I’m in Nashville, TN.  It’s a beautiful place with rolling hills and country music in the air.  Deborah and I are experiencing our first out-of-town business trip for Asha’s Refuge.  We are learning more about the refugee situation in the state of Tennessee and how other organizations handle helping them receive successful resettlement.  It’s neat to me to be in Nashville to see and hear other people who have hearts to serve their refugee community.  Their experiences sound so familiar to me.  It encourages me to know that I have not been dreaming up a need for continued refugee support after the initial few months of assistance they receive from the resettlement agency.   The resettlement agencies truly need the support of communities in order to really help refugee families.  Asha’s Refuge wants to help.

Yesterday Deborah and I met two other agencies similar to ours.  They were working with preschoolers and assisting moms with various needs related to their resettlement.  Their preschool area seemed to be newly taking shape.  It was interesting that they also recognized the need for early english learning for the preschoolers so that they could have a head start into the American school system.

The agencies we met seem to also be encouraging men and assisting them with job skills.  But, tutoring English to all refugees was at the top of every agencies list. Without better English skills refugees are not successful in school, finding jobs, the transportation systems or altogether understanding how to function in their new world around them.

Each of the agencies we met seemed to be still working at pulling themselves together as a daily functioning business to help serve the needs of their refugee community. It was good to see some like-minded people who had similar experiences to ours.  We now know we aren’t the only ones trying to figure out the best ways to offer encouragement to the refugee community and not create a  dependency.

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I started this post while I was in Nashville and now I have returned.  The trip was good for us to be able to learn from other agencies who serve refugees along side of the resettlement agency like we do.  It seemed to me that serving in this industry is something sort of new.  Catholic Charities of West Tennessee has been serving refugees since 1975 (smiles…the year I was born).  I’m uncertain how many refugee immigrants were being resettled in the beginning, but there are easily 200 plus refugee families being resettled into the Memphis area each year now.  Each year that passes by, there are more and more refugees in our community who are in need of further assistance that extends beyond what the resettlement agency has been set up to offer them.  There are only a few initial months of services that are available to a refugee through the resettlement agency.  After that short time has passed, refugees must provide for themselves financially in order to have food on their table, a house to live in, water and utilities turned on and clothes on their backs.  Many refugees are simply not ready.  Perhaps the need for an organization like Asha’s Refuge to come alongside of the resettlement agency to help support disadvantaged refugees who have in a sense “timed out” or have a “case closed” with the resettlement agency is altogether a newer concept here in the US.

I think Catholic Charities and other major resettlement agencies have done a great job at recognizing the need to be a part of the rescue team for those people all over the world who are being terribly persecuted in their home countries.  They have stepped up to the plate and have obtained legal rights to assist all nations of people in resettling their families into safer living conditions.  But, they cannot do this alone.  They need the help from each community.

It is clear that there is certain criteria, rules, regulations and requirements from our government that are placed on the shoulders of each resettlement agency who is funded with various government grants.  Sometimes it seems that the resettlement agency sort of gets their hands tied by all of these rules and paperwork that they can become unable to do everything they might love to do for the refugee community themselves.   That’s why Asha’s Refuge and other agencies like Asha’s Refuge need to exist!  I am hopeful that we can continue to learn more and that doors and hearts will open for Asha’s Refuge, the community, churches and our government to work as a team.