According to World Migration Report 2022, there were 281 million international migrants in 2020. Around 30 million internally displaced people, refugees, and asylum-seekers live in Africa. When people are forced to flee their homes, they experience traumatic events that leave them with wounds of the heart. The experience of displacement in itself is traumatic as one loses a sense of home, belonging, identity, and self-worth.

The trauma healing program launched in 2019 in partnership with the Church in the refugee camps to bring healing. When hearts are healed, hope is restored and life is worth living again.

Language acquisition is a key factor in successful adaptation of dispersed people to their new environments. SIL has developed English language learning lessons specifically with newcomers in mind, designed to guide those involved in assisting refugees, immigrants and other guests as they learn to speak English in their new environment. Learning a language is so much more than simply memorizing vocabulary and learning grammar rules. English With Newcomers focuses on language to be lived and learned as we interact with people around us.

SIL’s Global Diaspora Team offers student internships that give opportunities to experience and engage with diaspora communities in the US in order to carry out diaspora research such as ethnolinguistic profiles, including sociolinguistic, linguistic, missiological, or diaspora community research, and cross-cultural learning opportunities.

Massive global migration may provide a brilliant answer to the challenge of making scripture available in every language. SIL Global Diaspora Services can work alongside displaced people in their new country to assist the translation of the Bible into their homeland language.