[Vision2020] Report from the Pullman Refugee Meeting

[Nicholas Gier]

Good Morning Visionaries,

Saundra Lund and I sat together at the refugee information meeting in
Pullman last night. I urge Saundra to add her own comments on the list is
she wants to.

Mark Kadel from World Relief Spokane gave an inspirational presentation
that had me next to tears during some of his stories. 480 refugees have
been settled in Spokane so far this year, and Kadel related their struggles
and successes.  Most of them are working and contributing richly to the
Spokane area. The presentation can be viewed at
http://worldreliefspokane.org.

Kadel said that his organization has received exemptions from his national
office to open offices in Post Falls and CDA, and he said that Moscow could
be served in the same way once a Pullman office is set up. He hinted that
the political climate in Idaho may prevent any action outside of the sites
in Twin Falls and Boise.

Kadel was proud of his state's support for refugees, and he reminded the
audience that WA was one of the first to welcome Vietnamese refugees, and
now Gov. Inslee has welcomed Syrians to his state.

Those of us who say that we want to sponsor a Syrian family may not get our
wish, because placement is determined by a number of factors and the local
community has to prove that it can provide appropriate linguistic and
cultural support.  I personally believe that the WSU-UI community could
qualify on many criteria.

For those who do not receive the Daily News, the article on the meeting is
appended below.

More than 70 people came to a Thursday evening meeting about refugee
resettlement at Pullman's Community Congregational United Church of Christ.

Mark Kadel, director of World Relief in Spokane, spoke to the group about
how his organization helps the refugees. He said it contracts with the U.S.
Department of State to assist refugees coming to the Spokane area.

"We're not going to sneak in refugees," he said. "The community's support
is most important."

He said refugees arrive with limited personal possessions, perhaps one bag
of clothing - not often winter-appropriate - no household goods and often
no toiletries, such as toothpaste and toothbrushes.

The organization provides initial resettlement and placement to refugees,
such as finding them a place to live with basic amenities, like furniture,
bedding and kitchen items. They also help the newcomers obtain employment,
education and legal services. And that's after a rigorous screening process
by the federal government.

Help from the communities, including local churches, is important, he said.

World Relief asked for anyone interested in volunteering or donating to the
effort, but specifically requested people involved in public health, law
enforcement, social services, public school education and churches and
mosques.

What a refugee needs most "is a new sense of community," he said.

Pullman City Councilor Nathan Weller was among those who attended. He said
he came to represent the city because he expects it will be an important
topic.

He said if there's community interest in bringing refugees to the Palouse,
it might be worth council consideration, though he emphasized he wasn't
speaking for the entire council.

"It's something I'm personally interested in," he said. "There was a lot of
great information about this presented."

Pullman resident Jennifer Murray, who works with Alternatives to Violence
of the Palouse, said she went to the meeting because she thought her group
could assist refugees who have survived violence.

"I want to be part of a community that wants to help people," Murray said.

She also has worked with refugees in the past. While living in Portland,
Maine, she helped new arrivals to the United States learn English and study
for U.S. citizenship exams, she said.

Marcia Alenazi, of Moscow, said her husband came from Saudi Arabia and that
he has family in that part of world.

"I'm so close to it. And I see all the disturbing things online and it
makes me want to counteract that stuff," Alenzani said. "Anything I can do
to help."

World Relief defines a refugee as a person who must leave his or her
homeland due to persecution of beliefs, race or ethnicity. In 2012, more
than 45 million people were forcibly displaced.

Kadel said after the presentation and a question-and-answer period that the
people who came to the meeting "were a good, supportive group" and that
"Pullman would be a good site."

One of the people in the audience asked if refugees are mostly highly
educated or not. Kadel replied that it's "a bell curve," with some highly
educated and others not so well-schooled.

"Sort of like Americans," he said.

Elizabeth Siler, who organized the meeting and a previous gathering to
discuss what could be done to make the Palouse a more hospitable place, was
pleased with the increased interest. Only about a dozen people came to the
first meeting less than two weeks ago, she said.

"I think it's great," she said of the growing interest in the issue. "The
next step is to start a board."

Siler has also emphasized that this effort is not religious but
community-based, and people from across the Palouse are welcome to
participate. She estimated that about one-quarter of the people there
Thursday were from the Moscow area.
-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
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