The global refugee crisis has reached vast proportions, with over 9 million refugees worldwide. There are 70,000 refugees legally relocated to the United States every year in hope for a better future; 40,000 of these refugees are children. The families have relocated from some of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters including Somalia, Sudan, Thailand, Burma, Afghanistan, Iraq and Northern Kenya. They arrive in America after having fled war, surviving in refugee camps and facing starvation, sickness, and a complete lack of education for the children.

The reality of new life in the United States is often a hard and complicated transition due to lack of education and change of culture. In Decatur GA, thirty refugee girls have the opportunity to attend the Global Village School, a small nonprofit organization which ‘...provides adolescent survivors of war, whose formal education has been significantly interrupted by war and prolonged stays in refugee camps, with the enhanced educational and social services they need to become fully participating citizens in the democratic process of the United States’. The school opened in August 2009 and currently specializes in providing a unique education for girls.

Told through the eyes of the girls themselves, Global Village is a journey of survival, friendship and hope for an education. It is the story of a now promising future in reaching their dreams. The Global Village girls are a strong voice for the thousands of children who don't yet have a Global Village School of their own.

Watch a clip here (WMV file) 3 mins

2012
Discovery HIll Productions