Message-ID: <199810271848.NAA14419@cti06.citenet.net> Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 13:42:55 -0400 From: "George(s) Lessard" <mailto:media@citenet.net> Subject: Storytellers Network in US looking for help To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
*********************************************************************Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 17:28:21 -0400 From: John Dempsey Parker <mailto:storytellers@mindspring.com> Subject: Searching for Common Ground
Dear Network Friends:
Searching for Common Ground
A transitional housing community for international refugees and immigrants needs a global communication system.
Resettled refugees face a myriad of barriers limiting adaptation and social mobility in their new host nations. With the psychological, mental, and physical trauma that characterizes the refugee experience, refugees can better adapt to change through visonary community building processes. Community building, locally and globally, can cultivate the social network infrastructure for intercultural sharing, communication, and understanding to work for the benefit of the whole community.
The NEED: A transitional housing initiative for refugees and immigrants is looking for an international network or resources that will link residents to their homelands, refugee camps, and/or families via the Internet.
This transitional housing concept was created to reduce or eliminate situations where families come and immediately do not have a safety net or are uncomfortable with their new residence where they are placed on arrival.
Refugees (from Ethiopia, Egypt, Vietnam, Somolia, Benin Republic, Gambia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Bosnia and other countires) now living in the U.S. have been separated from family and friends, sometimes for over five years. The extreme difficulty of contacting and locating their relations by phone or fax creates a desire for creative communication systems.
This is an opportunity to build community on the common ground of shared suffering, involuntary displacement, resilience, and strength.
The new arrivals, in the aftermath of colonialism and often post-colonialism, are so fragmented socially, politically, and ecomically that they cannot, or have not been able to live together here in the states, though they may have been forced to tolerate one another in the refugee camps.
Then there are culturally derived hierarchical divisions (ie. casts, clans, and social classes) that refuse to live with one another as neighbors, especially equal partners.
So, in an effort to address the fragmentation, and not force people to live with others for a long period of time that they do not feel comfortable with, the idea of transitional housing emerged which helps prepare folks to live in the U.S.
Refugees are examples of the human capability to survive and succeed during the most tramatic forms of cultural change that humans can experience. Access to Internet resources for this refugee community will cultivate additional adpatation strategies and empower them to cope and manage their lives in creative new meaningful ways.
"We must be the change we wish to see." - Gandhi
Confidentiality prohibits any details regarding the refugee community's location, name, and organizational relationships at the present time.
For more information on the needed Internet resources or to contact the refugee community: mailto:catalinaplace@msn.com mailto:dtsdixie98@aol.com
***
Please share this story with others.
In Peace and Solidarity,
John Parker
Storytellers Network http://www.angelfire.com/biz/storytellers
:-) :-) Message Ends; Signature File Begins (-: (-: CAUTIONS, Disclaimers, NOTES TO EDITORS and copyright information may be found mailto:@ http://members.tripod.com/~media002/disclaimer.htm Homepages are mailto:@ http://members.tripod.com/~media002/
Because of the nature of email please check ALL sources & subjects. This message may be archived mailto:@ MediaMentor list searchable public archive and Subscription Point http://www.eGroups.com/list/mediamentor It doesn't bother me and I suggest that if it bothers you - that's why God (or Bill Gates) gave us a delete key. (David NL Day) - 30 -