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