Remembering Anne Sanderson, Former Director of the International Institute of New Hampshire

Anne Sanderson, who established the first refugee resettlement program in New Hampshire that continues to this day, passed away earlier this month at the age of 89. Anne started resettling refugees from Southeast Asia in the early 1980s as a member of Brookside Church in Manchester. In time, Anne established the International Institute of New Hampshire (IINH), which eventually became part of the International Institute of New England. 

Over a more than 25-year career, Anne personally greeted hundreds of refugees at the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and helped them to settle into new homes, find jobs, and learn English. She enrolled their children in the Manchester public schools and built strong ties with community leaders. The refugees she resettled became her friends, and she watched with enormous pride as they built families, businesses, and new lives in the Granite State. She taught others that resettling refugees was not only humane but good for everyone in New Hampshire.  

Anne worked with hundreds of community volunteers over her lifetime of service, including Shirley Brulotte, the late sister of former Manchester Mayor Bob Baines. Anne and Mayor Baines established the Shirley Brulotte Fund to provide emergency support to refugees in New Hampshire, and the fund became a beneficiary of the legendary Bob Baines Blarney Breakfasts.  

After retirement, Anne became an advisor to the current leadership of the International Institute of New England. She passed along materials from her days leading IINH, insights on anything she learned that might impact refugees in New Hampshire, and much wisdom about how to care for and support the refugee community.  

Westy Egmont, the former Executive Director of IINE, shared this remembrance of Anne: “Anne Sanderson led from her heart. With the refugee work of IINH growing from her church, she brought her deep compassion and boundless commitment to any and all needs that arose. As we built a larger IINE, Anne participated in our management team. Ever loving the immediacy of being at the airport, Anne was an internal voice for refugee needs and keeping the personal touch with our professional services. She did not resist being a mother figure to many. 

Mayors found her passion the most persuasive advocacy. When one mayor tried to get a ban on arrivals, we went to his office, and Anne confronted him with how his mother (an immigrant) would feel about this. He backed down. Another mayor made IINH’s work his own philanthropic cause.  

Anne’s legacy is seen in the stores and streets and workplaces of NH. Her work brought rich new diversity to the old mill cities and demonstrated the best of American patriotism, making ‘E pluibus unum’ real with warm welcome for newcomers and integration into the community life of their adopted nation.” 

The International Institute of New England is grateful to have had Anne Sanderson as a founder of our work in New Hampshire, and she will remain an inspiration as we strive to continue her legacy of service to the world’s most vulnerable.