Friends of Nepal

As of now about 6,500 Bhutanese refugees have arrived in the US.  The first departure was in January of this year but only since April has it got up and running.  It is expected that between 13,000 – 15,000 of these people will leave the camps in Nepal during this fiscal year.  Currently Bhutanese are being resettled in over 6O locations throughout the US.  This is a diverse population – at least so far as age and socio-economic status are concerned.  Most but not all are Hindus.  A few are Buddhists and an even smaller number are Christians.  Because of universal education through grade 10 in the refugee camps, everyone below the age of thirty is literate and speaks at least some English. The older population varies from illiterate to PhDs.

There are 10 national agencies that are contracted by the State Department to coordinate the resettlement. Each of these works with local agencies, which I will refer to as subcontractors. We will need to contact each of these national agencies to get their list of subcontractors that works with the Bhutanese Refugees in their communities. As of now aproximately 6500 Bhutanese Refugees have been resettled in the United States. With 10,000-15,000 more expected in the next fiscal year.  As we get more information we will update the Bhutanese Refugee Local Resettlement Agencies Page where you can go to contact an agency in your area. We will also post more information on each of these agencies and their needs we interview them and create a profile for each.

2/6/09

We have a matching grant program – up to. Friends of Nepal will match up to $100 to any organization that raises at least $100 to help an individual or family. Application on this page.

12/23/08

This piece was recently on NPR featuring FoN member Doug Hall speaking about the Bhutanese Refugees and the economic issues affecting them.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98591969

12/10/08

LIRS is setting up an agency in Madison, WI. Rebecca Johnson contacted me for help. 414-325-3096. Very receptive in RPCVs helping her.

12/2/08

I spoke with Helen Molinaro from World Relief in MD. She was very helpful and forwarded me a list of all the affiliates of the 10 national agencies, as well as the list of the World Relief affiliates that she knows work with the Bhutanese Refugees. There are two types of placements when the refugees come into the country, and this is a function managed by the national agencies: 1) Geographic – the agency places the refugee with family already here; 2) Free Case – no family already here so they determine location based on criteria such as presense of religious network. There is a group called International Nepali Fellowship based in Atlanta that contacted her last year and also is helping with their network. We should get in touch with them at some point.

I also spoke with Terry Abeles today at Lutheran Immigration & refugee Service (LIRS). He was very helpful. They have about 25 affiliates with a total of 40 offices nationwide. There list can be found here: http://www.lirs.org/What/partners/affiliates.htm.

11/17/08

Today I spoke with Rachel O’hara at USCRI. One of the national agencies. She told me the International Organization of Migration, within the Dept of State, handles the screening and beaurocratic aspect of the resettlement in coordination with Dept of Homeland Security, etc. They work independently of the Embassy and would have representatives or subcontractors in Nepal doing the coordination.

The national agencies basically manage the $ and the evaluation and coordination of services for the local agencies. The local agencies get $850 per capita for the refugees. $425 of that is for training, services, etc. $425 is for goods such as clothing, rent, food, etc. Not a heck of a lot!

I asked about the potential for dictionary sales. She said Sonja Bavic (sp) with the Center for Applied Linguistics, which is funded by the dept of state to do overseas cultural orientation, curriculum development, etc., has a listserve which she says would be a good resource for sales/ dissemination of Doug’s dictionary. Contact Sanja at sanja@cal.org

Here is the list of national agencies and contact info. Sorry, somehow the formatting got a little messed up.