5 March 2017

Sitting in a classroom surrounded by traditional children’s educational decorations, Cam Echols sits patiently as she discusses her involvement with the Refugee Empowerment Program, or REP. As REP’s executive director, Echols devotes most of her time to helping refugees, an underrepresented group, in Memphis. Since her start in 2002, REP has helped more than 250 refugee families.

“I got involved in the work I do because I’m passionate about meeting new people and making them feel a part of the community,” Echols said. “In this city, I think we see things so black and white that we don’t realize that we have a rich culture of immigrants and refugees that are here.”

Her inspiration to get involved came from her witnessing her friend’s struggle to provide a platform for transitioning refugees in the city.

“A Sudanese mother was trying to start this program to help refugees and I fell in love with her and wanted to help, so I’ve been a part of this program since then,” she said.

Echols says that her reason for staying with REP comes from the fact that she’s open to learning new things.

“I have been here for 14 years now, and in those 14 years here I tell people that the reason I’ve remained here is because I’m teachable, that I don’t have all the answers,” she said.

Echols further describes the reason families come here from different countries, and the benefits that welcome these families as they settle into their new homes.

“Because of the civil war in their countries, the East African refugees have been in refugee camps for years,” she said. “The United Nations committee of refugees has just gotten to the point of resettling refugees [in the U.S.] and it’s also a place where they can find employment.”

Echols manages a daily, busy schedule to make sure that the needs of these refugee families are being met.

“A typical day starts at 7:15 in the morning,” Echols said. “I serve as a bus monitor and we pick up 25 students and we make sure that they’re ready for breakfast. After we’re done with these students, we’ll pick up some high school students and send them to Memphis Catholic High School. Afterwards, I am answering emails and reading for an hour and a half. Then the program starts back at 9a.m., and then I’m jumping back on a bus to pick up parents for ESL classes”

With these efforts, Echols has touched countless lives in the 14 years she has been at REP, including Sengimana Estella.

Estella, 20, a University of Memphis student, has known Echols since she came to America.

“I met her at the Refugee Empowerment Program, where I learned English and got help with all my school work,” Estella said. “She is the boss there. She took care of me when I got here to America.”

Hamdiyo Abullahi, 18, a student at Central High School, has also fashioned a close relationship with Echols through REP.

“She is my second mom,” Abdullahi said. “She raised us (children) with our single moms…She took care of us, raised us, took us on field trips and helped us to learn English.”

Abdullahi further describes what REP means to her.

“It’s a place we can go to get away from the world,” Abdullahi said. “Also, Ms. Cam is there, so this makes it even better. She’s my ride or die.”

Another Central High student, Mariam Abshir, 16, has been involved with REP since she was a small child, and shares similar memories of her first encounters with Echols.

“I met her when I first came to America,” Abshir said. “She met me and my family, then she started helping my mom and taking care of us. She’s basically my second mom, too.”

To put into a broader perspective the work that is done at REP, Echols shares the progress that has been made over the years with the over 125 volunteers that have helped the organization.

“We are very volunteer driven,” Echols said. “We’ve served over 250 students from pre-k to 12^th grade in an after-school setting and we’ve done ESL classes for parents. We do a pre-k nursery upstairs, and we do a lot of in-school and out-of- school support and we’ve developed a reading program for students. We understand the need for community engagement in what we do,” she said.

The name Refugee Empowerment Program serves a deep purpose for Echols’ mission.

“It was about development in the community, and that’s were our name comes from, giving people back their integrity, their dignity, now in this new country,” she said. “My goal for this program is that it will one day be fully operated by refugees, for refugees.”