A Big Catholic Charities Thank You

As the holiday season winds down, Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement would like to give a big thank you to those who helped give our families a taste of the holidays. In November, Gail Kingsley of St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception organized a donation of baskets filled with household items such as kitchen items and linens for our families. These beautifully made baskets have been used as welcoming gifts for our new arrivals as a way to make their new apartments feel more like a home.

In mid-December, we were given three pallets full of boxes containing jackets, sweatshirts, hats, gloves, socks, and blankets from Zumiez. This donation enabled us to provide warm clothes for all of our families in need, from those that have been here for a few months to those we just picked up at the airport.  Everyone is now ready to face the winter. With the unusually cold weather that started off this season, we are extremely grateful for this donation.

Also, right before Christmas, we were given a huge donation of toys and stuffed animals. KPTV FOX 12 Oregon’s Toy Drive donated over twenty large bags of toys which we were then able to pass out to the children of our families. The brand new toys have already helped the children fill their time during the long meetings their parents must attend, and to provide a sense of normalcy in this stressful time of adjustment. 

Molly Burtchaell from All Saints Catholic Parish coordinated the adoption of one of our newest families and arranged the purchase of individual gifts for all of them. This Somali family of twelve received new clothes, a video game system, and all kinds of other gifts from their holiday sponsor. It was a great way for the family to get some of the things they needed, as well as a way for the children to receive new toys. 

The Enriquez family with the Abdi family

Finally, a local family who arrived as refugees many years ago from Cuba adopted two of our current families. These two families, numbering twenty people total, were asked to make a wish list and the Enriquez family delivered coats, blankets, toys, and food to the families. One of the many high points of the day was when the fathers of the two families were each given the one thing they both wished for:  a new suit. The men told Catholic Charities that they wanted a suit jacket to start the New Year off right, but what they each got instead was a brand new suit. The Enriquez family brought photos of their family on the day they arrived in Portland as refugees and were able to talk to the two families about their shared experiences of being resettled in Portland.

The staff of Refugee Resettlement would like to extend a very large thank you to all of these wonderful people for their time and generous donations. Their kindness meant a lot not only to us, but also to our clients who are the ones that truly benefit. Thank you all for making this holiday season a great one. 

A Jesuit Volunteer Welcome

As 2013 comes to a close, December has been a month of new beginnings for my time here at Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement. For the second time, a Jesuit Volunteer has been given the chance to be a case manager for a newly arrived family. After a few hold ups because of the shutdown in October, things finally fell into place and I finally have the honor of working with a family.

                On a cold evening in mid-December I ventured to the airport to meet the family coming in from Nepal. Unfortunately, they missed their first flight and were delayed until late at night. At 11 pm, they finally came through security and I accompanied them to baggage claim. We loaded into the big van and set out for Beaverton and the home of their already-resettled family:  father, brother and sister-in-law of the father of the arriving father. It was around midnight when we arrived at the apartment; the exhausted family was able to find the safety of family and a quiet place to sleep after a long journey.

                As the new family started to settle in, I finalized plans on an apartment and helped them get food, winter clothing and any other immediate necessities. Today, a week after they arrived, their own apartment was finally ready. They moved into a freshly cleaned apartment with brand new beds and household items that they chose for themselves. Thanks to a generous donation, I was able to give the children with new toys (including a giant stuffed panda bear), a coloring book and a box of sixty-four crayons!

                As a new comer to refugee resettlement, it was an awesome experience to have a hand in the entire welcome experience from securing an apartment to reuniting a family. I’m excited to see what the next eight months will hold for this family as we move together into the wide world of refugee resettlement. Being a part of the team that helps resettle a family has been great, but there is something truly exhilarating and rewarding about case management in the resettlement process. 

The Gift of Sight

With the help of a former staff member, Erin Carkner, clients of Refugee Resettlement were able to take part in a free eye clinic hosted by Carkner Family Vision Care. The clinic was a chance for our clients, who typically would not see an optometrist, to have their eyes examined and any problems diagnosed. For one client in particular, this was vital.

Dr. Carkner found that a young Somali man who had been in the US only three months, had glaucoma and was able to give him a referral to a specialist at OHSU. Without the free clinic and the referral, this man’s sight might well have continued to decline until he lost his sight completely. Instead, he met with the specialist last week and received eye drops that will decrease the impact of the glaucoma and help prevent future sight degeneration.

Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement extends a large thank you to Erin and her family for their generous donation of time and medical treatment.  

The Kindness of Strangers

Last week was a whirlwind here at Refugee Resettlement. In less than 24 hours, we had eighteen new arrivals, beginning with a family of twelve. Our case managers and donations coordinator were stretched thin, so I stepped in to lend a helping hand wherever I could. This ended up being a trip to Wal-Mart with Refugee Resettlement’s program director, Toc.

Toc and I were given a list of items to buy for the family of twelve and set off for the store. We decided that our plan of attack would be to fill a shopping cart, check out, and then do it again. We ended up filling five shopping carts with items such as pillows, blankets, toothpaste, rice cookers, microwaves, and towels for the family; things that would make their new apartments feel like a home.

As this was our first experience doing the shopping for an incoming family, we had no idea as to what to expect. What we found, was a store full of wonderful employees very willing to help out and even take an interest in what we were doing. Toc and I returned to the same cashier twice because she was full of curiosity about refugee resettlement and wanted to know about working with refugees. It turned out that she came to the United States as a child from the Soviet Union. It’s a small world.

When it was time to take all of the things we bought for the family to the apartments, two complete strangers volunteered to help us carry things from the car to the second floor apartments. The men were standing around not doing anything and just jumped right in and carried some very heavy items for us. They served as a great reminder that even though the world can seem cold sometimes, there are some wonderful people out there who are willing to help whether there is something in it for them or not.

The apartments for the family of twelve were completed mere minutes before the family arrived. Their long journey from Somalia to Kenya to Portland, OR came to an end with a lot of help from store clerks, new neighbors, and the Somali community members who brought them dinner. It was an exciting twenty four hours to get to see all of the help from total strangers and to be part of the arrival process.

A Safe Haven in Southeast Portland

Over the course of the last two weeks, we’ve been posting on our Facebook page a series of articles about the refugee community’s positive influence on the Rockwood neighborhood in far Southeast Portland.

Portland’s refugee community has helped Barberry Village Apartments become a safe place for families to live. What was once a dilapidated and dangerous place to be is now a great place for children to grow up surrounded by various ethnicities from across the world. On any given day you can find the children of the apartment complex playing soccer while their parents talk in a smattering of languages from Arabic to Somali to Burmese. 

Check out the articles here:

Refugee Families Find Sanctuary in Rockwood

From Syria to Portland- One Family's Story

Barberry Village- Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

A Citizenship Class for Refugees?

Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement is proud to announce that we are working hard to unveil a citizenship preparation program. The curriculum for the class is being created with the help of two interns, one from University of Portland and the other from Warner Pacific College. With their help, we are hoping to have the class ready to start early next year.

Why a citizenship class?

Refugees who are resettled in America are eligible to apply for citizenship five years after arrival. A refugee who receives government benefits such as food stamps, social security or TANF (temporary assistance for needy families) have to become a citizen within their first seven years to retain these benefits.

If a child is under 18 when their parent applies for citizenship, they will automatically become a citizen when their parent passes the test. If a child turns 18 before the parent applies, they will have to take the test individually.

What is the citizenship test?

The citizenship test is comprised of two portions- English and United States civics. The civics portion includes US history from the Indians to September 11, 2001; as well as questions on the basic functions of our government and the major players. There are one hundred possible questions that the applicant is asked to study, but they only need to answer six out of ten correctly. Some of the questions are simple, for example: who is the president of the United States right now? Other questions are more difficult like: name two cabinet level positions.  

The English portion is mostly verbal, but there is also a written section.  This portion starts immediately as the applicant meets their interviewer. It typically starts with small talk as the applicant and interviewer walk to the interview room with questions like, “how did you get here today,” or “is it cold outside?” When the interview has officially started, the interviewer will ask questions about the applicant’s application form to check that the information is correct and to continue to test the applicant’s verbal ability. Questions like: “you used to live on Pine Street, but now you live on Maple Grove?” These questions can be a little tricky.

The written section consists of writing one of three sentences that is read out loud. The words used in the sentences are vocabulary words from the civics portion of the test. An example of a sentence the applicant may be asked to write is, “George Washington was the first president.”

How you can help?

When the curriculum is finalized, Catholic Charities will be looking for volunteers to help run the classes.

If you are interested in this or want to know more, please contact Emily at ereznicek@catholiccharitiesoregon.org or 503-688-2684.

Open For Business

                Despite governmental differences, the staff at Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement is working hard to meet the needs of their many clients. The RRP case managers are still as busy as ever visiting their clients and ensuring that the resettlement process goes as smoothly as possible.

The Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) has cancelled new arrivals through late October. In a letter to its partner agencies, PRM wrote, “We have just made the difficult decision to extend the refugee travel moratorium until October 21 because it is unclear whether certain federally-funded services and benefits will be available to arriving refugees.”

Rest assured that when the moratorium does lift, Catholic Charities will be ready to resettle new families. In the meantime, we will be here for our clients that have already found a new home in Portland.