Custard and a walk in the park

Refugee Mentor Lou Ann and her Burmese family enjoying custard cones after a walk in the Metro Parks Wednesday evening.

BHITC Welcomes New Family from Burma

The Kha Ra Mot family, refugees from Burma, are among the newest Clevelanders. BHITC volunteers and mentors (pictured left to right) Sarah Filus, Lou Ann Brown and Steve Fackler are partnering with the family to help them adapt to their new home.

Out at the Zoo

Written by Brian Upton

Our BHITC mentoring team took the Tua Hit family, who are new Clevelanders by way of Burma, to the zoo Sunday!  We had beautiful weather and it was great opportunity for the mentors to reconnect. Of course, we’re still having a hard time communicating because the family speaks very little English, but it’s funny how the smell of reindeer dung gets the same response no matter what language you speak!

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.

A Ministry of New Friends

Written by Brian Upton, Assistant Director

Here’s a picture  from our first visit with our refugee family from Burma, the Hit family.  We met them on Saturday.  They arrived in Cleveland in January after living in a camp in Thailand for 18 years! All the children pictured here were born in the camp…they’ve known no other life.  Now that they are here in Cleveland, BHITC’s volunteer mentors will befriend them and help them adapt to their new home.

Folks interested in learning more about this ministry, can register for a training session for new mentors that will be held on Saturday, April 18 from 9 am to 1 pm at Trinity, West 30^th Street. Call Lesa at (216) 281-4673 to register…it’s free and so is the lunch we’ll provide!

Thwa meh naw! (‘Goodbye’ in Burman!)

Refugee Mentors: Mentoring team meets family from Burma

Written by Vicar Marc

I had the opportunity on Saturday to meet a new group of Burmese refugees. I along with some other volunteers are going to be mentoring them through the early stages of life in the United States. Our first meeting was a little intimidating, but was easier than expected due to the interpreter that Catholic Charities brought for the meet and greet.

We told them a little about ourselves and they told us a little bit about their needs. Almost every refugee I meet has concerns about language first and then education for their kids. These are two common themes throughout our work with them.

How can we as mentors help in these areas? For one we can visit and give them the opportunity to use what little English they do know. We can also slowly help them with language through games and identifying everyday objects around the house. The kids need help with homework and practicing English as well. It is not the hardest thing in the world, but it does require an open heart and an open mind about what you are going to do.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can play a significant role in a new refugee family’s life, please join us for Building Hope in the City’s Refugee Mentor Training on Saturday April 18th.  To register, or for more information, please call Lesa at 216-281-4673.

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: 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!