Dear Friend,
Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international service founded in Rome in 1980 to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of refugees worldwide. JRS uses a humanitarian, nonsectarian approach to assist and provide services to refugees and immigrants in over forty countries. Since 1997, JRS has provided pastoral and social services to asylum seekers and other non-US citizens who are or have been detained by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service while their cases are being considered.

The JRS New Jersey project serves asylum seekers at the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, NJ. These men and women are often detained for months while their asylum cases are determined by INS judges. During this time, detainees spend twenty-two hours a day in the same room, with little to do besides watch TV in a language many of them do not understand. Married couples see each other only once a week, through glass. Detainees are never permitted outside; even the courtroom is in the same building. JRS does what small things it can to ease the stresses of people in detention. Through our English classes, volunteer visitors and pastoral counseling, people detained at the Elizabeth Detention Center know they are not forgotten.

There is an exceptionally large Tamil population in Elizabeth's three-hundred bed facility. Many of these men and women were on their way from Sri Lanka to Canada when they were apprehended by US Immigration officials at airports in NY and NJ. During my time as a JRS English teacher, Tamil detainees have repeatedly asked for English-Tamil dictionaries, as well as Tamil books and newspapers. Because of JRS' limited budget as a nonprofit agency, I am unable to purchase dictionaries or books for detainees and must instead rely on donations. Thus, I am writing to ask for your help.

We need your help to assist Tamils in immigration detention in the US. Let Tamil political asylum seekers know they are not forgotten. Donate new or used English-Tamil dictionaries and Tamil books and newspapers to men and women in immigration detention in NJ. To make a donation, or for more information, please contact:

Stephanie Baralecki
Jesuit Refugee Service
c/o Catholic Community Services
976 Broad Street
Newark
NJ 07102
Tel:973-733-3516 ext. 212
fax: 973-733-9631

Please feel free to contact me by phone with any questions. (Phone is preferred over e-mail.) Your help is greatly appreciated by JRS and by the Tamil men and women at the Elizabeth Detention Center.

With gratitude and best wishes,