkey, originally from Afghanistan, but in a refugee camp in Turkey. They bring such a depth of culture and cuisine that we could just cater to the person who’s the host.”

The inspiration for International Neighbors came while Miller was teaching at Greenbrier Elementary School. Many of the children in her class were refugees from places like Burma, and Miller saw their struggles firsthand.

“Every refugee has lived at least in two countries because they had to flee their home country and be somewhere usually for up to 20 years,” she says. “And then they were in my classrooms. And so I realized they need dental healthcare. I had children that had abscessed teeth and needed to be hospitalized. They were running from bombs. They weren’t flossing twice a day like many of us with resources did.”

As a teacher, Kari says she followed a simple rule.
“I felt like you have to reach ’em to teach ’em,” she said. “So I would go to visit their houses and realize, oh my gosh, this family doesn’t know how to work their heat system. And a lot of other just appliances in their home and just how much they struggle. I didn’t realize that refugees have to pay our government back for their airfare. And as we know, Charlottesville is an expensive city. So if somebody comes and they’re met with that bill plus a really low income and living in Charlottesville, it’s not an easy experience.”

The organization serves about 40 families a year, and thanks to a donor, International Neighbors was able to rent office space in a centrally located house owned by local civil rights icon Eugene Williams, whom Miller describes as her “hero.”

“We sat out on the rocking chairs on the porch that first time and just thought about, there is injustice everywhere. We know this, right? And if you’re not doing something to fight it or to help alleviate someone’s pain, then you’re really not doing enough.”

Visit International Neighbors for more information on the organization and how to participate in A Night in With Neighbors.

Listen to the full interview with Kari Miller on Charlottesville Right Now.