Latest Update from Sacramento about Bhutanese Refugee families support program - Feb. 14, 2009
New families are coming to Sacramento area approx. every two weeks and with that number of Bhutanese people covered by Samarthan has now reached to 70.
Sampark:
Team of sewa/hss/annapoorna volunteers are regularly maintaining close contact with existing Bhutanese parivar as well as new families coming from Nepal.
Team has consolidated distribution of essential items into a Family Kit model. A kit consists of orientation material + Blankets/Jackets + kitchen utensils and two sets of kits were distributed to two new families during the weekend of Feb. 7th.
Though govt. agencies have been placing this new families in different locations, an increase in the strength of the local volunteer team has facilitated simultaneous distribution of relief supplies to them.
Transportation/medical needs:
Some used bicycles were purchased and handed over to these families in various apartments. They have been using them as job transportation and for job searching. Sewa volunteers also helped one family (living in an isolated location) by driving a U-haul truck to move them to an apartment complex where we already have good strength of Bhutanese people. Additionally the team continues proving them rides to grocery stores, hospitals, immigration offices etc.
DMV exams:
We have also answered several of their questions regarding DMV driving exams and so far 4 of them have passed the written exam and are ready to learn driving. One of them scored 36 out of 36 on the driving test written exam!!
They have also been enabled and trained to identify and use public transportation where available. The team of sewa/Annapoorna is also doing some research and spending time to find a less expensive used car which can be utilized to teach them driving.
Internet Center:
Three internet centers have already been setup and functioning since last two months. We are currently in the process of setting up two more computers for the new families. These computers were donated by local Indian community.
Jobs:
A total of 8 people have got jobs so far a good improvement since last month (when only 3 of them had jobs). From Sewa we also facilitated a bhutanese translator job for them. A number of them also work on Saturdays and with only Sunday off. Also two of them who have jobs now want to help rest of their own community member in some way and are ready to take some small responsibility as sewa volunteer. More details below in relief mgmt section.
Corporate Level Support:
A part of the donations mentioned below have been distributed to the Bhutanese families during last two weekends.
One of the local volunteer working for Intel Corp in Folsom took a great initiative by having the Intel Finance group in Folsom sponsor a holiday drive to support Bhutanese families. This holiday drive resulted in about 80 handbags full of items like sweatshirts/pants, socks, clothes for men/women/kids, bed sheets, comforters, towels, kids toys, winter caps, gloves, shampoos, some jewelery items etc. Each handbag had items worth $15, with a total of $1200 worth of goods in all 80bags.
Relief materials management:
As some of the Bhutanese young people are ready spend little time to help their own people, we have started keeping a small amount of relief supplies at their locations, so when new families come they can distribute some of the essential items they may need. A few of them also help in making kits out of relief supplies and helping newly arriving families with job search.
Links to Samarthan Pictures:
New photos for 2009 have been appended to: http://www.hssus.org/gallery/v/WCOAST/SAC/SAMARTHAN
For Questions/Queries, Please contact sewasac@sbcglobal.net or (916)390-2604
Bhutanese Refugee Empowerment Program Update - Dec. 20, 2008
Three more families arrived recently in last two weeks and with that there are now 13 Bhutanese families (total 52 members) in Sacramento area.
Sampark:
Team of Sewa International//annapoorna volunteers have been visiting them every weekend (and weekdays as well if needed) delivering them relief supplies as per their needs. Last weekend (Dec.13) our team delivered 7 winter jackets, 5 large size comforters, sweatshirts/pants, formal shirts/pants, 13 different pots of kitchen utensils, plates, bowls etc. to the newly arrived families as well as some existing families. Pictures from this event have been posted at the link below.
Transportation/medical needs:
Local volunteers are also giving them ride to buy groceries, take them to hospitals and emergency rooms when some of refugees are sick and need transportation. A week ago, one of our volunteer gave ride to the needy family late at night to take them to the emergency room and stayed with them till midnight. In non-emergency situations, they are being enabled and trained to identify and use public transportation where available. They have also been trained to use one of the three internet centers to find local bus routes.
Internet Center:
Three internet centers have been setup and are being very well utilized by them. With this facility, they are able to submit several resumes daily to potential employers and also able to follow-up quickly on job interview related tasks. We found a English to Nepalese translator job for them and they have already interviewed for it. Demos have been given on how to use internet for emails, job search, transportation etc. Our local team has also paid for first few months of their internet charges.
Jobs:
Two more people got jobs recently -- One at a local grocery store and another at a local Nepalese restaurant in Sacramento. They were also given lot of help to identify and purchase a used sewing machine from a local thrift store for a bargain price. They are very excited about this since some of the refugee members are good at sewing skills and see this as a small scale self sustaining effort especially for the women in their families. A number of them also plan to attend a job fair this month in Auburn, CA
Books and Library:
The Bhutanese families have also been given several books/magazines, as they had requested, on various topics. The younger people in their families have been making very good use of local libraries after our initial guidance.
Corporate Level Support:
One of the local volunteer working for Intel Corp in Folsom took a great initiative by having the Intel Finance group in Folsom sponsor a holiday drive to support Bhutanese families. This holiday drive resulted in about 80 handbags full of items like sweatshirts/pants, socks, clothes for men/women/kids, bed sheets, comforters, towels, kids toys, winter caps, gloves, shampoos, some jewelery items etc. Each handbag had items worth $15, with a total of $1200 worth of goods in all 80bags. She was also able to collect large amount of non-perishable food items and a cash amount of approx. $250 which she plans to utilize for donating bicycles to the Bhutanese families.
Relief materials management:
Local sewa volunteers spent several hours sorting out about 25 large bags of donated material into different categories for men, women and kids and also took notes of the current inventory of donated materials.
November
Latest Update from Sacramento about Bhutanese families support program -- Samarthan
With the three more families who arrived recently in last week, there are now 10 Bhutanese families (42 members) in Sacramento area. Last week we visited another temple -- Sri Siddhivinayak Mandir in Sacramento area where we had arranged for an orientation program for them and parasadam. Ten volunteers from HSS, Sewa International, kannada sangh, Annapoorna provided transportation and other help to bring these families from their apartments to the temple. The families enjoyed the puja, mangal aarti which was followed by delicious prasadam prepared by temple volunteers.
The prasadam was followed by an orientation program that covered variety of topics mentioned below. The orientation program was divided in two parts -- Part I was joint orientation for both men and women covering common family topics and Part II was a separate sessions for men and women covering specific needs of each group.
List of topics covered -- safety and emergency information, local transportation, phone calling cards, medicine OTC vs. prescription, Internet, Bank accts, job search, education at local community colleges, resume writing and interview tips etc. How to make good use of libraries was also covered, a lot of questions related to DMV, driving license were also answered.
One of our volunteer prepared a nice two page brief about job application, resume/interview tips and shared it with them.
We also had a separate thread for women topics which covered higher education for women, household/kitchen safety, handling children in america etc.
Towards the end of the program, we had arranged two tables full of winter clothes, blankets, Indian clothes and most of them carried home things they needed.
Already one internet center has been setup at one of 3 apartment complexes where they live. Two more internet center are in the process of being setup. A small demo of how to use internet for job search, email, finding local bus routes has been done at the internet center for them.
Two young men in these families have already found jobs and have started working at fry's electronics and another at local grocery store. One of these young men told us "You guys came at the right time for us and exactly with what we needed since some local church people were trying to allure a few Bhutanese families with different things" There was a big smile with a sign of relief on his face.
During the thanksgiving break, we spent almost one entire day providing relief supplies to newly arrived families in all three centers. This time we focused on kitchen utensils and provided several sets of dishes, cooking pots, bowls, mugs, Indian saris, dresses, thermos etc.
Local database for these refugees has been created and one to one mapping betn our volunteers and their families has been established. Some of our volunteers have started giving them ride to hospital, job interview appt etc and also enabling them to find local bus routes as well.
