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Posts Tagged ‘American Refugee Committee’

Music Class in Refugee Camp

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on March 30, 2016| 4 Comments »

The American Refugee Committee, or ARC, is a wonderful nonprofit that periodically sends me news from its headquarters in Minneapolis. Recently, I learned about its Welcome Home blog, which reports on the organization’s Changemaker initiatives, including this music collaboration in Thailand’s Dong Yang Refugee Camp.

“Every year,” writes ARC, “we hold a global ideas competition with our staff around the world. We love seeing the inspiring, new ideas that are submitted.

“This year, we were excited to see one of these ideas come to life in Thailand. Facilitated by ARC and Playing for Change, an organization using music to connect people around the world, this Changemaker idea brought together kids in Dong Yang refugee camp for a two day music workshop including creative, visual arts projects and music lessons.

“For young kids stuck inside the confines of a refugee camp, the workshop provided a much-needed creative outlet. One participating staff member remarked, ‘The participants so thoroughly enjoyed the activity and lost track of time while participating because they were so involved.’

“A group from Minneapolis had the chance to travel to Dong Yang to participate in the workshop and production of a music video.” More at blogspot.

Here’s hoping that the two days will lead to a lot more for these children.

Photo: American Refugee Committee

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Sharing Your Farm with Immigrant Farmers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A Lancaster, Massachusetts, woman who came to the country at age 12 without a word of English is giving back by helping immigrants get a start in farming — and her model is being picked up around the nation.

Jane Dornbusch at the Boston Globe writes, “Maria Moreira, 62, is fond of the proverb ‘Necessity is the mother of invention.’ When her kids were small and she and her husband had a dairy farm in this Central Massachusetts town, she had plenty of milk, hungry kids to feed, and a need to make a little money.

“So she started a business making a soft Portuguese cheese — she calls it simply Portuguese fresh cheese — that reflected her roots in the Azores, where she was born.

“That was in 1986. A year earlier, she had seen another need, and, in her own inventive way, she’d set about meeting it. Moreira and her husband, Manny, had a 70-acre field, not far from their farm, that they used to grow corn.

“A Hmong woman, an immigrant from Laos, approached Moreira about using a small corner of the field to grow her own crops. Soon, word spread, and little by little the entire field was given over to immigrant farmers, each in charge of his or her own plot. Today, says Moreira, 275 farmers are growing more than 75 kinds of vegetables at what is now called Flats Mentor Farm. …

“Gus Schumacher, former Massachusetts commissioner of food and agriculture, came to know Moreira’s work when he served as a USDA undersecretary in the late ’90s. He notes that she was among a handful of leaders — others included John Ogonowski (one of the pilots killed on 9/11) and Jennifer Hashley, of New Entry Sustainable Farming Project — supporting refugees and immigrants in establishing themselves as farmers and market gardeners. It’s a movement that has since gained momentum nationally, he says. ‘But it all started in Massachusetts.’ ”

More at the Globe, here.

Photo: Joanne Rathe/Globe Staff
Maria Moreira, of Flats Mentor Farm, holds some lemon basil.

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Clowning Without Borders

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 30, 2015| 2 Comments »

It’s hard to read about the deprivations of refugees, especially the children and especially in winter. That’s why I appreciate hearing about any kindness extended to them. National Public Radio recently had a story on the kindness of Clowns without Borders.

Laura Secorun-Palet writes, “On a cold November morning, 300 children gather in a soccer field in Zaatari, a Jordanian village next to the country’s largest refugee camp. …

“Today the children are not lining up to collect food coupons or clothes from NGOs: They are here to watch the clowns.

“On the ‘stage’ — a space in front of a velvet curtain covering the goal — a tall, blond woman performs a handstand while doing the splits, while two other performers run around clapping and making funny faces. As the upside-down woman pretends to fall, the children burst into laughter.

“The performers are circus artists from Sweden …

“Clowns Without Borders is a global network of nonprofit organizations that, for the past 20 years, has been spreading laughter in the world’s saddest places. The group’s most recent annual report says more than 385 artists performed 1,164 shows for its chapters in 2012 in 38 countries, both in the developing world and for refugees and other disadvantaged children in Western countries.

” ‘It’s very important to give kids a chance to be kids again,’ explains Lilja Fredriksson, one of the Swedish performers.” More here.

Another way to help refugees is through the wonderful Minneapolis-based nonprofit American Refugee Committee.

Photo: Bilal Hussein/AP
Lebanese clown Sabine Choucair, a member of “Clowns Without Borders,” performs for children in June at a Syrian refugee camp in the eastern town of Chtoura, Lebanon.

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