April 14-16,  Racine Dominican Sisters Virgine Lawinger (right) and Agnes Schneider (left), along with about 250 other concerned citizens from around the U.S., met with state department officials, NGOs, educational representatives and people who have witnessed first-hand the plight of Iraqi refugees due to the war.

The issues addressed were:
1) how the host countries of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon can meet the basic needs of Iraqi refugees who have fled to their borders;
2) how to help these refugees register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, if they are trying to resettle in one of these countries or to another area (first goal is to return to their homeland in Iraq);
3) how to get humanitarian aid to the two million people displaced within Iraq.

Sisters Virgine and Agnes also met with aides to Wisconsin Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold and directly with Representative Paul Ryan. All acknowledged this is a critical issue that Republicans and Democrats need to work on together.

"Whatever any of us thinks about the policies of war in Iraq, now is the time to begin the healing and reconciliation process through a massive humanitarian effort to provide a home to these families," S. Virgine said. "Approximately a billion dollars is needed now in aid primarily to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the NGOs already working in Iraq. This amount to start with would be much less than one percent of the cost of the war."

To view the Racine Journal Times interview with S. Agnes, click below:

(video) http://journaltimes.videos.vmixcore.com/p/video?id=1833881

(article) http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/04/19/local_news/doc480ac02cdfbad227076085.txt