Manuscripts Collection
The American Refugee Committee (ARC) began in 1978, founded by Neal Ball after he began sponsorship efforts to help refugees begin new lives in America. A Laotian refugee who Neal sponsored helped with his early attempts to assist refugees.
In December 1978 ARC was incorporated in the State of Illinois. In 1979 Neal established ARC’s offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota and formalized ARC sponsorship actions after finding its first director, Stan Breen, who lived in Minnesota and was working for Governor Wendell Anderson. In the beginning ARC’s goal was finite: clear the refugee camps and help refugees that traveled to America integrate them into society and productive lives.
ARC initially began with the understanding that ARC’s mission would end with the resolution of the Cambodian refugee crisis that occurred after the end of the Vietnam War (1979). To that end Neal wanted to fully utilize the private sectors' resources (financial and human) to develop and train sponsors for refugee camps in Southeast Asia.
As ARC fulfilled its original mission it was faced with the question of ceasing operations or expanding its mission internationally to assist refugees in similar crises. ARC staff "worked with a commitment to putting ourselves out of a job.”
To answer this question, the Refugee Policy Group performed a contracted evaluation of ARC’s activities, impact, and value in 1984. Their final report “indicated that ARC was valued, respected, and needed…it also noted that its value was rooted in its quality of work [and] also in its non-sectarian commitment.”
ARC’s Board moved to “establish operational presence” in Eastern Sudan in November 1984, and the first team arrived on February 1, 1985. ARC partnered with Llamba, a small NGO, which already had a long term presence in Eastern Sudan. ARC’s first efforts focused on health care, and faced numerous logistical challenges regarding the ordering of, transportation, and customs clearance of supplies and medicine sent to Eastern Sudan.
The next mission was Malawi in 1988 to assist Mozambican refugees. With success in both Sudan and Malawi, ARC established itself as a well respected non-governmental organization and its goals and services expanded to other countries. In the 1990s ARC experienced both several successes and problems (financially and with administrative operations, in particular security) and ARC increased its strategic planning and internal evaluation of programs.
As of 2012, ARC continues to provide its services to refugees in numerous countries around the world.
Historical information and quotations taken from a detailed statement of history written by Karen Johnson Elshazly, ARC's Director of International Programs for several years.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
Accession numbers: 13,750; 14,407; 16,620; 16,635
Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project
grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
Catalog ID number: 001735066
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the
Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics
should
Organizational files focus on the structure, organization, policies and procedures, and history of the American Refugee Committee. These files include historical information, annual reports, articles of incorporation and bylaws, financial information, miscellaneous office files, meeting minutes, manuals and guides, training manuals, country director workshops, security materials related to the protection of ARC international staff, and strategic planning materials.
Digital version
Includes correspondence and related documents, historical information, long range plans, and miscellaneous related material regarding ARC's beginnings and history.
Digital version, Neal Ball to Steve Breen, regarding tuberculosis treatment and funding, July 23, 1981
Includes letters signed by Ronald Reagan and Eugene Sawyer, Acting Mayor of Chicago.
Meeting meetings include Board of Directors and Executive Committee minutes (1979-2006) which provide insight into the committee's operations and complicated history.
For nurses, medics, health workers, and midwives, written by ARC staff on the Thai-Cambodian border (1979-1992) and printed/published by the American Refugee Committee.
[
Strategic planning documents help reveal the committee's goals, mission statement, vision, and how they changed.
Subject files include a study on SUNDS (Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome in Asian Americans), research, and correspondence related to the study.
Correspondence files includes correspondence with ARC's founder, Neal Ball, a set of alphabetical correspondence arranged by name, and a set of chronological correspondence.
International program files represent the bulk of this collection. They generally consist of reports (monthly, quarterly, situation updates, mid-term, final, trip, miscellaneous), correspondence, grants and proposals, budget related materials, manuals and training guidelines, background information, articles, maps, and related documents.
There are also a few international program miscellaneous files that include an orientation manual, correspondence, news releases, and records (correspondence and miscellaneous documents) related to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
Also available in the International Program files are records from various refugee camps that reflect the American Refugee Committee's activities. These include Ban Vanai, Khou I Dhang, Nong Khui, Phanat Nikhom, Nong Samet, Banteay, Pursat, and many others.
Records from ARC programs in Africa make up a large portion of the international program records. Included are records from West Africa, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique, Malawi, and others. Records can consist of reports, correspondence, proposals, grants, studies, budget related material, background information, articles, maps, and related documents. Correspondence from Somalia includes letters from Somali elders written to ARC and provide valuable insight into how ARC operated in Somalia and issues ARC faced. One letter, from Mohamuud Sahad to ARC regarding the appointment of a Health Committee for his district, is a good example.
Arranged chronologically. Includes correspondence, grants and budget related material, proposals, monthly and other reports, and miscellaneous background information.
Includes a mix of material from ARC programs in all three countries.
Includes newsletter
Program reports include monthly reports, quarterly reports, country health statistical reports, other miscellaneous reports.
ARC's entry into West Africa was in response to a request from UNHCR. Donors identified income generation as the major need so that refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone, integrated into the community, could generate some income that would allow them to access indigenous services.
Includes a few other funding sources, such as USAID.
Includes reports, correspondence, documents, proposals, related materials.
Includes a few other funding sources such as the Ball Fund.
The American Refugee Committee assisted Mozambican refugees in Malawi, through a program funded by ARC and the U.S. Department of Defense in which ARC built boats that transported returning Mozambican refugees safely to their homes via the Shire River. It was too dangerous by road due to land mines as well as residual guerillas.
The program in Malawi was considered a highly successful implementation. Malawians took Mozambicans into their homes and villages because of tribal relantionships and the Government of Malawi dictated that there could be only one NGO per district. They required that efforts target Malawian health and education development to better enable Malawi to care for their people as well as the refugees. Camps had to be built in some areas due to oversaturation of the refugee poulation and ARC also particpated in this: building camps and health facilities that would serve Malawi after the refugees were able to return home (hospitals, cholera centers, schools, administration buildings, housing for medical staff, and sometimes roads).
Includes monthly reports, program reports, correspondence, proposals, related documents and material.
Includes monthly reports, program reports, miscellaneous correspondence and related documents.
Includes a cloth ARC flag featuring the ARC logo. Ones like it were possibly used to identify American Refugee Committee presence.
Includes review of monthly reports.
Includes monthly, annual, logframe (logical framework), quarterly, mid-term, and narrative reports from various locations such as the Nyagatare District, the Mutura Region, Byumba Prefecture, Gihembe and Kiziba Refugee camps, and Kizobo Refugee Camp.
These reports are in rough chronological order.
Includes BPRM, OFDA, UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), and UNHCR. Some correspondence is also present.
Digital version, Mohamuud Sahad to ARC, regarding appointment of Health Committee, February 9, 1995
Includes final narrative report.
Includes newspaper reports, OFDA reports, organizational chart, progress reports, relief organizations, security, UNHCR 4th annual Coordination meeting, UNHCR updates.
Includes budget reports, correspondence, cross-country operations, cultural and history [data/information], grant reports, and immunizations for volunteers.
Includes miscellaneous articles, maps, and correspondence.
Includes OFDA, USAID, Refugees International Japan (RIJ).
Includes proposals, related correspondence, and budget submissions to UNHCR for Kyaka.
Includes field assessement reports, logical frameworks, survey, related documents.
There is significant material from ARC operations in Asia, with a focus on Cambodia, the Cambodian border, and the Thai-Burma Border including a volume that includes a list of medical staff with a photograph of each from a refugee camp along the Cambodian border. Also included with the Cambodian International Program records are files related to the American Refugee tuburculosis treatment program.
The American Refugee Committee's first operations began when ARC sent a team of five professionals to work with the Hmong in the Ban Vinai Camp near the Thai-Lao border in Northern Thailand (October 1979). Two weeks after they arrived there was an influx of nearly three-quarters of a million people from Cambodia due to the Vietnamese invasion.
ARC reassigned two physicians to the border and recruited 15 staff which departed early November for the border. This team included Dr. Steve Miles, who developed ARC's philosphy and committment to training and the appropriate level of care during this time. He was also instrumental in developing a treatment for tuberculosis.
Also included are materials related to ARC's tuberculosis treatment program. Tuberculosis treatment was not allowed on the Cambodian border in the beginning due to the danger of creating a more deadly drug-resistent strain as the population was transient and it was a war zone. ARC (through Steve Miles) developed a short-term protocol which required whole family education and the signing of a contract. If ARC expatriate staff could not go to the camp, ARC trained medics had medicines buried and they would find the patients for their daily treatment. The program completed after 13 years, and treatement also followed the returning refugees home in 1992-1993.
Digital version, pages 2-3
Includes monthly and final report for Bang Poo and Site 2.
Assessing feasibility of starting ARC programs in Laos.
Can include quarterly reports, annual work plans, related correspondence, and miscellaneous related documents. Also includes some reports from the Thailand/Cambodian border.
Includes correspondence, background, papers, reports, related documents, situation updates regarding security incidents.
Includes some quarterly and monthly reports, miscellaneous correspondence, and related documents.
This camp opened Thanksgiving Day 1980. All refugees had to pass through this camp for resettlement, health care, screening and cultural orientation before departing Thailand.
Includes background articles, statistics, information, trip and other reports, concept papers, proposals, and correspondence.
Includes material related to American Refugee Committee programs in Turkey.
Includes budgets, proposals, miscellaneous documents related to programs in Turkey.
By various artists, depicting ARC's activities from various programs in Cambodia, Thailand, Kosovo, and Africa.
Includes asthma clinic, eye program, nursing school, and miscellaneous statistical materials and correspondence.
Listed by camp.
Regarding Asian refugees, medical operations, administrative information, Thai government information, and includes Sudden Unexpected Nocturnal Death Syndrome (SUNDS).
Domestic program records focus on charitable registrations, and also include material related to the committee's response to Hurricane Katrina. Also available are miscellaneous records related to the committee's activities in Minnesota, and proposals for early projects.
To Northwest Area Foundation for two year project to strengthen the capacity of the Indochinese self help Associations in Minnesota.
Printed materials include books, articles, reports, journals, manuals, theses, and dissertations written by or about ARC staff and programs.
Includes articles, reports, journals, books, manuals, theses, dissertations.
Regarding migration theories (Mozambique), refugee children (Mozambique and Yoguslavia), primary health care impact on AIDS/HIV in Africa, and U.S. Refugee Policy.
Regarding reproductive health, legal aid clinic.
Newspaper clippings are from the American Refugee Committee's early years.