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KENTUCKY REFUGEE MINISTRIES RECEIVES GRANT FROM THE FOUNDATION FOR A HEALTH KENTUCKY
June 7, 2007
The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has awarded Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) a
$5000 grant to support screening of refugees for physical and psychological trauma. As victims
of persecution, confinement, violence, and displacement, a high percentage of refugees are more
susceptible to mental health problems.
As a result of this grant, refugees will receive mental health screening to a greater extent than
the initial health screening. Kentucky Refugee Ministries' medical case management staff will
assist University of Louisville Medical School students with cultural competency training, to
use nationally recognized and tested mental health screenings.
Of the 400 refugee arrivals predicted for this year, approximately 60-65% of all new refugees,
those identified for referral to mental health services will receive mental health screenings and
follow-up care. This grant will ensure a healthier Kentucky environment for refugees to live in.
Press Contact: Carol Young, Executive Director, Kentucky Refugee Ministries. (502) 479-9180 x11
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Kentucky Refugee Ministries to Host Visiting Members of Parliament from Norway
February 26, 2007
Kentucky Refugee Ministries will host fourteen members of the Kingdom of Norway’s Parliament, who
will visit Louisville on Wednesday, February 28, as part of a mission to study the United States federal
refugee resettlement program. The delegation’s visit is being coordinated by Episcopal Migration
Ministries, one of 10 national voluntary agencies participating in the U.S. Department of State’s Refugee
Reception and Placement program, a public-private partnership through which refugees resettled in the
U.S receive basic assistance during their initial period in the country. Kentucky Refugee Ministries, a
refugee resettlement agency founded in 1990 with offices in Louisville and Lexington, is the local affiliate
of Episcopal Migration Ministries.
After briefings from Episcopal Migration Ministries’ staff in New York and State Department refugee
program administrators in Washington D.C., the Norwegian delegation will fly to Louisville, Kentucky, a
city whose successful integration of more than 10,000 refugees from over 30 countries during the last
decade has made it a preferred community nationally for refugee resettlement. In Louisville the delegation
will meet with Kentucky Refugee Ministries’ staff and clients, observe the agency’s English language and
cultural orientation programs, make home visits to meet with refugee families, and visit area businesses
that employee refugees. Members of the delegation will also visit Catholic Charities Migration and
Refugee Services, the Kentucky Office of Refugees, and meet with Omar Ayyash, Director of the
Louisville Metro Office for International Affairs.
An invitation-only reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. at Bishop’s Hall, Christ Church Episcopal
Cathedral, 425 South Second Street, Louisville, KY 40202.
Press Contact: Carol Young, Executive Director, Kentucky Refugee Ministries. 502.479.9180 x11
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| KRM Receives CIR Interfaith Award |
November, 2006
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KRM Case Manager Semsudin Haseljic addresses an Interfatih Breakfast sponsored by the Center for Interfaith Relations.
The Center for Interfaith Relations (formerly the Cathedral Heritage Foundation) awarded their inaugural Hearts in Harmony Award to Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM). The Center's Harmony Awards honor houses of worship, centers and other organizations in Metro Louisville whose programs or activities encourage ecumenical or inter-religious connections. The Hearts in Harmony Award recognized KRM for promoting interfaith dialogue between its staff and partnering church congregations and its diverse refugee clients. Since its founding in 1990, KRM has resettled over 4,500 refugees in Kentucky from over 30 countries, including sizeable groups of Muslim refugees from Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Somalia, and the former Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union.
The Hearts in Harmony Award was presented at an Interfaith Breakfast held on November 9th at the Louisville Gardens. The breakfast was part of the Center for Interfaith Relations' 2006 Festival of Faiths, held November 5 - 11.
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International Youth Create a Gift for Louisville through Art
For Immediate Release: 10/19/06
Louisville’s South End neighborhood, home to a growing international population, is receiving a gift from some of the city’s youngest residents.
A dozen local students, all children of immigrants or resettled refugees, are collaborating to transfer their ideas, creations and inspirations onto a 50-foot brick canvas. The mural they will create is, appropriately, themed “Empowerment Through Literacy.” And this
handiwork will stay right in the South End, located on the north wall of the ValuMarket at Iroquois Manor – across the street from Rutherford Elementary School.
The participating student artists are from Cuba, Vietnam, Russia and Sudan. Together with local artist Nico Jorcino, who was first trained in architecture in his home country of Argentina, they are doing their part to leave the neighborhood with a lasting piece of
community art.
The students spent several two-hour sessions over the summer learning the basics about art and painting from Mr. Jorcino and local volunteers, as well as exploring their own ideas about how literacy empowers them in their new community. When the mural is complete, it will feature Mr. Jorcino’s base design interspersed with the students’ images.
The students are working now to transfer their ideas onto the 50-foot expanse of wall over the next few Saturdays in the hopes that they can unveil their work on November 11th.
This project is funded through the Kentucky Arts Council thanks to a collaboration of Americorps VISTAs (Volunteers In Service To America) placed in programs around the Louisville metro community. The VISTAs are fundamental in the execution of the mural project. Participating members include Rachel Hershberg and Erin Driesbach representing Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Liz Shaffer-Wishner at Lac Viet Academy,
and Desiree Jones, placed with Every1Reads. All are serving members of the federallyfunded program. Similar to the Peace Corps, Americorps VISTAs are college graduates sent to work in impoverished areas and non-profit organizations across the United States.
Community volunteer artists have donated just as much time and artistic talent to the project as the VISTAs. Joe Welsh and Kim Sandage, graduates of Murray State’s art program, have been instrumental in teaching the kids their first artistic techniques – including the concept of symbolism – and helping them to paint each Saturday.
Contacts:
Rachel Hershberg, Youth Services Coordinator, Kentucky Refugee Ministries
(502) 479-9180 x.51 kyrmrow@bellsouth.net
Desiree P. Jones, Outreach Coordinator, Every1Reads
(502) 625-0210 djones@greaterlouisville.com
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Refugees Unintended Victims of Material Support Bar
August, 2006 |
Thousands of refugees who have already suffered persecution at the hands of some of the world's most repressive governments and brutal armed rebel movements are themselves being unfairly charged with supporting terrorism and denied admission to the United States under the "material support" provisions of the 2001 U.S. Patriot Act and the 2005 Real ID act.
The misapplication of these antiterrorism laws to refugees is evident in the case of a Liberian refugee was denied resettlement in the United States because she fetched water and cooked for a notorious Liberian rebel group. No matter that her "material support" for the rebels came after they had kidnapped her family and repeatedly raped her and her 13-year-old daughter.
A Burmese refugee, a member of the ethnic Chin minority, was denied asylum because he provided food and shelter to three soldiers from the Chin National Front (CNF) who visited his village. The Justice Department's Board of Immigration Appeals acknowledged that the man did not himself engage in any terrorist activities and "poses no danger whatsoever to the national security of the United States." The Board also wrote that it is "doubtful that the CNF would be considered a terrorist organization" since it engages primarily in "self-defense against the Burmese government, a known human rights abuser that has engaged in systematic persecution of Burmese ethnic minorities, including the Chin Christians," adding that the Burmese government is one of the "more repressive in the world" and "is not recognized by the United States as legitimate." Nonetheless, in denying the man's appeal for asylum, the Board concluded: "We cannot ignore the clear language that Congress choose in the material support provisions."
Recognizing that refugees have become the unintended victims of this material support language, a bipartisan group in Congress is supporting a bill, H.R. 5918, introduced by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA). H.R. 5918 would prevent legitimate pro-democracy movements from being classified as terrorist organizations. It also would prevent refugees from being denied admission to the U.S. refugee resettlement program on the basis of support they provided to terrorist groups under coercion or duress.
H.R. 5918 needs more Congressional co-sponsors. The Refugee Council USA's website has extensive background information and links related to the material support admissions bar. We ask all those concerned about the labeling of bona fide refugees in need of protection as supporters of terrorism to bring this issue to the attention of your Congressional representatives and ask them to support H.R. 5918.
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Local Hotels Depend on Refugee Workers Five-Star Employees
July, 2006
Edwina, a refugee from Liberia, takes time out from her job as a housekeeper at the Seelbach Hotel to pose for a photo with her supervisors.
Many refugees, particularly women, work as housekeepers, laundry workers, banquet servers and other positions in Louisville's growing hotel industry. The links below explore from several aspects the impact of refugees on this important sector of our local economy.
These photos (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4) show two Somali Bantu women receiving pre-employment training at Kentucky Refugee Ministries to prepare themselves for their new housekeeping jobs at the Hilton Garden Inn.
For Cuban refugee Yarima Gonzalez, who arrived in Louisville in 2002, her first job as a housekeeper served as a stepping stone to a supervisory position, and underlined the importance of continuing her education. She contributed this article to the Fall 2004 edition of inSpirit, KRM's newsletter.
On a less positive note, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of four Somali Bantu refugee women accusing a downtown hotel of unlawful religious discrimination. The women claim they were denied housekeeping positions after refusing to remove their traditional Muslim head scarves as a condition of employment.
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Louisville's International Population
Louisville's sizeable refugee communities figure prominently in a detailed profile of the city's international population prepared by the Urban Institute. The report was commissioned by the Louisville Metro Office for International Affairs.
A Profile of the Foreign-Born in the Louisville Metropolitan Area
Full Report (pdf) * Summary (pdf)
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