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.

Ramadan

Ramadan began today for most Muslim refugees living here in Portland.

Ramadan is a month of fasting that is inaugurated by the sighting of the new moon and also ended in that way. Because it is based on moon phases, Ramadan can begin and end on different days in different countries, but usually lasts from 29-31 days.

Ramadan is considered to be the holiest month in the Islamic calendar because it commemorates when Muslims believe that their prophet, Mohammed, received the Quran from Allah. During the month, all healthy adults are required to fast from food, water, sexual relations, impure thoughts, words, and deeds from sun up to sunset. Work also slows way down and office hours are modified so that people can be home during the heat of the day.

When I was living in Morocco, many kids often tried to fast part of the month or parts of days though they were not required to do so. Families and friends would gather at sunset to break the fast together with dates, a sweet called shabakiya and a special soup called harira. Another meal that included meat was also eaten later in the evening as well as a light snack right before dawn.

All over the world, in addition to fasting, Muslims also increase their charitable giving, recitation of the Quran and adherence to prayer. Ramadan is one of the 5 essential practices of Islam that include prayer 5 times a day, verbal acknowledgement that Allah is One and that Mohammed is his prophet, the pilgrimage to Mecca for all who are able, and charitable giving.

Ramadan ends with a celebration called Aid el Fitr that refers to the final breaking of the fast. In Morocco, families and friends gather to eat and give gifts, usually of clothing, to children.

If you are volunteering with a Muslim family, ask them about their special traditions around Ramadan and about the best time to visit. You can also wish them “Ramadan Kareem” which means “A gracious Ramadan (to you)”.



A typical Moroccan Ramadan sundown table setting




Moroccan families buying clothes for Aid el Fitr

High Speed Internet at Bottom of the Bucket Prices...

The word is out and low-cost high speed internet is on the doorstep of many of our clients. Comcast and CenturyLink are working to bring high speed internet to over 400,000 people who are unable to afford the bulky monthly payment under normal situations. Best of all the cost is only $9.95 per month. 

Comcast Information

To qualify the household must be located where Comcast internet offers its services, which all of our clients live in this regional area. The household must also have at least one child eligible to participate in the National School Lunch Program (with up to date documents). The household must not have subscribed to Comcast Internet service within the last 90 days and they must not have overdue Comcast bills from the past or unreturned equipment.

To apply for the low-cost internet a client or representative must call 1-855-8-Internet (1-855-846-8376) to request an application. Comcast will follow up with an application which the household fills out and sends in and then waits for a status update/confirmation.

To view more information check out Comcast’s website by clicking the following link: http://www.internetessentials.com/how-it-works . 

CenturyLink Information

To qualify the house hold must be located where CenturyLink offers its services, which all of our clients live within this regional area. The household must not have subscribed to CenturyLink within the last 90 days or be a current customer. The household must also not have an overdue CenturyLink bill or unreturned equipment.

Unlike Comcast, CenturyLink will only allow the low-cost option for the first 12 months of your contract and then the cost will increase to whatever standard price at that time.

To apply for low-cost internet a client or representative can visit the site to obtain an application. To view more information or find an application please click on the following link: http://www.centurylink.com/home/internetbasics/?rid=internetbasics . 

Please keep this in the back of your minds when working with our clients and families. 

Volunteer Training Opportunity

Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement is offering a training session called “Fundamentals of Interpreting” to all interested volunteers within the community. Effective, accurate and respectful interpreting is a vital skill needed to serve limited-English speakers in our community. This valuable, interactive, free session reviews the skills and framework necessary to interpret successfully. Volunteers of all language skills and cultural backgrounds are encouraged to attend.   

Benefits:

• Gain a valuable understanding of interpreting best practices
• Free of charge
• Certificate of attendance

Topics:

• Translation vs. Interpretation
• Interpreting as a profession
• National standards of practice
• Interpreting tools
• Effective interpreter partnerships
• Equalizing power with language
• Ethical issues
• Interpreting boundaries
• Legal obligations

Date:

Friday March 8^th, 9am – 4pm in the 4^th floor training room.

Location:
Catholic Charities

2740 SE Powell Blvd #8

Portland, OR 97202

Facilitator:
Toc Soneoulay-Gillespie, MSW is the Youth Services Program Manager at Impact NW and has served as a community organizer and trainer in the refugee and immigrant community since 2004. With the guidance from the State Refugee Coordinator, Mrs. Soneoulay-Gillespie implemented the very first Fundamentals of Interpreting training in Anchorage, Alaska using dialogue, roles plays, and other tools to enhance the knowledge and understanding of interpreting as a profession.

The space is limited to 30 participants and spots are filling up quick, so please sign up as soon as possible to reserve a spot.
 
TO REGISTER: email Patty Narvaez: pnarvaez@catholiccharitiesoregon.org or call 503-688-2692 (My office hours are: M,T,Th, F  8:30am to noon)

You Can't Travel Without Money

Greetings Volunteers. We hope this blog post finds you in good spirits as the spring season starts to peek through the rolling clouds. At the office we are falling back in to the swing of new arrivals and the joy that comes with placing new families and clients in a new and promising environment. We are using this post to shed light on a conversation topic that would be helpful to have with the Refugees with whom you share your time. The topic: Migration and Refugee Service Travel Loans.

What is the Loan?

Refugees traveling to the U.S. are issued interest-free loans by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to pay for the cost of their transportation to the U.S.  Every refugee eighteen and over signs a Promissory Note acknowledging  this loan, and the commitment to repay the loan in regular monthly payments once they are settled, usually within six months.

Why is it Important?

This loan, like any other, affects the credit of the individual who signed for the funds. This means the travel loan affects credit just the same as a car or house loan would. A default status or inability to pay the payments on time will put a negative score on the credit of the family or individual. On-time payments build a healthy and valuable positive credit score for the clients to use to their advantage in the future.

What can we do?

As volunteers helping out with the newly arriving clients, you can educate them on the importance of staying up-to-date on their loan status. This includes the following:

·         Notifying both our program and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) of any address changes made by the family or clients

·         Preparing the family for the arrival of the first bill around  the 6^th month following their arrival

·         Educating about the effects a negative credit score can have on their financial well being

It is the client’s responsibility, as stated on the promissory note, to maintain an up-to-date address and contact number with USCCB. If they fail to do this, and don’t receive the invoice for their travel loan, the IOM and United States Government can take action against the default loan. Please use this information in mind when talking with your refugee partners.  As always, thank you for your hard work and dedication and feel free to call with any questions regarding the travel loans.

A B ...C You Later!

Family and tutoring volunteers  commit to six months of weekly meetings with their refugee family.  And while most volunteers work at least that long with their refugee partners, sooner or later life circumstances intervene. The volunteer (or, sometimes, the family) moves on.  Good-byes, however, are part of life, no matter where you live.  And in this situation, they’re always positive and poignant.

 Below are two notes from Jenna Ramaker, a volunteer who helped three Congolese boys with their homework and their English for a year and a half.  The first was written in May of 2012:

Things are going really well with the boys.  They are making good progress, and the family has continued to be really rewarding to work with.

Just within the last month of so, Brian has progressed a lot in being able to start reading on his own.  Prior to this, we’ve spent a lot of time stuck on the basics of the alphabet and vowel sounds, and just recently it seems to be all coming together for him…I’d  love it if he is able to read by next fall when he starts junior high.  B and A are also doing well.  B is getting much more proficient with his letters and numbers, and although he definitely still needs a lot of guidance, we are starting to work on addition and subtraction.

The family has been great, and are always great to interact with.  I’ve gotten to know some of the cousins and neighbors over the past couple of months, so it’s been a really good environment to work in. 

Working with the K family has continued to be an amazingly rewarding experience.

The final update…December 2012:

Just to update you, Dec. will be my last month volunteering with the K’s. It has been an amazing experience, and I'm sad that I won't be able to continue; I'm graduating school in a couple of months, and the new year has uncertainty as I look to be repositioned and anticipate having less flexibility as I settle into a new job and possibly new city. 

The boys have made so much progress since I started working with them, it has been fulfilling to be a part of it.  When I first met B, he didn't know the alphabet and in the past year and a half of working with him, he has learned to read.  He also went from not being able to count, to learning addition, subtraction, and recently, multiplication.  C has mastered the alphabet and its sounds, counting, simple addition, and orally is much more advanced in English than when I started working with him.  As you can tell, I'm very proud of their accomplishments, and have found it really rewarding to work with the K family and the Catholic Charities refugee resettlement center. 

The other rewarding moment was each week when I’d arrive at the K’s house, hearing their two year-old sister start calling out my name, even before she spoke many other English words.

 I look forward to volunteering again in the future if circumstances permit!  

This is one volunteer, but she speaks for all of you who have every right to be proud.  Thank you, Jenna.

On a side note, if you’re working with someone who’s having difficulty mastering our alphabet sounds, here’s a link to a youtube video that might help.  It was created by Heidi Moses, another dedicated volunteer who not only mentors an Iraqi refugee but also facilitated the first stages of our ESL class.  Thank you, Heidi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4VEsx4ERqE

SAFRN??? What does this mean??

We in the Refugee Program would like to take some time to thank Erin Carkner who is leaving Catholic Charities to pursue her education. Erin was the Refugee Youth Advocate for the SAFRN, a collaborative program based in all three of Oregon’s resettlement agencies: Lutheran Community Services Northwest (LCSNW), Ecumenical Ministry’s SOAR (Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees) program and the Catholic Charities’ program. Erin’s last day with us was January 11^th  and with a large good bye party, we showed how much we’ve appreciated her work and how much we’ll miss her.

Erin Carkner is on the far left

SAFRN stands for “School Assistance for Refugee Newcomers.”  Funded by the federal government, the SAFRN program provides much-needed support to newly arrived refugee youth entering Portland’s school system.  Most of these students speak little or no English, and many have had no exposure to Western styles of education.  SAFRN also offers educational support to schools heavily impacted by new refugee arrivals.

Erin, like her colleagues in the other two resettlement agencies, carried a large caseload of new refugee students.  She worked with students throughout their first year in this country, helping register them for school, learn to ride the bus, understand what their teachers expected of them, and how to socialize with their peers.  She also organized parent workshops, and helped Portland teachers recognize and address the special challenges newly arrived refugee youth face.

Erin also started what is now an annual program: the Refugee Youth Summer School, where refugee students in first through fifth grade can practice their new English, math and reading skills, and newly arrived students discover what it means to attend an American school.

 Assimilation is a very difficult task for all our refugees. With SAFRN, the challenge becomes a little easier for refugee youth and their families. We extend our thanks to the collaborating agencies, and to you, our volunteers, who also help pave the way to a new life for refugee youth.