Since the 1980s, more than 95,000 refugees have resettled in Minnesota. Sometimes during the resettlement process, only one family member is selected and the rest of the family has to stay behind. Jason Viana, Preparedness and International Services Manager at the Northern Minnesota Region of the American Red Cross, says that this leads to many refugees becoming separated from their families.
To help people find their families, The American Red Cross offers a free service called Restoring Family Links. The program is designed to help someone reconnect with their family across international lines after a conflict, disaster or humanitarian situation has separated them. Since the American Red Cross is just one of 189 national Red Cross or Red Crescent societies around the world, the organization has a vast number of channels that they can use to help reunite families. Restoring Family Links offers several ways to help reconnect families. They offer tracing services, messaging services, and will also conduct health and welfare checks on a member of someone’s family.
Last Thursday night, January 16, in front of a packed auditorium at Edison High School in northeast Minneapolis, 160 graduates walked across a stage to receive their GED. The GED, which stands for “General Educational Development” is a test that gives adults who never finished high school the opportunity to receive a high school equivalency credential.
During the ceremony, five graduates addressed the crowd and shared a little about their personal journeys, including Ibrahim Muzamil, who recently wrote about losing his eyesight as a child, moving from his native Ethiopia to the United States in 2007, and his dedication to learning English and pursuing his GED.
Dance and choir competitions were highlights of the January 4 Karen New Year Celebration in Roseville. The event also included a community resource fair, traditional foods and textiles, and a presentation on the Karen Community and their journey to Minnesota from Burma and Thailand. Choir competition included five different Karen Choir groups from St. Paul.
The New Year celebration was organized by leaders of the Karen Organization of Minnesota (KOM), the Karen Community of Minnesota (KCM), and the Karen Culture Organization of Minnesota (KCOM).
It has been one month since Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines. The humanitarian crisis there continues even though the story has largely disappeared from the headlines of American newscasts. One local organization involved in relief efforts in the Philippines is the American Refugee Committee.
At least one thousand people gathered in downtown Minneapolis to demonstrate their disappointment and resolve following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin. People of all ages and ethnicities rallied around more than a dozen speakers including civil rights attorney Nekima Levy-Pounds and rapper Brother Ali, before taking to the streets for a march through downtown.
About a hundred middle and high school students from the Twin Cities metro area gathered at the Solutions Not Suspensions summit at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs of the University of Minnesota on May 11. They came to share their experiences with discipline procedures in their classrooms and to discuss how they think disciplinary action should be in their schools.
“We want to give them the tools that will allow them to have informed conversations with people in positions of power at their school about what the discipline at their school looks like and how to make it more equitable,” said Brandon Royce-Diop of the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership (MMEP), who organized the event with his MMEP colleague Cymone Fuller.
The Minnesota Senate has approved a bill that will allow same-sex marriage in Minnesota. The final vote was 37 to 30.
With the approval that came in the House of Representatives last week, the legislative work is now done and the bill will become law with Governor Mark Dayton’s signature.
After a three hour debate on Thursday, May 9, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed the same sex marriage bill by a vote of 75-59.
At the start of the day it was unclear if any Republicans would vote in favor of the measure. Eventually four of them did. Republicans Jenifer Loon, David Fitzsimmons, Andrea Kieffer and Pat Garofalo voted for the bill. Democrats Mary Sawatzky and Patti Fritz were no votes.
Minnesota’s House vote today brings the state one step closer to becoming the 12th state in the Union to allow same-sex marriage.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee and author Dr. Hawa Abdi was in Minneapolis at the beginning of April as part of her national book tour for Keeping Hope Alive– a memoir about her life and work in Somalia. Named the Mother Theresa of Somalia, she has offered shelter and aid to thousands in her country since civil war began in Somalia in 1991.
Shoestringer 