A Word from the Director. Standing for the Vulnerable: Welcome Team

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1 A Word from the Director "The holidays have changed for me since I met my first refugee in The more I have built friendships with and served those fleeing war and persecution, the more Thanksgiving and Christmas have changed for the better. Being thankful is no longer a fleeting decorative phrase between trick or treating and stockings on the mantle. And Away in a Manger and the welcoming of Christ as a stranger now make my eyes water. Happily. This holiday season, please join us and do what you can to welcome refugees, for as we welcome them, we welcome Christ. I leave you with His words: Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom for I was a foreigner, and ye took me in (Matthew 25:31-35)." -Adam Clark, Office Director Standing for the Vulnerable: Welcome Team First impressions can matter a great deal, especially when traveling to a new place that is to become your new home. When refugees first arrive at the RDU airport, they are exhausted from their long journeys to the United States and are overwhelmed with the unfamiliarity of the new environment and culture. Some arrive without family or friends for comfort and support, making the transition even more taxing. This is where World Relief Durham s Welcome Teams come in. Welcome Teams---comprised of two to eight people---are the first the greet partnered refugees and welcome them to their new homes in North Carolina. The Welcome Team assists refugees with their luggage, drives them to their new apartments, goes over a brief housing/safety checklist, and leaves them with a culturally appropriate meal. Once their new international friends have been settled in, the Welcome

2 Team goes on their way, hopefully to meet up with them again in the future. Nural Amin (pictured top right) is a Burmese refugee who was resettled in the Triangle through World Relief Durham. He fled his home in Burma in 1994 due to the armed conflict, and he and his family have lived in a refugee camp in Bangladesh ever since. In Bangladesh, they were not allowed to leave the refugee camp, and Burmese refugees were disliked by the local people. Life continued to be difficult for him, especially when he lost his leg in an accident a year ago. When he arrived in the United States, he didn t know anyone, as he was forced to leave his wife and children behind in Bangladesh. He and another Burmese refugee were on the same flight and were greeted by the same Welcome Team and interpreter at RDU. Their Welcome Team made a sign for them and presented them with gifts: Duke baseball caps and Nalgene water bottles. Nural Amin says it felt nice to have someone waiting for him there at the airport and that it gave him hope for the freedom he would experience living in America. The Welcome Team that greeted Nural Amin upon his arrival was the Smith family: Jordan, Trevor, and their kids (pictured left). With three young children and a fourth on the way, Jordan and Trevor weren t quite ready to commit to a volunteer position with a lengthy or regular time commitment, so the Welcome Team was a perfect fit. Being new to the area, they saw it as a way to get more involved with their community outside of church, to grow more aware of different people groups, and to introduce their children to a new pocket of Durham. Jordan says that the refugees they welcomed were very quiet and tired from the journey. Because the men didn t speak English, Jordan and her family relied on an interpreter, another Burmese refugee, to communicate with them. After bringing the men to their new apartment, they provided them with a meal of chicken, rice, green beans, and baklava---a taste of home in an unfamiliar place. She says that the most rewarding part of her volunteer experience was getting to watch her kids get excited and curious about refugees in general and getting to respond to the major news headlines about the refugee crisis. We ve learned a lot about Burma this week, and it was a real honor to get to be a part of these men s arrival, she says. Welcome Teams are a great volunteer choice for those interested in forming connections with refugees in a group setting and for a short period of time. They are an ideal way to test if you d be a good fit for one of WRD s more long-term commitments, like Friendship partners or Good Neighbor Teams. Consider forming a Welcome Team and standing for the vulnerable as they first arrive in the United States.

3 Career Opportunities Finance Specialist A part-time position for someone with a finance degree or experience who wants to help support our ministry buy cutting checks, paying bills, and helping with budgets a few days per week. Click here for more information. Refugee AmeriCorps Preferred Communities Specialist A one-year AmeriCorps position for a refugee or former refugee. This person will leverage the impact of the Preferred Communities program by serving as a cultural broker to refugees participating in the program. More information will be posted about this career opportunity in the next few days and can be found here. Interested in giving to WRD but not sure what we need? The items at the top of our list of needs are large pots and pans, umbrellas, and winter coats and sweaters (especially men sizes small and medium). If you need a reminder of what donation items we accept, find out more information here. Match Grant Give your time or treasure, and federal funding will add double-match to your donations, benefiting the refugee community.

4 The Federal Match Grant program exists to empower refugees to become employed and self-sufficient in 180 days without ever enrolling in welfare programs or accessing public cash assistance. Refugee self-sufficiency is reached through extended case management and employment services, and most importantly, volunteer involvement. Starting this month: To have the impact of your donations stretched or to volunteer with a Match Grant refugee, contact klaw@wr.org. The same volunteer opportunities still exist! Contract Work Opportunities Want to get paid to set up refugees' new homes? WRD is hiring contract workers to help with apartment set-ups for refugees. If you want to learn more about this opportunity for occasional work, contact Jenny Bodnar for more information. ( WRDresettlement@wr.org Phone: ) International Work Spotlight: Rwanda Did you know that World Relief is empowering leaders in local churches around the world, not just here in the United States? WR is currently serving, equipping and empowering local churches in 19 countries to serve and partner with some of the world's most vulnerable populations. For the next several months, we will feature a few of these countries. Learn how you can partner with them through prayer.

5 Program Overview: Year Piloted: 1994 Country Director: Moses Ndahiro Church Empowerment Zones: CEZs in Rwanda are creating a revolutionary movement. All 4 CEZs have at least five major WRR interventions (local church mobilization and empowerment, mobilizing for life, SFL, child development, and OVC, and there is continued efforts to integrate them in Church systems. Names of CEZs as follows: Kicukiro, Musanze, Bugesera, and Nyamasheke. Integral Mission/Church Empowerment: Rwanda is building the capacity of CNCs to build strong networks of church leaders that can lead a collaboration process. WRR is training church leaders in Mindset transformation, TTC, and mobilizing church to implement ministries in the community. Child Survival: The purpose of this program is to reduce morbidity, mortality, and underlying nutrition of children under five and pregnant women in Nyamagabe District of Rwanda. Savings for Life: WR s Savings curricula also includes a Bible study guide for the savings groups so that the Savings Group members have the opportunity to not only benefit financially but also grow spiritually through Bible study, reflection and accountability. Child Development:

6 The Child Development program goal is of mobilizing, equipping, and strengthening the local church to bring about the physical, social, and spiritual development of children ages 5 to 15. Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) : The strategy of this focus is Church implemented, family focused, holistic, and give priority to girls. WR hopes to see OVC s active and valued participants in homes, churches, and community life. Water Project (20 Litres): This project works in partnership with local churches to improve health through clean water initiatives by increasing access to improved water sources and improving the quality of water through filtration. HIV/AIDS (Mobilizing for Life): The purpose of this program is to increase the capacity of local churches in Rwanda to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and reduce new HIV infections in Rwanda by developing church based HIV/AIDS action plans, promoting holistic prevention methods, and serving people living with HIV/AIDS. Pray for World Relief Rwanda: In Thanksgiving We praise God for the church unity we see among different denominations and the ownership of programs the churches are having through our church empowerment work. We are grateful for the results and recommendations that came out of the formative evaluation of our pilot outreach groups, a component of the CEZ model that allows churches to saturate households in communities with transformational messages related to health, social and economic development. For the 12+ girl s empowerment program, we praise God for the continued positive change in our beneficiaries (girls aged 10-12) through the program and the ongoing support and

7 ownership of the program from the community (parents, local leaders ). Pray that this ownership grows further. For the Savings for Life (SFL) program, we praise God for the success we have seen so far in the recent initiative to mobilize local church leaders in forming SFL committees. These SFL committees aim to increase program ownership by the Church and we now have SFL committees established in all Church Empowerment Zones (CEZs) composed of key church volunteers and church leaders. We praise God for the successful restructure of the Water project and the new staff that joined the project on September 1st. In Supplication Pray for the Rwandan families, that they will provide a safe, nurturing environment for growth, Godly values and development of the next generation. Pray for the pastors in Rwanda, the shepherds who faithfully and lovingly serve the churches in the midst of many social, economic and spiritual problems that God will continue to strengthen and give them wisdom to influence this nation toward good. Pray for the 12+ program as we expand its reach by more than doubling the targeted beneficiaries, and as we look to hire 10 additional staff to aid this expansion. For wisdom and favor in this process. Pray for continued safety, unity, strength and good health of staff and their families, and that our Christian faith will stay central to our identity and motive in what we do. Pray a blessing upon our donors and partners who give generously so we can be able to serve the churches in Rwanda that give hope to the most vulnerable in word and deed.