ABOUT ARIANA HOUSE
We’ve built an intentional community to serve refugees and asylum-seekers in Salem, Oregon. Learn more about our mission below and then join us in this joyous work!
Mission
We provide a welcoming home for refugee and asylum-seeking families along with the education, social connections, and the support they need to flourish in our community.
vision
All refugees and asylum-seekers who arrive in Salem will know they are deeply valued as they are welcomed with a safe home and caring support.
OUR STORY
Erich and Jenny Barischoff have been working with refugees for more than 15 years both in Arizona and Oregon. In 2009, they traveled to Comer, Georgia to visit Jubilee Partners, an intentional Christian community that has been welcoming and serving refugees and asylum-seekers for more than 30 years. That’s where God planted the seed for Ariana House. In 2014, Erich and Jenny purchased the old Roberts Community Church property on River Road in Salem. Over the next few years, they rehabilitated the church and parsonage to create Ariana House’s Welcome Homes. In 2015, they welcomed their first guest, a refugee from Iran.
Who are refugees? Who are asylum-seekers?
A refugee or an asylum-seeker is “…(A) any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion…” (8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A)
The primary difference between a refugee and an asylum-seeker is that a refugee is granted refugee status while still outside the United States; an asylum seeker is granted asylee status after entering the country or while seeking admission at a port of entry.
WHOM WE SERVE
As of May 2022, worldwide, a record 100 million people had been forcibly displaced from their homes because of persecution, conflict, and violence. When refuges asylum-seekers arrive in Oregon, they may connect with a refugee resettlement agency, the Oregon Department of Human Services, or the school district.
Sandi, a former guest at Ariana House, escaped her home country after several members of her family were murdered. She fled to a South American country with her partner, Joey, and lived there with their two young daughters for a few years until Joey was attacked and stabbed for being a black foreigner on his way home from work. Sandi and Joey walked and rode buses with their two girls for several months until they reached the US/Mexico border and were able to cross. Along the way, Sandi was assaulted. Joey held onto Sandi and carried his daughters over his head as he crossed rivers in a desperate attempt to arrive to safety here in America.