January 12, 2016, NEW YORK- The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) sent thirty-one pillowcases and accompanying letters to each of the thirty-one governors who supported refugee bans in their states. The pillowcases bear the message #GiveRefugeesRest and are symbols of both a wake-up call for political leaders to remember our common humanity as well as a demand to provide basic needs of suffering people:

“We find your refusal to open your state to Syrian refugees an egregious decision that contradicts the best spirit of America, as well as our various faith traditions. We oppose this decision in the strongest possible terms, on both moral and political grounds,” states the letter. FOR is now calling for people of conscience around the nation to join in this campaign by sending their own pillowcase to listed governors nearest to them with the message #GiveRefugeesRest.

Anthony Grimes, the Director of Campaigns and Strategy at FOR, said about the motivation for the campaign, “As Muslim families from Syria and elsewhere attempt to escape persecution caused by civil war, this country has greeted them with a metaphorical wall. We, people of conscience all around the country, are aware of our government’s complicity in building such a wall. We are inviting people to abandon fear by affirming the humanity of refugees.”

The #GiveRefugeesRest campaign is inspired by a successful FOR campaign in 1954 in which bags of rice changed the course of history. “On November 3, 1954, in the midst of a severe famine on the Chinese mainland, FOR launched the Food for China campaign,” states Rev. Kristin Stoneking, FOR’s Executive Director, citing the organization’s history. “Members sent small sacks of grain to President Eisenhower’s administration with the message, 'If thine enemy hunger, feed him. Send surplus food to China.’ We now know that the 45,000 bags that were sent, as well as tens of thousands of letters, were mentioned three times in cabinet meetings. The third time, this grassroots pressure led Eisenhower to veto a proposal to bomb China.

The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the nation’s oldest multifaith, peacebuilding organization. Founded on the eve of World War I, the organization seeks to resolve human conflict through the transformative power of nonviolence and is committed to achieving a just and peaceful world community with dignity and freedom for every human being.

Visit www.giverefugeesrest.com for more information about the campaign.

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The Fellowship of Reconciliation Demands Governors to #GiveRefugeesRest