Reach And Teach author Pegi Deitz Shea ( Abe in Arms and The Carpet Boy's Gift ) has written a powerful article for PaperTigers.org, about how her personal journey led her to write about the difficulties faced by refugees and others dealing with war. Click here to check out the full article.

PaperTigers.org also reviewed Abe in Arms. Click here to read that review.

Reading About and Reaching Out to Refugees

by Pegi Deitz Shea for PaperTigers.org

My first image of a refugee came over the television in the late 60's. A naked Vietnamese girl about my age was running from an explosion towards the camera. In her wake were more children, all screaming, all running with their arms open, reaching, reaching out to me.

In my Catholic school, we sponsored remote African children who stared out from our hallway posters, complete with a chart showing how much more money was needed to provide them with clothing and food. In fairy tale costumes, we trick-or-treated for UNICEF. We collected our pennies in our cardboard Rice Bowls during Lent. But it took that image of the Vietnamese girl to make me see behind the statistics and plaintive faces. Children just like me were suffering around the world. I couldn't stop the wars or the famines. But I knew I had to do something more vital than collect money that went who-knows-where.

That mission reared its insistent head when I had the opportunity to visit a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand in 1989.

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