Thursday, January 21, 2010

Visit with Harpeth Hall on 1/15/10


The Sudanese Center was very excited to welcome students from Harpeth Hall to the Center! We wanted to give these young ladies a taste of what life is like for refugees and immigrants in Nashville, so their visit started out with a little bit of stress!

Idah (our beloved staffer) greeted them at the door, and immediately started giving them their instructions in Swahili. This, as you might imagine, caused a great deal of confusion! Awaiting them in their classrooms were forms they needed to fill out in Swahili. As you can imagine, they struggled quite a bit!

After Idah was allowed to speak English again, the girls got a quick lesson in Swahili with how to say important words. Then, Allison gave an overview of the Center's history and mission, and went into detail about the Education Program's ELL program. The young ladies then got to look at the books used in the regular ELL courses (offered in all six levels, from Literacy to Advanced).

After this, Gatluak addressed the girls with his story. For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to hear it, it's an amazing tale. He talked about his life in Sudan (being forced into the rebel army at 6 years old) and the hardships he faced when coming to America and the sheer strength and determination it took to earn money, learn English, and support his family in a new country.

To top off the morning, the students brought the Center clothing donations they had collected specifically for the Center's clients. We enjoyed Harpeth Hall's visit, and welcome any future schools to come seek to understand our mission! The students visited us as a part of a Service Learning Interim. For more information, see their blog: http://www.girlmeetsworldsl.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Important Events Coming Up!

Hello all!

We are very excited about the start of a new year at the SCWC. Classes began on the 4th, and we have already seen the familiar faces of our returning students, and couldn't be more excited about it! Most of our staff returned, but we are fortunate enough to have a few new faces with us. Nena, our newest intern, will spend the semester working as our Volunteer Coordinator. She comes all the way from Texas, so we're so excited to have her on board! Erin is another new intern, who moved to the area after spending 2 years in the Peace Corps. Welcome!

A few upcoming events to keep in mind:

  • On January 23rd (Saturday), students from Vanderbilt will be helping us host a "Job Blitz". We will have six different job applications, and volunteers available to help people fill out these applications. This is a great opportunity for our clients who may be looking for a job. Call the center for more information!
  • Our teacher training day will be held on January 30th at the Center. This is a day for BOTH interested volunteers and volunteers already teaching with us. We will start at 10am! It's guaranteed to be a day of fun and learning! Feel free to email allison@sudanesecenter.org for more information!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Welcome to the SCWC Blog!

In hopes of interacting more with our community, we have created this blog to share with you some of the highlights of life at the SCWC.

In case you haven't heard of us The Sudanese Community and Women's Services Center is a non-profit, community-based organization
dedicated to empowering refugees and immigrants who have resettled in Middle Tennessee through direct social services and educational programs. We offer all kinds of services through our Education and Employment Programs.

Please stop by and see us and let us help you in any way we can!