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KHRW
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	Refugees are like uprooted trees. They have been uprooted from their home country and culture and transplanted into a foreign soil. We acknowledge their courageous pursuit of life in fleeing persecution, human rights abuses and oppression.
KHRW Location:     2805 Foster Avenue      Suite 207      Nashville, TN 37210      Phone: 615-331-1956      Fax: 615-331-1946		4th National Kurdish/American Conference in Nashville
		4th Conference Picture
		KHRW Open House on January 23rd, 1999

Refugees are valuable resources to the American multi-cultural society. KHRW provides refugees with services and assistance for overcoming the obstacles to achieve a smooth transition. KHRW's programs assist refugees & immigrants to deal with major issues in their daily lives.

Social Adjustment Providing links between refugees and service and services providers, make applications available to refugees, transportation to eligible facilities, Interpret and translate between refugees and eligibility workers.		Translation & Interpretation Translating of general documents from Arabic and Kurdish to English that are required by immigration or for education purposes, accompanying and providing interpretation for refugees to service providers facilities.
Orientations Orientations about American Culture and life skills.		Employment counseling Job training and resume preparation.
Women & Family Issues Cultural awareness and conflict resolution with legal issue, Child protection issues, Parenting skills & domestic education.		Immigration counseling General counseling, referrals, preparations for adjustment, naturalization, family reunification, and other immigration documents.
ESL & Literacy English language and citizenship classes.		Housing counseling Help refugees find cost effective housing.
Youth Issues Engage youth with activities and program to keep them from possible risks or violations, collaborate with other agencies to network and build acceptance among youth from different ethnic backgrounds.		Health & Nutrition Referrals Keep the refugees aware of health & nutritional services that are available. Assist them in accessing those services and how to use them effectively, especially for Maternal, Infants & Children.
Mentorship Programs Linking refugees with volunteers and other programs that are going to increase their knowledge about their new lives in this country.		Homebound Outreach (Networking) Outreach to home bound women and elderly.

 

KHRW Nashville Foundation and History

KHRW opened its doors to the community in January 1999 in Nashville, Tennessee.   Services are provided to the community through culturally and linguistically appropriate services by bilingual staff.  The main objective of KHRW is to provide self-sufficiency services that fills an unmet need and a gap in culturally and linguistically appropriate services to the refugee community.   Many people from our community were coming to the office for various services for the first time in the history of the community in Nashville, Tennessee.  The goals of the Advisory Committee, the National KHRW office, and the Nashville KHRW office is to build a bridge to the 21 century together with the mainstream community in Nashville, Tennessee.  Refugees are not helpless individuals but rather strong human beings who have overcome great hardships at greater personal loses to get where they are now, in the US.

 

Employment Services:

One of the services provided to the community in Nashville is to provide employment services, access and referral to mainstream services.  This will avoid service duplication and provide a valuable service to refugees new to the community.   Along these lines and in order to help the community become self-sufficient, the KHRW, Nashville office invited a team from the Bureau of the Census to visit our office on January 29th.   They offered job training for about 25 Kurdish from Nashville to participate in United States Census.  As immediate result on Feb 6^th & 13^th, 45 persons have been interview and tested, most of them passed with Good scores.  Six individuals were given orientations and get employed by the Bureau of Census.

Orientation:

Orientation & Office Startup, site coordinator start-up Manual been provided to the office employees to serve the Nashville Community.  Technical assistance and guidance is provided by the Executive Director and Program Developer of Kurdish Human Rights Watch, Inc.  national headquarters.  An Advisory Committee was formed by members of the community who meet on a regular basis and make contributions and envision main objectives of the KHRW Nashville office.  The Nashville Advisory Committee is like a steering committee to the KHRW Nashville office.

On February 14^th, Ms. Sandra Long, a Counselor from Metro Schools, was invited to present a program to our community.  The areas that were discussed were Jobs, Training in computers, Sewing Machines and Technical Vocational English language, Owning a Business and Business Opportunities. Ms. Long is coordinating with the Tennessee Department of Employment to find job upgrades for individuals.   More than 100 Individuals attended this orientation. Ms. Long is still involved in helping to find jobs for members of our community.

Interpretation and Social services:

Interpretation and social services have been provided for more than 25 families since we opened our office in Nashville.  The average is one case or family a day.  The KHRW Nashville office is also open on Saturdays and Sundays to make it easy for members of the community and families to congregate and receive assistance.

Vocational English as a Second Language Classes (VESL):