Preparing God’s People to Serve New Refugee Families

On Saturday, we welcomed 16 new potential refugee mentors to a joint BHITC and Catholic Charities training. The truly amazing thing is we were only expecting about ten of them. People just kept coming and coming, some of which we had never met before!  God is stirring up His people to respond to the injustices taking place across the globe. In the next year, our Cleveland community will welcome hundreds of refugees, many of whom will come from Southeast Asia, due to the upheavals and horrors going on inside places like Burma and Bhutan.

This video gives you a glimpse of refugee’s lives today as they wait inside the camps for our country, city, community and churches to welcome them and help them start their lives again.

Refugee Mentors: A Women’s Outing

The following post was submitted by Luanne, who works with both a Burmese and Bhutanese family.

February 27, 2009

My original hope for Friday evening was to take the oldest daughter in our Burmese family to the textile art show opening at the Cleveland Heights library so the Textile Art Alliance women could meet her and see her work.  The goal is to eventually provide her the supplies and equipment to begin weaving and embroidery here in the U.S.

I also made plans with two of the women from our Bhutanese family to accompany us, as they had shown me some knitting/crocheting work they had done.

I arrived at our Bhutanese family’s home at 6:00pm and it took about 20-30 minutes before we were all ready to go.  We first went to Pat Catan’s so I could show them where they could buy yarn.

We arrived at the Burmese family’s home around 7 pm. We could not communicate much.   It did become clear that the oldest daughter–whom I had hoped to take with us–was visiting her sister and wasn’t there.

We arrived at the Cleveland Heights library.  I spoke briefly with the head of the Textile Arts Alliance and showed her pictures of our one family member’s work.  She seemed most interested in the woven garment.

Our family members seemed mildly interested in the exhibited artwork.  It’s a little hard to tell what they’re really interested in, how they react.   They were looking closely at, and talking to each other about, some items.  I did have to tell them not to touch the pieces hanging on the wall (the “rules” of an art exhibit vs. a store…)

When we got back home, I stopped in for a bit.  They wanted to show me their typical attire in Bhutan/Nepal.  There was a beautiful short blue jacket, and a boy’s cap that displayed some amazing hand woven designs.

Then one of the women brought out an incredibly beautiful sari that her sister had given her when she left to come to the US.  She said that when her sisters arrive from Nepal, they will bring a sari for me to try!!!

Refugee Mentors: Food, photos and tough decisions

The following post was submitted by Luanne, who works with a family from Bhutan.

Jan. 27, 2009

Last night, 3 of our group spent time with the family.  One person brought a whole bunch of personal items to share and talk about:  pictures, a box she had made, a teddy bear she grew up with, favorite movies, etc.  This spurred lots of great conversations!  (At least 3 of the men speak English quite well.)Some of the family members were familiar with American movies and actors (Arnold Schwarzenegger was mentioned).  They also had a slew of photos from their life, so there was lots to share.

One team member brought some easy-bake cookies, so they started the process of learning to use the oven.   This will continue on Saturday.  We are taking everyone to the Natural History Museum Saturday and then planning to make pizza with them afterward.  Apparently pizza is also known in the refugee camp, but very expensive….sort of a gourmet thing!!!  So teaching them to make their own should be quite welcome.

At least 3 of the brothers in the family are college educated and were teachers in the refugee camp (teaching math!).   One was starting a Masters degree.  So coming here and starting from scratch job-wise (if at all, in this economy) is very frustrating.  They talked about joining the military. Our mentoring group gave them some pros/cons and our particular family is willing to wait and try to find a job first.  But I expect their patience will be tested.  Any/all suggestions welcome.

Hope this helps give you an idea of what we’re learning!!!

Lu

Refugee Mentors: Sharing the Experience

Imagine you and your family are dropped off in a country halfway around the world.  You don’t speak the language, you don’t know the culture, you don’t have any friends, and somehow you’re supposed to “fit in” and adapt to your new life.

Volunteer Refugee Mentors help to make this transition easier for the refugee families who arrive here after spending years in refugee camps.  These volunteers help the families learn English, go to the grocery store, take the bus, and most importantly, they build relationships.

Because of the enormity of the task of helping these families, many volunteers choose to serve on a team of several volunteers who all work with the same family.  Right now, two of these mentoring teams have agreed to share their experiences with us on this blog.

The first team, made up of Luanne, Paul, Katie and Aimee, is working with a family from Bhutan/Nepal.  The second team works with a family from Burma.  This team includes Jen, Rick, Deb, Bob, Luanne and Helga.

We invite anyone who is involved in the Refugee Mentor program to join the discussion and share your experiences.  You can make comments on the entries we post here, or you can submit your own post to be published on this blog.  We look forward to hearing from you!