State Department to Mark World Refugee Day

Two senior State Department officials will mark this year's commemoration of World Refugee Day.

On June 20 at 10:00 a.m., Under Secretary Paula J. Dobriansky will speak at a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) invitational event at the National Geographic Museum's Grosvenor Hall, 1145 17^th Street NW; Washington, D.C. Media interested in covering the event should contact Tim Irwin at IrwinT@unhcr.org .

Ellen Sauerbrey, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration will give an address entitled "The U.S. Response to Refugees Worldwide" to the Women's Foreign Policy Group (WFPG) from 8:15 - 9:30 a.m. at the Academy for Educational Development at 1875 Connecticut Avenue, NW; Washington, D.C. For reservations go to www.wfpg.org. Interested media should contact the WFPG at (202) 884-8131 or at programs@wfpg.org. Seating is limited.

From 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. on June 20, Assistant Secretary Sauerbrey will chair a panel discussion, "Opening Doors, Restoring Hope: The U.S. Refugee Program" co-sponsored by George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. The panel will include refugees from around the world: Jalil Aswadi from Afghanistan, a scholarship student at St. Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Virginia; John Dau from southern Sudan, a Sudanese "Lost Boy" featured in the documentary God Grew Tired of Us; Bienvenu Rwagasore from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a civil engineer in the Facilities Management Department of the University of Virginia; Yeong Sook Kim from North Korea, a food services employee at the Farmington Country Club, Charlottesville; and Dr. Wai Wai from Burma, a lab technician at the University of Virginia Medical Center. The event will be held at the Elliott School of International Affairs' Lindner Family Commons, Room 602, at 1957 E. Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Media and members of the public interested in attending this event should contact Amer Delic at (202) 663-1076 or at DelicA2@state.gov .

Additional details on the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration are available at www.state.gov/g/prm. For more information about media opportunities, contact Susan Hovanec at (202) 663-1014 or Gina Wills at (202) 663-1071.

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