URGENT: Advocacy Alert for Refugee Services

LSG provides a wide variety of direct services to both newly arrived and established refugee clients, supported by federal funding administered through Georgia's Department of Human Services (DHS). With this funding LSG specifically provides employment training and job placement as well as assistance in addressing medical concerns and home management support designed to help refugees achieve self-sufficiency as soon as possible.

The contract year for these services began on October 1. To our dismay, we have been informed by officials of Georgia's DHS that they are under no obligation to pay for any services related to these federally funded programs until the contracts are signed. This left us with no option but to suspend these services to our clients since we have no idea if or when the contracts will be signed.

Today, LSG laid off eight Refugee Services staff members and stopped employment training, job placement and social adjustment services to our refugee clients. The suspension, or possible loss, of this federal funding, already distributed and being held by the state, will be strongly felt not only by the refugee population but also by every Georgia resident.

The entire refugee services community hopes for prompt resolution of the barriers that stand between us and delivery of these critical services.  You can help relieve this situation by contacting DHS Commissioner Clyde Reese at 404-463-3390 or creese@dhr.state.ga.us and Governor Nathan Deal at 404-656-1776 or click here. Ask them to sign the refugee services contracts and release the funding held by the state to provide these vital services to the refugee population. For suggestions on how to communicate your concerns, please click here.  And please forward this information to your network so that we can demonstrate that this issue has broad support from our community: friends, family, coworkers, congregation members, etc. Thank you for your support during this critical time.

Once you have contacted Governor Deal or Commissioner Reese, please let us know what response you receive, or if you have additional questions, by contacting J.D. McCrary, director of Refugee Services, at jmccrary@lsga.org or 678-686-9643.

Refugee Services: Remembering Kay Trendell - Endings and Beginnings

Refugee Services volunteer coordinator Melanie Johnson says goodbye to friend and mentor Kay Trendell, and reflects on her own journey with LSG

With Kay Trendell’s recent retirement from LSG after her 30 year tenure with Refugee Services, I’ve been thinking a lot about my beginnings with the agency (I’ve had two of them so far) and Kay’s significant role in both!  My first “beginning” more than 20 years ago when I was hired as the Special Needs Employment Counselor for refugees receiving cash assistance from the state of Georgia, the ones who had the most barriers to employment.

Fresh out of seminary, with a little urban ministry experience and a lot of passion for working cross-culturally but absolutely no concrete skills in finding jobs for anyone but myself, I happened to get lucky and got to share an office with Kay!  She taught me not only everything I needed to know about finding jobs for refugees, but more importantly she helped me grasp the bigger picture – that it wasn’t just about the jobs, but about the refugees and the new life they were beginning in a new country.  It wasn’t about the refugees' plight, but their promise, their incredible resilience, and their willingness to work sometimes three jobs at once to save and build a future for their children.

After several years, I went on to work in other avenues of ministry in both congregations and in the community, but through Kay’s mentorship, refugees had found a place in my heart to stay.  If there was any opportunity to engage with refugees in whatever work I was doing, I always sought that out. I found that I missed working with refugees more and more as the years passed, thus my second “beginning” with LSG when, in May 2010, Kay hired me to be the volunteer coordinator for Refugee Services.  It’s a “dream job’ for me – being back with Lutheran Services of Georgia (I’m actually a Lutheran now and grateful to serve in a Lutheran agency), working in a multicultural setting again, and every day engaging people and congregations in service to one of the world’s most vulnerable, yet most resilient populations – refugees.  But by far, one of the best things about my second “beginning” with LSG has been, for the past year, getting to work with Kay again.

Kay, I’ll miss seeing you everyday - but your lasting presence will be felt at LSG and in Refugee Services: in the talented and dedicated staff you put together, in the wonderful array of programs and services for refugees you developed, and undergirding it all, in the joy we experience (most of the time!) in the work we do.  Enjoy your new beginning!

By Melanie Johnson, Refugee Services Volunteer Coordinator

From "Doughnut Dollie" to Refugee Advocate - LSG Says Goodbye to 30-Year Staff Member, Kay Trendell

Today marks the beginning of a new journey for Refugee Services Director Kay Trendell, who will be retiring from Lutheran Services of Georgia after 30 years of service. To honor her immeasurable contributions to the agency, we look back on the road that led Kay to LSG – a road that will continue to lead her to new experiences and adventures in the years to come. In her senior year at the University of Arkansas, Kay Trendell made a decision that would send her on path of service that continues to today. She heard about a Red Cross called Supplemental Recreational Activities Overseas, and in 1967, she began her first tour of duty inVietnam.  While working as a “Doughnut Dollie,” Kay saw first hand in the streets of Saigon the plight of refugees as the Vietnamese who had fled to the city for safety tried to scratch out a living on the sidewalks of the city.

After two tours of duty in Vietnam, Kay decided to take a break and travel to Europe. She’d had enough of aircraft, so she booked a ticket on a freighter, which is where she met a young merchant seaman named Harry Trendell.  Seven months later they were married and came to Atlanta, where Kay accepted a position with the YWCA.

But Kay’s experience in Vietnam continued to call her, and in 1980 she volunteered to help a local agency resettle refugees.  Then she heard about a new agency that was looking for staff for its refugee resettlement program, and in 1982, Kay joined Lutheran Ministries of Georgia.  For the next 16 years, Kay worked in refugee employment, and in 1998 was named Director of Refugee Services, the position she holds today with Lutheran Services of Georgia.

Working with refugees brought Kay’s life full circle, from first encountering those displaced by the Vietnam War in their home country, to then helping them to rebuild their lives here in Atlanta.  She has heard many stories of incredible suffering, and marveled at the strength of the human spirit that helps them conquer it and move ahead.  She has seen the sacrifices parents made to come here for the sake of their children, and then rejoiced as the children flourished. She has experienced moments of grace with refugees who barely had any food in the house, but would never let a guest go without a bite to eat.

Kay is bidding LSG farewell today, but her legacy will continue on through the more than 16,000 refugees whose lives were changed because of her decision to go to Vietnam to serve her country.  Kay and Harry, we wish you the best in retirement!

Refugee Services: From Drought and Danger to Dadaab

Each year, LSG helps hundreds of refugee families resettle in the United States after spending months or years being displaced in refugee camps

Since January, more than 120,000 Somali refugees have arrived in the already overcrowded camps in Dadaab, Kenya – the largest refugee camp in the world.  Driven there by the prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa which led to a failed harvest and dying animals, coupled with the growing insecurity inside Somalia, many of the refugees have walked for up to 15 days or more to reach Dadaab.

The Lutheran World Federation, which manages the refugee camps in Dadaab, has been hard at work building extensions to the camps to provide a more secure environment for those fleeing Somalia.  For more information on the work of the LWF in Dadaab, see here.

Mohamed Ahmed, Lutheran Services of Georgia Resettlement Case Manager and a former refugee from Somalia, says that it is almost unimaginable to him that even when so many around the world are eager and ready to provide food, water and shelter to those suffering from the drought in his homeland of Somalia, extremist groups refuse to let the help get to the people who need it the most.

To see the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees video, "Kenya: Dadaab Keeps Growing," click here.

For more information on Lutheran Services of Georgia's refugee services, click here.

Refugee Services: Marip Family Moves Forward in New Life

We first shared the story of the Marip family in the May, 2011, edition of Crossing Oceans, highlighting the story of this Burmese family's arrival in Atlanta and their introduction to the Family Builders Sunday School Class of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, who furnished the family's apartment and welcomed them to a new life in Georgia. Since their arrival, the family has been busy! A strong friendship has formed between the Family Builders class members and the family through time spent together. Debby Eidson from the class says, "I have taken the family to Walmart and Kroger but by far their favorite store is the Buford Highway Farmers Market. Their eyes just light up when they recognize produce, seafood and products! On every trip to a store, the family is gracious and appreciative... they share their candy with me and often treat me to a glass of soda when we return to their apartment after shopping."

Sporting new backpacks, lots of school supplies and a computer provided by the class, the Marip daughters, Sut Nu Pan and Bawk Bawk Pan started middle and high school this fall. Dad, Aung Aung, and mom, Ah Ja, recently began working at a bakery in Norcross and they report they are very happy with their new jobs.

The Marips are a family on the move!

Refugee Services: One Church, Two Families

One Atlanta congregation, Trinity Presbyterian Church, and two refugee families, the Gurung family from Bhutan and the Reh family from Burma, are becoming fast friends.  "Trinity Pres" co-sponsored the two families with LSG in the spring, meeting them at the airport and providing furnished apartments for each family. "Trinity Pres" members continue to visit the families on a regular basis, welcoming them with warm friendship. The families, who live next door to each other, are settling well into their new lives in Clarkston.  While the adults focus on learning and improving their English and working with LSG to find jobs, the children are enjoying summer fun, like summer day camp and outings to Stone Mountain and Centennial Olympic Park. For more information on Lutheran Services of Georgia's refugee services, click here.