A Christian non-profit prepared Thanksgiving dinner for up to 250 refugees from 20 countries Thursday. Gateway of Grace Ministries works with refugees to help them adjust to life in the United States.
The organization provides English classes, job training and helps people find apartments and enroll their kids in school.
Thursday, volunteers were serving traditional American Thanksgiving staples along with dishes more common in other countries at St. Matthew's Episcopal Cathedral in Dallas.
"It's a great day to be here today and enjoy with all these families," says Juan Yoeldis, a refugee who came to the U.S. from Cuba and now volunteers with Gateway of Grace.
Yoeldis says a gathering like this can help refugee families make new connections after having to leave family and friends behind in their country.
"We are like family. We are the immediate family they have here," he says.
"We can share with them, in spite of all that's happening, there is still reason for thankfulness and gratitude for everything we have," says Samira Page, founder of Gateway of Grace.
Page says volunteers started work earlier this week, ensuring they would have enough food, tables and chairs. They started cooking early Thursday morning.
She came to the U.S. from Iran 25 years ago and says events like this can also help refugees adjust to American culture.
"We didn't know what Thanksgiving was about," she says of her first year here. "We had nowhere to go. We had no family, no parties."
She says events like this can also help refugees who have recently arrived from Iran feel safer and begin to adjust after leaving family and friends in a country where government forces have been cracking down on protesters. The United Nations High Commander for Human Rights has described a " full-fledged human rights crisis" in Iran.
"It's really such a blessing to be able to encourage them, to be there for them during this challenging time," Page says.
More information about Gateway of Grace Ministries is available at gatewayofgrace.org .
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