Victoria Park and World Refugee Day

Coucou! Today was a fairly interesting day. First my women's issues team along with Public Relations and Workforce Development went to Victoria Park Apts. this afternoon. While Workforce Development held a resume-building and career skills assessment workshop, women's issues and PR went to speak one-on-one with the Bhutanese women at the apts. Unfortunately, the majority of them had been hauled off to church and dentist appointment by Alliance. Hence, we were were left with very few women and girls to speak to at Victoria. We still got the information we wanted from the women and girls that were there. In fact, I believe we received more than the logistics information but more trust and honesty from the women. Bisa's husband was primarily in the apt. with us but we all noticed that as soon as he left, she confided in us even more. I noticed a sudden shift in the atmosphere in the room as she shifted her chair closer with almost just 12 inches separating her from the two Katies as they asked her some questions. She began to volunteer more personal information about her health and medical concerns to them. It was astounding to watch. Bisa's neighbor, who had brought both Bisa's son and her own 2 yr old son to the apt. even suddenly moved to sit next to me on the couch as I asked her questions. She even began to volunteer information about wanting to continue going to college here. She'd started going to college in Nepal but was not able to finish because of the costs. I told her that I'd look into getting her into a community college. However, the main obstacle for both of the women is finding someone to look after their children. The women voiced that their husbands always rely on them to take care their children 24/7, not necessarily taking the load off of the women. This will definitely be a short-term goal for our women's issues team; to find a community daycare, whether it is one within the apts in which the elderly can get together and help look after the young kids or one outside the apts that offers free daycare services. This is a very vital implementation for our team because the women cannot work or continue schooling when they must constantly look after their kids. This calls to mind another goal for us, which is to implement the idea of community-building among the Bhutanese refugees within each apt or among the neighboring apartments. Sometimes, I get the feeling that the refugees feel like it is "survival of the fittest," as if there is a lack of communication and full support for one another because everyone is so focused on getting themselves fully settled within the Houston community. I also believe that our garden and art/crafts project, if sucessful, will eventually bring the women and their families closer together. Thus, community-building might not be too hard to come into play.
After our conversation with the women, we were able to take some of the younger girls, including Padma and Indra, with us to Westland YMCA for the celebration of World Refugee Day. Essentially, the event was about them. There were many refugees from different regions of the world, including Africa and Bhurma, at the event. Each shared an insight into their culture by way of performing their cultural dances and the like. Six of our Bhutanese girls performed a traditional dance and looked absolutely beautiful. We could see the enjoyment and "plaisir" on the other Bhutanese girls as they watched them remind them of the pleasant cultural traditions. It was amazing to watch. At our Sewa Int'l booth at the fair, we were able to share the vision of our different teams within our organization to those who'd never heard of Sewa. I was able to walk around and do bit of networking with the other non-profit groups there. I met up with a representative from UNA-Houston organization who brought up a discussion about microfinance. She has valuable contacts that would be help for our women's issues team, not just for community awareness but also for our long-term goals of the women starting their own businesses.
All in all, it was a very productive day for women's issues. I thoroughly enjoyed it.