Celebrated every year on June 20th, World Refugee Day is an international day, originally established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on June 20th, 2001. World Refugee Day was created with the goal of celebrating the strength and courage of forcibly displaced people around the world, and to help build empathy and understanding for the challenges facing refugees.
Home for Refugees takes this opportunity every year to celebrate the contributions of refugees globally, as well as raise awareness: Who are refugees? What are the challenges currently facing refugees? And, how can people from the community help refugees achieve and sustain new homes with dignity?
This year, Home for Refugees as a member of the Refugee Forum of Los Angeles (RFLA), chaired the planning committee in creating Los Angeles’ World Refugee Day 2021 Virtual Event “Breaking Bread.” The goal of the event was to share important resources and information that would be useful for a refugee attempting to start a new business.
The event included guest speaker Ms. Wai-Ling Chin, Business Counselor Manager for the Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment (PACE) who spoke about how refugees can start their own small business. Our second guest speaker was Mr. Luke Van Lant, a Financial Capability Coordinator for the International Rescue Committee in Los Angeles. Mr. Van Lant’s talk focused on consumer lending and credit-building for refugees.
The event also included a cooking demonstration by a couple who are former Guatemalan refugees. Chef Ever and his wife Chef Edelma, demonstrated how to make Garnachas, a traditional popular taco dish from Guatemala, composed of fried corn tortillas topped with refried beans, shredded cabbage, cheese, and other garnishes. Those guests who RSVP'd for the event were sent the recipe and an ingredient list. Guests were invited to cook alongside the demonstration. The event has been viewed over 500 times since. “Breaking Bread” is currently available on the Refugee Forum of Los Angeles’ Facebook Page and can be viewed here >> https://fb.me/e/QfiHkhYE.
We hope to continue to use Ms. Chin’s and Mr. Van Lant’s presentations and our RFLA’s "Starting Your Own Business Resource Guide" with the refugees in HFR’s resettlement program. Also, we will be frequently using the RFLA’s "Greater LA Area Restaurant Guide" that our planning team created to support refugee and immigrant owned restaurants.
If you are in the greater Los Angeles area and are interested in supporting refugee owned restaurants or learning more about starting you own, check out our guides below!
RFLA’s Starting Your Own Business Resource guide >>
https://bit.ly/WRD2021Resource
RFLA’s Greater LA Area Restaurant guide >>
http://bit.ly/WRD2021restaurant
Lynne, one of our Home Team coaching staff, took part in our virtual LA World Refugee Day as a guest. Here are her thoughts:
“I so enjoyed participating in Refugee Forum of LA’s Los Angeles’ World Refugee Day 2021, both as a person who likes to cook and a Home Team Coach. The cooking demo was fun—it allowed my husband and me to try a recipe we otherwise wouldn’t have tried, and the end result was delicious. I confess that we tweaked the recipe a bit to suit our tastes, but I think we captured the essence of the Garnachas.
For me as a Home Team Coach, the information shared during the second half about aids and tools for refugees interested in starting their own businesses was invaluable. I can think of so many refugee families I’ve encountered that would love to have this information. Often our families start with entry level jobs as they first try to build their lives in this country, but dream of more independence and a more fulfilling way of earning a living.
These tools could absolutely help them making this dream come true. I have already shared the presentations and resource guides with a refugee family that I hope will take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the participating organizations to build a more flourishing life.”