Navigating COVID-19 with Refugees

This blog post is part of a series tracking the Refugee Education Center’s response and efforts to support the refugee community in West Michigan amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, the Refugee Education Center shared how we’ve adapted programming in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in our post, And So We Go On… If you have yet to read this post, we encourage you to read it along with this update. In this last week, we’ve worked hard to adapt programs and services to meet the needs of the refugee community in West Michigan. Below are a few highlights.

Refugee Navigators

The Refugee Education Center’s Navigation Services team is essential to providing necessary services and updates to our families during this time. Our Navigators, who are refugees and are deeply ingrained within their respective communities, are working to help families navigate COVID-19 by translating and communicating critical news and updates and referring families to community resources and food sources.

So far, our Refugee Navigators have referred 180 households to a community food source! This includes coordinating deliveries of 50-pound bags of rice to Nepali family homes across the area in partnership with East Kentwood Public Schools.

Project Faulu (K-12 Support)

We strive to remove the educational barriers refugee students face when participating in the American education system. This is especially crucial during this time of distance learning when things such as internet access, technology capabilities, and language support are barriers. Our team is collaborating with and working alongside local school districts to ensure refugee students are engaged during this period outside of the classroom. In quick fashion, we have created and distributed 70 education workbooks for refugee students to work on at home and have created a YouTube channel to regularly publish student support videos from a familiar face.

Additionally, we are working on developing our process and system to tutor students remotely. We hope to adopt an online platform to deliver this service in the coming weeks.

Hands Connected (Early Childhood Education)

In coordination with our partner organization, the Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative, the Hands Connected Center has served as a drop-off location for donations of diapers and wipes. Our goal has been to supply all 24 children who are enrolled in the Center with enough diapers and wipes during this time at home.

Thanks to many generous donors, we were able to deliver two weeks’ worth of diapers and wipes (that's 2,000 diapers!) to families last week!

A new date has not yet been set, but we do anticipate the need to deliver additional diapers and wipes in the near future. Additionally, Hands Connected teachers contact families regularly to check in on the well-being of the kiddos, provide suggestions for at-home enrichment and parent engagement, and inquire about the families' holistic needs.

How You Can Help

If you want to help your neighbors and the West Michigan community, here are ways you can support the work of the Refugee Education Center as well as the work of other important organizations.

The Refugee Education Center’s goal is to ensure children enrolled in Hands Connected are supplied with enough diapers and wipes during this time at home. Contact us today to let us know you are interested in donating or supporting this effort in some way.

The Hispanic Center of West Michigan, located in the heart of Grand Rapids, provides essential needs and immigration services to Latinos, immigrants, and refugees across West Michigan.

Senior Neighbors provides support to over 4,000 older adults in and around Grand Rapids. Their team engages and provides critical support to older adults in many ways during the COVID-19 pandemic.