Barbara Eiswerth’s Story
Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network, an outreach ministry of St. Francis of the Foothills, seeks to empower refugees by creating opportunities to use their knowledge and skills to help families better integrate within the larger Tucson community while gaining vital life skills that serve them in America. Our goal is to develop programs that welcome and motivate refugees, improve their confidence and English skills, and facilitate acculturation. An important overarching goal for this project is to increase refugee English, vocational, and life skills in furtherance of their becoming self-sufficient members of the Tucson community. Refugee community interaction with volunteers creates opportunities for socialization, language, and life skill development. Through these interactions, both refugee and volunteer learn about their respective cultures and this cross cultural exchange aids integration into the community.
All of Iskashitaa's projects and community relations have the underlying goal and ultimate result of increasing awareness of and action on pressing issues such as hunger and poverty both locally and globally through direct contact with individuals and organizations in the Tucson community and beyond.
Iskashitaa's target population is composed of refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Annually 700-1100 refugees arrive in Tucson, but there is a shortage of services, resources, volunteers and mentors. Newly arriving Tucson refugees have reported taking up to 11 months to obtain their first part time job, which then does not meet basic needs. Limited English proficiency, illiteracy, lack of marketable skills, and difficulties of acculturation are all challenges refugees face in a highly competitive job market—even for entry level menial labor jobs. Iskashitaa's volunteer led English practice sessions occur in natural settings as volunteers and refugees work and play together.
Refugee families also experience barriers to mobility due to lack of transportation, therefore their participation depends on Iskashitaa volunteers providing transportation to harvesting, workshops, farmer's markets and events. Because of these and other challenges, hundreds of refugee households in Tucsonare currently living well below the national poverty level. In addition, new arrivals from refugee camps are oftentimes undernourished with vitamin deficiencies, having been without proper medical attention for years, many times decades. While there is no study that cites the specific eating habits of refugees in Arizona, it has been reported that eighty percent of African refugees in Washington D.C. have never spoken with a health professional about eating habits or the importance of physical activity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture describes a healthy diet as one that emphasizes fruits and vegetables.
For the past seven years Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network, an inter-generational group of refugees and volunteers, has enhanced the diets of refugee children and families by harvesting and redistributing fruits and vegetables from local backyards and gardens, and nearby farms. We have gleaned and redistributed over 40 types of produce, including more than 15 types of greens and 10 types of citrus, nuts, native Sonoran foods, and even edible weeds, harvesting over 75,000 pounds of food in 2009 alone. This program has become an integral part of the social network providing support to refugee families in Tucson. More detail on this program is provided in our answer to question #7 below.
We strive to improve nutrition among the rest of the Tucson population as well, assisting other food programs toward better utilization of local food sources that would otherwise go to waste. We have donated to twenty different organizations assisting children and families including over 35,000 pounds to the Community Food Bank in 2009. We provide fruits and vegetables to soup kitchens, homeless shelters and other feeding programs that serve regular hot meals, contributing to thousands of meals.
Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network creates positive social change on a variety of levels within the Tucson community as a whole and within the various refugee groups we serve. We motivate refugee participation through fun harvesting activities which encourage good physical activity. Through their efforts with Iskashitaa, refugees also gain the confidence to seek creative ways to increase their nutritious food supply as well as to educate those around them about our local food system.
With the help of the University of Arizona interns Iskashitaa supports several microenterprise unique projects empowering refugees to use their knowledge and skills from their country of origin (i.e. basket and loom weaving, sewing and tailoring, knitting, crocheting, and other crafts) to generate products and income to support their families. The Iskashitaa Refugee Sewing and Crafts Circle (IRSCC) is an innovative program of Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network with funding from the Tucson Pima Arts Council. IRSCC helps refugees learn basic sewing and craft skills, including weaving, quilting, and crocheting. With these skills, refugees make clothes and other useful things for themselves and their families. Participants also make products for sale to provide some extra household income.
For many participants, the three weekly gatherings offer their first experience with these sewing and crafts activities. A particular focus of the IRSCC is teaching how to re-use and recycle fabric, yarn, or used clothing to make new items. This program currently serves over 100 individual refugees. Through the Burundi Basket Project Iskashitaa is working with several Burundian women to market their traditionally woven baskets to the people of Tucson. These women combine techniques learned in Rwanda and the refugee camps of Tanzania with local materials including palm fronds, yarn, and recycled vegetable bags donated from the community to make a variety of uniquely-styled baskets.
Through a Court Advocacy Project Iskashitaa requests interpretation services, assists with paperwork, accompanies refugees to court, and explains court processes to refugees unfamiliar with these procedures that has lasting ramifications. Recently Iskashitaa helped release two Somali Bantu from federal immigration detention. Connecting refugees with the Tucson community while helping these individuals develop the necessary skills to gain employment is one of the larger goals of Iskash*taa Refugee Harvesting Network.
In addition to these programs Iskashitaa recruits and supports family mentors who tutor in English and literacy, connect refugee teens and adults with computers, assistance with job applications, and collect a wide variety of donations. Iskashitaa has volunteers and interns who train refugees in community organizing, who advocate in the courts and legal system, teach swimming and pool safety, implement a utilities discount program for refugees, and provide city navigation classes. Iskashitaa has worked to develop a more cohesive networked community serving Tucson area refugees, volunteers, and service providers.
Iskashitaa moderates the Tucson Refugee Yahoo group (330+ members). Iskashitaa founder Dr. Eiswerth was a founding member of Sustainable Tucson where she remains active. She serves on the Tucson Unlearning Racism and Diversity Task Force and the Pima County Refugee Task Force.
All of these accomplishments have been achieved by a dedicated volunteer staff. Though Iskashitaa has continued to grow, feeding more children and families and educating communities, hundreds of thousands of pounds of organic food in Tucson are still going to waste every year. There are also more food-insecure refugee families in Tucson than ever before. In the last year Tucson has seen record levels of refugees, welcoming an additional 1,100 to an existing population of over 7,000. We have continued to expand our programs and
outreach each year, but strive to impact more children and families than ever before, especially in this economic crisis.
In 2009, Iskashitaa more than doubled its presence in the community at festivals, fairs, and community events thus promoting cross cultural exchange and better understanding of the world's global issues. We work with refugees who assist with community education, recruiting volunteers to work with recently arriving from multiple troubled areas of the world- all of which can use peace and our further understanding.