Refugees

[Amira]

If you've had a chance to work with refugees, or if you're a refugee yourself, and you're willing to share your experiences online, will you message me here? I'm working on a project to encourage people to do more to help refugees and I'd like to share different people's experiences doing that.

 

Also, if you can suggest some different ways to help refugees besides working with a resettlement agency, even if it's something that's specific to your area, will you comment here about it or message me?

 

Thanks. :)

[prairiewindmomma]

Things I've done:

*going grocery shopping with them (transportation, explaining processed foods, helping with the overwhelming nature of US groceries)

*attending medical appointments (accessing services, helping with paperwork, advocating for care)

*conversational practice (particularly with the wives/mothers as the children often pick up English through the schools and end up acting as *translators---which leads to further isolation of the wives/mothers who don't acquire fluency

*helping them set up a household--coordinating hand-me-downs between friends to furnish a house and clothe families

Really, most things add up to just being a friend.

 

Other opportunities in our area:

*tutoring

*social work/legal aid/other professional volunteer work opportunities

*small business networking (how to navigate US laws, how to advertise, food safety for restaurants, etc.)

*small business startup jobs (our old town had businesses that made gourmet dog bakery items, wood carving items, etc.)

*community garden coordinator

[Nan in Mass]

My sister does ESL tutoring. In the process, she's wound up doing a lot of helping with other things, like filling out paperwork for kindergarten enrollment, teaching reading and basic math, driving lessons, and childcare while a baby is born. Her main comment about all this is that it is really hard to say no, I will not help you with that.

 

Nan

[Rosie_0801]

We were part of a multicultural playgroup when the kids were little. We could barely communicate, but we became another friendly face around town.

[Nan in Mass]

My niece was involved with a children's grief counseling group. That included refugees. Other family members volunteer in the food pantry here, which also involves refugees.

 

Rosie, I like the playgroup suggestion. According to my sister, that sort of thing is very much needed.

 

Nan

[Pam in CT]

NPR did a piece a couple of days ago about a community-organization host model that IRIS, the largest of the settlement service organizations here in Connecticut, is promoting alongside the more traditional single-faith-institution model.  The idea is that community organizations -- secular or interfaith or several faith organizations that come together to form a common-purpose organization -- can host families, which can spread the time / resource / financial commitments associated with hosting more widely than smaller faith-based institutions for whom the commitments are difficult... the idea being that more families can thereby be settled.

 

In our town, a long-standing and already-active interfaith organization, which already existed as a 501c3 and which already did a variety of service-oriented activities, sponsored "our" family, who arrived in early 2016.  We were the first interfaith organization to host and subsequently several adjacent towns have also welcomed families.  There are also a number of individual churches in the state who have done so. Since we went first with the community-organization model, IRIS has had our steering committee leaders do a bit of a roadshow on aspects of the model.

 

Basically the model amounts to a constellation of sub-committees: one for employment training and placement, one for transportation, one for housing, one for childcare, one for education and ESL (which I'm on), etc.  There's a lot of communication and coordination.

 

Hosting is a big commitment, and the wider community model is a way to cast a wider net.  It has also really brought the town together in neat ways... people from different walks of life who had not known each other have become close friends; we've had several movie screening/discussions related to settlement issues and picnic/social events that have been really inspiring... and "our" family themselves are just so amazing... well, I wrote a bit about them over on the Politics thread; feel free to PM for more.

[Rosie_0801]

The other thing that is very much needed here are people to go teach the women English in their homes. I don't know how your system works, but here the women struggle to get to the measly six months worth of free English classes because they have kids.

[Pam in CT]

The other thing that is very much needed here are people to go teach the women English in their homes. I don't know how your system works, but here the women struggle to get to the measly six months worth of free English classes because they have kids.

 

Childcare is a huge issue, though it's gotten easier now that all the kids are in public school.  We do teach ESL to the mom 1-1 in her home (there are six of us on the committee, so we have a rotation).  She also attends a class of ~12 students once a week, which is nice for her since she meets people from all kinds of backgrounds there.  Childcare and teaching English (even if it's just conversational practice) are definitely two areas in which there is a huge need for volunteers.

 

Not all host organizations are comfortable doing lessons in the home, though, for liability and other issues, which I do understand.  Some adjacent town groups are organizing them in libraries and other community spaces (which takes more logistics).

 

 

 

 

eta omitted word

Edited November 1, 2016 by Pam in CT

[Zinnia]

We have a mommy and me literacy program that I volunteered with for a few years. Moms do ESL classes (paid for via the state), and kids do preschool, paid for with donations on a shoestring budget. It was really great, though, and I loved my time there.

 

A friend now works there, teaching preschoolers. She loves it, too. Very rewarding.

[Penguin]

The group that I worked with used this guiding principle:

We do things WITH refugees, not FOR refugees. Some of the volunteers were refugees who had been in town for a bit, and wanted to help the new arrivals. We cooked together in a community kitchen, played board games together, organized outings and soccer games and talked talked talked.

 

I have helped with various practical matters, but our group was more about creating a place where refugees would want to spend time. And growing friendships.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Penguin

[Hammfried]

Seconding the grief counseling mentioned above. A lot of refugees are often displaced due to civil unrest or conflict in their native countries. Sometimes their cultures aren't conducive to talking about their traumas or emotions and then the language barrier adds to the difficulty. It is extremely helpful to have a safe space for children to play alongside the mother while she is in counseling since it can be a financial burden for childcare while mom receives self care.

[DawnM]

I am an ESL teacher and have worked with refugees.  In my last district, I also became a school counselor and was able to work more with the families.  I really enjoyed that.

 

Here I have started teaching ESL again, K-12, in the PS system.

 

Besides that, there is a group that assists refugees.  It is a non-profit and anyone can volunteer, I have helped some.  

 

They ask for assistance with:

 

Doctor visits

Filling out forms for doctors, government, school, etc....

Shopping

Providing school uniforms and school supplies for the kids

Furniture donations, household donations

Trips to government agencies to assist 

 

 

[Amira]

Thank you for all the ideas and recommendations!

[lulalu]

Are you looking for what others have done in America for refugees or those who have gone to other countries to help?

[lulalu]

Also- are you wanting the stories that are not good? The ones that people fear will happen?

[....]

Our city is one of the top 3 refugee cities in the US.  I don't volunteer with them, but our church system has a big food bank/childcare thing set up for them.  I don't know if the church has ESL classes, but I'm thinking (off the top of my head) they do.  I speak Arabic, so they kept trying to talk me into volunteering there, but I can't (hence why I think they have ESL).

 

So, Food Bank would definitely be an important one.

Childcare for ESL classes.

 

Our church also has like a thing where you can go "shopping" for baby items (but they don't pay).  The baby items are donated and then they have a day/time where they can go and take what they need.  Not sure what you would call that...but that would rank right up there with Food Bank (IMO).  

[Guest]

I used to do Literacy Volunteers of America. The volunteer is matched with someone that wants to improve their English, and they meet at a mutually agreeable place, usually a library. The children can also come. Its free, except the volunteer pays for his own training and any materials he wants that arent available at the LVA office. Usually one has to print out bus and train routes and schedules, and grab a newspaper or photocopy things, depending on the skill level of the person being tutored. Some are beyond that and want to get to high school level, which isnt too bad if they can get a library card.

Edited November 2, 2016 by Heigh Ho

[Amira]

Are you looking for what others have done in America for refugees or those who have gone to other countries to help?

I'm looking for ways that people have worked with refugees in their local community, wherever they live. I'm looking for challenging experiences too.

[Anne in CA]

Well, I worked in a large hotel WITH a lot of refugees over the years, not doing things for them but working alongside them. English is huge whether or not they can be promoted at work. People who learn are promoted, people who don't learn are not.