Welcome to PDX

Do you remember the first time you were in an airport? I don’t remember when I first flew, but I can imagine that it was for something fun like going to see family.  Imagine now, that your first time at the airport was to leave the place that you call home and once you walked through that door you were not ever going back to your home country again. Such is the life of many refugees who come to the United States.

On Wednesday, I was given the opportunity to go on my first airport pickup with a case manager. There was a rare afternoon arrival and the case manager was willing to take me along, so I jumped on the chance. Early in the afternoon, Brendon and I climbed into the van and headed to Portland International Airport. The van was parked and five minutes later, the family of three appeared at the security checkpoint. Brendon and I introduced ourselves and the five of us set off for baggage claim. Within minutes we had the family’s bags and Brendon went to retrieve the van.

Once the van was loaded up, Brendon drove the family to their new apartment. Catholic Charities’ donations coordinator has provided the family with a bed, couches, chairs, pots, pans, a refrigerator and Brendon has provided food for the family. They are now the third Iraqi family to join the apartment complex and so they were greeted with friendly faces speaking their native language. Before we left, Brendon answered any questions they had about the apartment and how things worked. Finally, Brendon insured that the family would be able to have a home cooked meal with one of the other Iraqi families and we departed to let the family start to settle in to their new home. Thursday, they will meet with their case manager and their time in resettlement will officially begin.

Personally, I cannot imagine going through this process as a refugee. I cannot know how it feels to leave home and know that I probably will not go back. Nor what it feels like to land in a new country where an unfamiliar person is waiting to pick you up and take you to a strange apartment in a city which you’ve never visited. With all of these factors going into the new family’s arrival on Wednesday, they seemed to be handling everything pretty well, though I can imagine that having neighbors who also speak Arabic is helping with the process.  

The New Kid

Greetings to all Catholic Charities of Oregon Refugee Resettlement Volunteers and Friends!

My name is Emily and I am the new Jesuit Volunteer at the Catholic Charities of Oregon Refugee Resettlement Program. I was born and raised in Dallas, TX and attended Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL. In high school and college, I was able to take advantage of many service opportunities including two trips to Central America, two summers spent in Poland teaching English and a semester abroad learning and doing service work in Northern Italy.

Emily Reznicek,
the 2013-2014 Jesuit Volunteer

It was during my semester in Bologna, Italy that I first worked with refugees and asylees at a house for men on the outskirts of the city. Much of my time there was spent talking to the staff about the services in Bologna, and talking to the men about their lives at home, en route to Italy and in Italy. It was this experience that led me to Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest to work with refugees again.

During my first year in JVC NW, I served in Boise, ID at Catholic Charities of Idaho’s Family Strengthening Center. There, I worked with refugees whose resettlement period was at an end, but still needed some assistance in adjusting to life in America. Many of my clients’ needs were very basic and included anything from help with paying rent or utilities to filling out food stamp re-certification paperwork. I also taught an English Language Learning class to adults two days a week where we worked on basic things like colors and seasons, as well as civics and citizenship prep. My time in Boise made me want to learn even more about refugees, which was a major part of my decision to come to Catholic Charities of Oregon as a second year Jesuit Volunteer.

This year, I will be assisting case managers in taking their clients to appointments; helping children enroll in and get acclimated to school in their new country; and talking to wonderful volunteers like you about the service opportunities available through Catholic Charities of Oregon Refugee Resettlement. In the little bit of time since I have started working here, we have already come up with some new volunteering ideas and will soon be reaching out to meet some dedicated volunteers to get these programs off the ground.

I’ve now been living in Portland for a little over a week and am excited to be here and to continue the learning process that I started a year ago in Boise. I look forward to meeting the volunteers that help Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement to better assist the newly arrived refugees. I have a feeling that it is going to be a good year and that you volunteers will help make that so.

If you have any questions for me about Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement, volunteer opportunities or Jesuit Volunteer Corps NW please do not hesitate to call me at (503) 688-2684, or email me at ereznicek@catholiccharitiesoregon.org.