SMU students involved with the SMU Catholic Campus Ministry and the Big iDeas Program are volunteering to help local refugees.

It all started with Urban Plunge, which was founded by Social Justice Minister Erin Duffy and Director of Catholic Campus Ministry Frank Santoni.

Urban Plunge is a program that explores poverty, citizenship and housing through social justice. It is located five miles from SMU at Vickery Meadow and is home to over 10,000 refugees.

“It’s a total immersion,” Andrea Fernandez, graduate intern for social justice, said. “So you really see a little bit through the refugee’s eyes…[it] really allows for an inside view of what the immediate needs are inside the community.”

During the first Urban Plunge, the students noticed a need for education services.

They joined forces with Catholic Charities and set up an after school program to further the refugees’ English skills and provide a safe place for their children to stay while their parents are working.

There are three groups for the volunteer program: reading, art and soccer.

Drew Konow is about to start his fourth year volunteering at Vickery Meadow. He said the tutoring program is important because “everyone is in a Dallas ISD school, so they have to catch up.”

Konow said his volunteering has helped him build relationships with the students at Vickery Meadow.

Occasionally he walked some of the students to their apartment after tutoring. He said the appreciation he received from their parents strengthened his desire to continue tutoring at Vickery Meadow.

“We want to be good role models for the children,” Fernandez said.

Another Vickery Meadow Volunteer, Saira Husain, said her experience at Vickery Meadow was a humbling one.

The difference in living conditions between SMU and Vickery Meadow has made a lasting impression on her.

“You drive on campus and see beautiful landscape, buildings, nice cars and clothes,” Husain said.

However, at Vickery Meadow,  minutes from North Park Mall, she said there are run-down apartments, people walking because they don’t have cars and unsupervised children.

This empathy for the refugees at Vickery Meadow manifested in tutoring as well as in Big iDeas projects.

Fernandez used a Big iDeas grant to work with a woman to start a business with other refugees.

She said a group of women met while cleaning hotel rooms and decided to start a house-cleaning business to meet demand in the area.

After some help planning and advertising, they took over the business, which is now based in Mesquite, Texas.

Husain and her partner, Jasia Mahdi, are working to establish “a mental health clinic that will provide screening, referral and treatment for patients suffering from various mental health disorders, including depression.”

Another Big iDeas project, run by Jose Ramon Campos and Filip Lorinc, will provide financial advice to residents of Vickery Meadow.

The program will help those who need to overcome debt and financial difficulty. So far, they are in the process of helping one family at Vickery Meadow.

This year, Urban Plunge will be the week of Oct. 8 at Vickery Meadow, and volunteering at Vickery Meadow will begin the first week of October, Mondays through Thursdays from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m.

For more information, contact Andrea Fernandez at [email protected] or apply online at www.smucatholic.org.