The Changing Faces of Mid-Michigan Event a Success

A fun night was had by all as a crowd of people from around the world gathered in the fellowship hall of University Lutheran Church last Thursday night to celebrate and welcome many of Lansing’s newest arrivals.   

 Sponsored by the Red Cross, the evening consisted of speeches and cultural presentations by two recently resettle groups-the Burmese and the Bhutanese.  Several awards were also presented to places and people in the Lansing community who have worked hard to make mid-Michigan a welcoming home to these refugees from around the world.

Presented by the American Red Cross International Services Forum Committe:

“The Changing Faces of Mid-Michigan: Introducing the Cultures of Bhutan and Myanmar”

FREE EVENT

A look at the challenges and sucesses of Bhutanese and Burmese refugees in the Mid-Michigan Community.  We celebrate the cultures of Bhutan and Myanmar and welcome these refugees into our community. 

 Includes:

•International food donated by local restaurants

•Performances from ethnic refugee groups

•Speakers from two major refugee groups resettled in Mid-Michigan

Thursday, March 19th  5:30 to 7:30 PM
University Lutheran Church
1020 S. Harrison Road

For more information please call: (517) 484-7461 ext. 167

Sponsored by the American Red Cross: Mid Michigan Chapter with support from St. Vincent Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services, and the Refugee Development Center.

From the Lansing State Journal, Thursday December 4, 2008:

Art from the heart: Refugee kids’ ideas shape mural

Matthew Miller
mrmiller@lsj.com

The cluster of children in the basement of Christ Lutheran Church weren’t shy about what they’d accomplished.

“I painted some bicycles,” said Isaac Fayia, an 11-year-old who had come to Lansing as a refugee from Liberia. “I painted a house. I painted the sun and the moon.”

They were waiting Wednesday night for the unveiling of a mural in a hallway on the upper floor of the church, near the offices of the Refugee Development Center, a bright rendering of the state Capitol with a river winding around it, of bicycles and birds, fish and people, houses and neighborhoods.

Many of the children from the Refugee Development Center didn’t speak English very well, he said, “and everybody had their own vision for what the mural should look like and different background experiences.”

But ideas emerged in conversation, in communication that sometimes involved smiles and gestures as much as words, said Virginia Borcherdt, an MSU senior who worked on the mural.

As for the children, and there was a rotating cast of perhaps 15 of them, “many of them have never had any experience doing any kind of formal art, so that was a huge benefit to them,” center Director Shirin Kambin Timms said.

And not just formal art, but art as a form of community activism.

Delgado said projects such as this start with an effort to bring art “out of the studio and into the real world, into the streets and classrooms and get people to make art together, to share their visions, their dreams, their hopes.

“It’s almost like having a conversation,” he said, “but it’s a visual conversation.”

Additional Facts

On the Web:

At the RDC, we’re grateful to be a part of One Book One Community this season. A partnership between the City of East Lansing and MSU, One Book has chosen to feature “They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky” this year (authored by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak with Judy A. Bernstein). This book tells the harrowing tale of the Sudanese Lost Boys and their refugee journey. For more information please visit www.onebook.msu.edu

On September 14^th the RDC will be featured as part of the Echoes of Africa event, from 1 to 2:30 PM at Adams Field on the MSU campus. Experience the sounds of African drumming and participate in storytelling, crafts and other cultural activities. Visit the One Book, One Community events page for more details.

by Shirin Kambin Timms

Welcome to our new web page! As you may know, we were the fortunate recipients of a grant from the Compassion Capitol Fund this summer which allowed us to improve the RDC and bring better than ever services to the wonderful and inspiring clients we are privileged to work with each day.

If you have not seen all the changes please stop by and check it out! We have a new computer lab, an improved children’s area and lots of bright paint to make the center look like the hopeful place we have always felt it to be. Many thanks to the folks and organizations who helped us get here (please see the list below).

The RDC will reopen for fall on Monday September 22nd at 1 pm. Our new drop-in service hours will be Monday - Thursday, 1pm-9pm, thus leaving the morning hours for specialized classes and projects.

We’re excited to offer adult English classes this fall and an after-school youth program focused on ESL tutoring and cultural orientation/leadership. We also have some special projects scheduled that we’ll tell you about soon.

Finally, we are very excited to introduce our new VISTA, Laura Havenga, to you. Laura is a recent graduate from MSU and was very involved in helping us build capacity at the RDC this summer. Laura will be focusing her efforts on ESL and our growing youth program. Welcome Laura - we’re so glad to have you!

Before we close we would like to thank the following groups and individuals for all their help in building the new RDC:

The leadership and staff of the Power of We and the Compassion Capitol Fund who had the vision to make all this possible

Our mentors Monica Kwasnik and Amanda Menzies

Adie Slaton & Spartan Christian Fellowship for teaching us how to become better painters!

David Brown, Matt Penniman and Mike Flynn for their IT and web page assistance

Affordable Flooring

James Stepper, Meagan Whaley and so many other dedicated volunteers

Capitol Fundraising Associates for believing in us and teaching us how to grow

Kathy Walsh for simply being Kathy!

The members and leadership of Christ Lutheran Church for additional funds to do the extras that made a difference

MSU’s Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement for helping us keep our programming afloat as we dedicated ourselves to building capacity this summer!

All the unsung heroes who each and every day inspire us to keep going — you are many and we thank you.