NEW Federal Funding Will Help Boost Refugees ??

Another new article at>> http://vermont-bhutanese-association.blogspot.com/

In Vermont, we eagerly await these new funding, staffing and rent subsidy funds and initiatives.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11968051

Federal funding boost will help Utah refugees
Rescue » New money allows for expanding staff and shrinking caseloads.

By Julia Lyon
The Salt Lake Tribune
After 15 years at a refugee camp in Kenya, Ali Amin arrived in 2007 in Utah, where he felt lost and afraid of the snow. His 11-member family -- the grandmother is now 102 -- included a child who was so sick that Amin didn't think he would ever walk.
But his son is exploring the world on his own two feet these days, and his father, emboldened by a driver license, is doing the same thing behind the wheel.
The Somali refugee family credits much of their success to the devotion of its case manager at the International Rescue Committee. "I think if Stacey weren't helping us, we would not survive," Amin said Friday through an interpreter.
The family benefitted from special long-term case management, which, starting this month, all new refugees will receive. Thanks to federal dollars, Utah's resettlement organizations were able to hire a large number of new staff, who will guide and supervise refugees during their first two years in America. The goal is to foster independence and ensure families aren't overlooked.
This is a massive shift in a system that critics say has previously left many refugees feeling abandoned and neglected. Minimal funding meant staffers were overwhelmed and unable to provide more than basic help.
Under the previous system, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Catholic Community Services (CCS) welcomed refugees, found them a place to live and helped connect them to services, such as food stamps and health insurance.
After about 6 months, refugee cases were transferred to the Asian Association, where a staff member was responsible for as many as 130 individuals and families. Critics say some refugees received too little, if any, help.
"We were putting 'band-aids' on problems," said Lina Smith, director at the Utah Refugee Center based at the association. "We absolutely didn't have the staff to do proper case management."
All three groups have expanded staff thanks to about $2 million per year in federal welfare and social service dollars for the two-year experimental program.
Thanks to nine new employees, Smith's staff members each now have between 35 and 40 cases. Families will be matched with case managers who speak the same language. At all the agencies, Iraqi, Burmese and Bhutanese staff have been hired, because those are the largest refugee groups expected this year. Visiting refugees' homes will happen more frequently, something that was often unrealistic for frantic workers before.
"They couldn't even have lunch," Smith said.
Stacey Shaw, who worked with Amin's family as an IRC long-term case manager, helped them with a variety of challenges, from re-enrolling the kids in school to making doctor's appointments. Her goal was to empower the family to be self-sufficient, and that's begun to happen. Now Amin can go to the pharmacy alone. He made a doctor's appointment this week without any help.
"A big part of it is being able to develop a relationship with the family," she said.
Starting March 1, IRC began to keep all its new cases for two years. CCS will continue to transfer its cases to the Asian Association after six months, but the additional staff will allow the association to give the new refugees increased attention during the following year and a half. The goal is for agencies' caseload to drop to about 20 per case manager.
Before the move, stories abounded of refugees who hadn't seen their caseworkers for a long time and didn't know how to get help, explained Gerald Brown, the director of Utah's new refugee services office. With long-term case management, that is expected to stop.
"We've got contracts with all three [agencies], and we're going to monitor them," he said.
Staff morale is high at CCS, said Aden Batar, resettlement director. An additional boon will come when some refugee families begin to receive new housing subsidies this year, decreasing monthly rent pressure.
"With these two things working together, then I think we can work with the families on long-term issues," he said, citing English skills as an example.
His counterpart at IRC, Patrick Poulin, believes this is the direction refugee programs "need to go."
"Hopefully it's something the new administration will look at," he said.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11968051
jlyon@sltrib.com

"If we live, too much difficult. If we die, too much difficult,"

Forum website address: >>> http://vermont-bhutanese-association.blogspot.com/

Portions of this were excerpted from the: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-recessionrefugees_01met.ART.State.Edition1.4ac0e99.html

"A Bhutanese refugee died recently in his Vickery Meadow apartment in Dallas, within walking distance of Lal Subba's home. The family had no money for a burial, so Subba and the other Bhutanese families in the complex took up a collection to ensure the elderly man received appropriate honor for the life he led.

"If we live, too much difficult. If we die, too much difficult," said the 21-year-old who grew up in a Nepal refugee camp and came to Dallas in October, only to find a flailing national economy instead of the idealized American dream.

That reality is now hitting Texas (and Vermont), where laid-off workers and legal immigrants are vying for a declining number of jobs in blue-collar industries.

Purna Ghaley (left) and Lal Subba, refugees from Bhutan, walk to the Park Lane transit station for their commute to downtown Dallas, where they work for a catering company. They and their families moved to Dallas last fall to start new lives after living in a refugee camp in Nepal. " Photos by SONYA N. HEBERT/DMN"

Texas has suffered less than its Midwestern counterparts and has no plans to slow its refugee influx. It took in a little more than 5,000 refugees last year, an increase of almost 800 from 2007. Texas generally places in the top four states for the number of refugees it accepts annually from the federal government. The state of Vermont accepts the largest number of refugees per capita, of any state. The problems in Vermont are severely compounded by the lack of a large and varied employer base. In Burlington, Vermont where most of the Vermont refugees are based, most USA residents are employed by local colleges, schools, the hospital, IBM and local, state and federal government offices. For the most part, these employers do not have any jobs that Bhutanese refugees qualify for. The problem is simple, Burlington, Vermont is a small town with a mostly "white-collar" oriented employment base, composed of just a few major employers.

"We are at the beginning stages of feeling the impact in Texas," said Caitriona Lyons, the state's refugee program coordinator. She said it's now taking longer to place refugees in jobs, thwarting the adjustment process and lessening their ability to become self-sufficient.

In Vermont, the overwhelming majority of Bhutanese refugees that have lived in Vermont for 5 months or longer, do not have any jobs and certainly not stable or sustainable jobs.

Subba is one of more than 1,000 refugees who arrived in Dallas as the nation began its financial nose dive. A teacher by trade, he found a part-time job as a dishwasher after three months of searching. He makes $64 a day, sometimes working only one day a week. That barely covers the $555 in rent and utilities each month for himself and his mother. Food stamps leave enough for rice and vegetables. They choose sweaters over heat.

The $445 he receives monthly from the International Rescue Committee will trickle to $187 next month and stop in July, along with the Medicaid for his sick mother.

"I see people under the bridge and I think, 'Will that be me?' " he said in the halting English he learned in the camp. His Nepali ancestry put him at risk in Bhutan, and his refugee status left him shunned in Nepal.

"We are in the right place at the wrong time. This is a good country, but when we arrive here, it's too much difficult to get a job for all people, not just us."

About 60,000 refugees arrived in the U.S. last year – 8,000 more than in 2007. The number is expected to grow in 2009.

The Vermont refugees are supported with small monthly stipends for about the first 4 months. No other substantial services are offered by the resettlement agency. Many of them are placed in apartments that they cannot afford, once the first four months of meager stipend checks cease.

The solution is not to decrease the flow of refugees but to overhaul the entire system during the new administration, said one person. She wants more resources channeled toward housing assistance as well as programs that focus on the increasingly diverse pool of refugees entering the United States.

"This is a decision to rescue people in extraordinarily dire circumstances," she said, citing the nation's longstanding history of moral obligation.

The U.S. took in more than 90,000 refugees in the early 1980s when the economy teetered just as precariously as now, she said.

In Vermont and elsewhere, generally, the state the refugee agencies are well-staffed, however the refugees see almost no effect. Phone calls and messages to refugee agency employees are seldom returned. The refugee agency does not even answer their phones most of the time! The refugee agency is not even located in Burlington or Winooski where the majority of refugees are located. This causes major disruptions to refugees to trek via bus and foot to adjoining towns using a disjointed bus service. This is just the beginning of frustration and fear for the Bhutanese refugees. It gets much worse from there.

The stimulus package will affect refugees the same way it does lower-income Americans, but that still won't significantly help them, said Debi Wheeler, the IRC's regional director in Dallas. The search for jobs and housing is compounded by a culture shock that includes anything from buying a DART ticket to learning how to tell the difference between a $1 bill and a $20 bill.
"There is just not enough money for what we are required to do, and the recession is bringing to light the challenges that are faced by these programs," she said.

"Imagine finding an apartment in America for one person, and we are looking for hundreds."
Area caseworkers say it's even more difficult to find employment for refugees. Last May, IRC job developer Jim Stokes placed 11 to 12 people a week in positions. Now, he hopes for two to three a week. Prospects for gainful employment in Vermont are much more bleak.

Dallas hosts three federally funded refugee agencies: IRC, Catholic Charities and Refugee Services of Texas. Vermont hosts just one, even though more refugees were brought to the state than any other state, on a per capita basis. From the $6.2 million allocated through Texas, a little more than $1.6 million will go to Dallas this year. The agencies lobby for funding from the state government.

Portions of this were excerpted from http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-recessionrefugees_01met.ART.State.Edition1.4ac0e99.html

A Bhutanese leader in New York

Please listen to a neighbor of ours that now lives in the city of Syracuse, New York. CLICK >> on the video at : http://vermont-bhutanese-association.blogspot.com/

Festival of Color - Burlington, Vermont - HOLI HAI

Forum website address: >>> http://vermont-bhutanese-association.blogspot.com/

Holi Day - March 11, 2009
(click on the arrow in the lower left corner of the video below)




Click On the YouTube Videos Below >>>>>>>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nHcxnf5QwU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt8DkIiQOu8&playnext_from=PL&feature=PlayList&p=99F9B597A472E112&playnext=1&index=10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYLcZsNn9cE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b22levCGLE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u897I1PWL5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaFHvWLif_I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o8Cslm9uNc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO1lnR733Q&feature=related
http://humanityashore.com/ha/archives/40

Bhutanese people organize inportant event

From the >>> http://www.apfanews.com/stories/a-bhutanese-show-in-minnesota/

"A Bhutanese show in Minnesota

Posted on 03 March 2009 by the editor of AFPA. Minnesota, March 03, 2009:

Bhutanese recently resettled in the state of Minnesota in the USA, celebrated Bhutan Day on February 28 with a number of cultural shows, performances and a first conference in an attempt to visualize the atrocities of the Bhutanese government in early 1990s to evict them.
According to Barun Dhakal, more then 200 people attended the program, which was basically organized to empowered refugee youth and give Bhutanese a chance to learn more about Minnesota’s refugee services as well as get job hunting advice.

The event was planned by a small group of Bhutanese leaders and friends and the Nirvana Center (the first Bhutanese Center in the state) !!!

And the event was sponsored by:

the Asian Indian Family Wellness Center (SEWA),
the Asian Pacific Endowment Center (APEC),
the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT),
the Center for Asian Pacific Islanders (CAPI),
the Council for Asian Pacific Minnesotans,
Lutheran Social Services,
the St. Paul Foundation,
the World Council of Churches
and World Relief.

The event is expected to help teach western people about Bhutanese refugees, where only a few people know that there are currently about 106,000 refugees from Bhutan, primarily from Southern Bhutan, evicted when the government imposed a policy of one nation one people.
The morning started with an informational presentation on resources for refugees by Patricia Fenwick, executive director of World Relief, followed by breakout workshops on a choice of topics, employment, youth, elders and mental health."

From the >>>
http://www.apfanews.com/stories/a-bhutanese-show-in-minnesota/