Schedule of Performances: for 2011
Spring Performance: March 4 - Elmendorf Airforce Base, Anchorage. Opening for international speaker Ravi Zacharias
Summer Performance: World Refugee Day - 5pm Friday, June 17th, Lion's Park, Mt. View, Anchorage
Autumn Performance: TBA
Winter Performance: Anchorage Folk Festival
If you are a refugee youth age 7-18 and you have recently arrived to America in the past 5 years, you are invited to join us!
For more information please contact Rhoda at 222-7358
Class is open at all times to new members!
Who can join?
06/25/10: TBD
07/02/10: TBD
07/09/10: TBD
Our main goal is to provide a safe and positive learning environment for refugee youth ages 7-18. Our focus is on refugee youth that have recently been resettled to America within the last 1-5 years.
We meet every Thursday to learn new things about music, practice performance pieces, and just have a fun filled time together visiting, laughing, and sharing friendship with each other.
The kids have each come from very difficult and challenging pasts. They generally have a hard time adjusting to mainstream groups and clubs during this early period of life in America. So, this special refugee music group offers a unique and important place for them where they can unite together with a common bond. A place they can learn to communicate in English and express themselves through music and dance. Our kids love this opportunity and are eager to attend classes. We meet each week, and most of them have to take a bus for one hour, or more, each way, just to get to class! They are there every week come rain, snow, or long sunny days!
We learn about different types of music styles and genres. We learn about some basic music theory and instruments. We focus on practicing special pieces to perform on a quarterly basis and for special events. And most of all, we let the music do its part... freeing hearts, healing souls, and bringing a world of joy and friendship!
What do we Do?
Check out our fun scrapbook! Inside you can scroll through to find photos and cool facts about each of us! This is the start of a beautiful friendship!
Ghislaine
Age: 17
From: Togo, West Africa
bishnu
Age: 15
From: Baldangi Refugee Camp, Nepal
Manisha
Age: 9
From: Beldangi Refugee Camp, Nepal
Tulsi
Age: 12
bHIM
Age: 14
Anita
ambika
Age: 11
Nar
Age: 13
jOSUE
Age: 10
sARASWATI
Age: 16
Marioma
From: Darfur, Sudan, Africa
Nybol
Age: 8
From: Southern Sudan, Africa
cHANDRA
mATENG
aLI
Khina
Sarah
From: The Congo, Africa
Chitra
dIELEVUET
Bal
pRALAD
Amina
Milan
Ravi
Nuna
cATHY
Rhoda
RAIS Music Group Director
Katey
Volunteer & Musician - Guitar
Wall of honored Volunteers:
IMPORTANT:
We are very much in need of bus tokens for the kids so they can get to and from class! Also, if you happen to have old musical instruments hanging around the house or classroom please remember us if you decide to donate them out! :)
We are always in need of volunteers, musicians, and artists who are interested in sharing their talents, time, and commitment to our fun group! If you like music and working with youth from diverse backgrounds, we welcome you to contact us and find out about ways you might become a part of us!
Call 222-7358 and ask to speak with Rhoda about your ideas and interest!
Don't Miss This Year's
World Refugee Day 2011:
Friday, June 17th at Lions Park in Mt. View, Anchorage
4pm-7pm
Music, dance, special speakers, ethnic food, BBQ, games, and loads of fun!
We are putting together a transportation committee! If you are interested in signing up as a chaperone driver to help transport kids in the music group caravan to and from special events please contact Rhoda for more information!
Dr. Karen Ferguson Ph.D.
RAIS Program Director. Dr. Ferguson also serves as the State Refugee Coordinator for Alaska. For over 6 years, she has served as the mental health consultant to RAIS/CSS for refugee and immigrant clients and victims of human trafficking.
Refugee Assistance & Immigration Services (RAIS) is the only refugee resettlement agency in the entire state of Alaska. We are one of the nine amazing programs of Catholic Social Services in Anchorage, Alaska. Our non-profit organization welcomed over 100 refugees this year alone.
These include single adults, two parent families, single parent families, and even some orphans who are resettled with distant relatives who helped to take care of them in their home country after their parents died.
Refugees have no choice in being resettled to Alaska. United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United States Counsil of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) work together with the US Department of State to determain where they will end up, and ultimately designating Anchorage as their new home in America.
When they arrive, most times they have come from destitute, impoverished, and war torn countries. Many have lost family members, been victims of horrible crimes, and endured years of affliction and suffering.
We welcome these refugees with open arms and hearts full of compassion and determaination to help them succeed in their new home and life in America.
We help set up their first apartment for them with clean, second hand furniture that has been donated to RAIS and their first batch of groceries. We have volunteers that cook and bring their first warm meal to their apartment so that they have something to eat when they arrive home from the airport.
The refugees are assigned case managers at RAIS who help them in completing medical appointments, setting up Social Security, Division of Public Assistance benefits, enrollment of their children into school, ESL classes, Job Readiness and Orientation & Life Skills classes, securing donated second hand clothing, setting up and learning how to use basic utilities, immigration, and so much more. The case manager works very closely with the refugee for their first year in the United States. They work together to help make the refugee independant enough by the end of their first year, so that the client can do many basic things on their own at that time.
RAIS works with refugees for their first five years in the United States. We build a very strong and beautiful relationship with these individuals and their families. Many beautiful and priceless memories are made during this period of time for both the refugee and the RAIS staff and volunteers.
RAIS depends almost entirely on the goodwill of volunteers and donations. We have so many fun, exciting, and wonderful tasks and ways that people can get involved!
Become a Volunteer
Donate warm winter clothing
Donate new or used household items
Participate in fundraising events
Be a special speaker at a RAIS class
Become a Family Mentor
Loads of other things!
If you are interested in getting involved, just contact us and it would be our pleasure to give you more information on how and where you can come start your incredible and unforgettable jouney of compassion with one of our refugee families!
For more information look on our Contact Us page, or check out the RAIS webpage HERE!
~ Rhoda
Upcoming Classes:
01/06/10: 7-8pm - First Class back!
01/13/10: 7-8pm - UAA Students Intro Night
01/20/10: 7-8pm - Class
01/27/10: 7-8pm - Class
02/03/10: 7-8pm - Class - Filming
02/10/10: 7-8pm - Class - Filming
02/17/10: 7-8pm UAA Student Presentation
02/22/10: Anchorage Youth Symphony
CONCERT FIELD TRIP! 7-9pm
Any changes in meeting days or times will be posted right here, as well as on our Face Book page!
Yep! If you want, you can sign up to take a week and bring something yummy to share!
01/06/10: Rhoda
01/13/10: Rhoda
01/20/10: Rhoda
01/27/10: Katie
02/03/10: Rhoda
02/10/10: Rhoda
02/17/10: UAA Senior Nursing Students
02/24/10: Rhoda
Who's Bringing Snack:
02/03/10: Rhoda, Katie, Linden, UAA
02/10/10: Rhoda, Katie, Elsena, UAA
02/17/10: Rhoda, Katie, Elsena, UAA
02/24/10: Rhoda, Katie, Linden
Volunteer Schedule:
01/06/10: Rhoda, Katie
01/13/10: Rhoda, Katie, Linden, UAA
01/20/10: Rhoda, Katie, Linden, UAA
01/27/10: Rhoda, Katie, Linden, UAA
If you would like to make a one time donation to our program or sign up as a monthly partner please click the link below! Be sure to specifiy in the Comments Box that your gift is for the RAIS refugee youth music group.
-Click Here-
bECOME A pARTNER:
Please consider partnering with us and sponsering a refugee youth's bus tokens each month for $20.00
We are a 100% volunteer operated group run out of RAIS. We are able to continue offering this opportunity to our refugee youth solely because of the goodwill of volunteers and donations.
This year we were the lucky recipients of a $5000.00 Lydia Selkregg Award from the Center for Community Learning and Engagement!! Thanks to that award, we have been able to purchase our first batch of bus tokens for our kids so that they can travel to and from class! We were also able to purchase some basic start up items for the music group such as tambourines, performance t-shirts, and sheet music!
Most of our kids have to take 2 buses to get to class and two buses back home. This is 4 bus tokens per child, per class. This totals 16-20 bus tokens per child per month. This is a total of $16-$20.00 per month per child just for transportation! Their families do not have cars and are not able to afford bus tokens for their kids.
How we operate:
Our Wishlist :
Just some of the needs your gift will help with :
We are also always so excited to work with people who are willing to invest some time with our group using their talents as:
Did we mention we love volunteers?! :) :)
-Refugee Assistance & Immigration Services-
Catholic Social Services - Anchorage, Alaska
Phone & Address:
(907) 222-7358
3710 E 20th Ave. Anchorage, AK 99508 USA
RAIS-CSS Website:
www.cssalaska.org
Email:
ressary_cssalaska.org
Just search for RAIS RefugeeMusic for our FB page!
Welcome !!
to the official website of the RAIS Refugee Youth Music Group! Feel free to look around and get to know more about us. We are excited that you stopped by, and we are looking forward to sharing more with you about what we are doing in Anchorage, Alaska, USA!
Where are we from?
We come from the dust blown plains of fierce and violent Somalia, to the vast and barren stretches along the war-torn paths of Darfur to Southern Sudan, to the bamboo huts placed haphazardly upon edges of the eastern steppes in Nepal; from the bullet ridden streets of Iraq and Palestine, to the breathtaking green mountains of Persia that hide a world of suppressed sorrow. We come from the mysterious and dangerous jungles of Laos and Thailand, to the poverty stricken streets of West Africa that are lined with the weeping mothers and fathers that
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cannot feed us or take us to the doctor when we need it.
Who are we?
We are free spirited and beautiful boys and girls that have come through things no child should have to live through. We have endured the darkest of nights, and have tasted the most bittersweet of cups. We have looked death and starvation in the face. We have listened to the moaning of what we thought was the whole earth.
We have experienced the profound joy and hope that comes with finally realizing that the whole earth is not dying or killing each other. We have breathed in the new life of freedom and felt it fill our lungs with strength and health. We have been embraced by strangers in a strange land and stepped into a world that is not our own, but we are creating our own world now. We are those who have never known what it is to call a place home, but have stumbled into a country that has so lovingly opened its arms to welcome us to a new beginning and shared with us a land that we might so humbly call home at last.
When we laugh, it is like a bubbling brook that knows what joy there is in understanding that the obstacles in our way cannot stop us, but merely give us opportunities to share our voice when we overcome them.
When we love, we love with all of our heart. We understand that to love means to face the most frightening and despairing of valleys together, hand in hand; carrying the exhausted, leading the confused, fighting for the weak, and smiling for the heartbroken. We know how much sweeter still that love is strengthened when embracing the joys and celebrating the victories together.
When we share, we give everything we have without hesitation. We share our souls with you. Music has carried us through the hardest of times, comforting us during the long hours of the night, keeping the flame of hope alive in our hearts. And now, it is our turn, to take that beautiful gift called music, and allow it to pour through our hearts and overflow into yours. May the gift we share give you a glimpse into the mosaic of stories we each carry. May you hear our voices and know without a doubt that you have truly encountered a miracle. Many miracles, in fact, gathered together into one incredibly beautiful group of young boys and girls.
