Thursday, March 29, 2012

panel discussion at Goucher College


Wednesday, April 4

Refugees & Resettlement in Baltimore
(a panel discussion and networking event)
Co-hosted by the Iraqi Student Project
Goucher College 
7 p.m., Buchner Hall of the Alumnae/i House

A panel of professionals who are working in refugee resettlement in Baltimore will talk about their experiences and the services available for refugees in urban areas. Afterward, students will be able to network with participants and discuss ways to get involved, through volunteer work and internships. The panel will feature:

Christine Gedim, who has served as assistant director for community integration at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service national headquarters in Baltimore for nearly 10 years. She also worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees/Jesuit Refugee Service program in Nairobi, Kenya, for almost nine years. Gedim is the founder of Kare Project Voice - A Lifeline for Women's Development in South Sudan.

Holly Leon-Lierman has been working with refugees, asylees, and immigrants for almost eight years. She serves as the communications and outreach manager with the Baltimore Resettlement Center, a public-private project that focuses on providing refugees with a "one-stop shopping" opportunity for much-needed services. The center helps resettle about 500 refugees and asylees each year in central Maryland.

Justin Sirois is a Baltimore-based writer whose books include Secondary Sound; MLKNG SCKLS; and Falcons on the Floor, which was written with Iraqi refugee Haneen Alshujairy. He and Alshujairy also run the Understanding Campaign, which provides support to nonprofits and NGOs doing aid work in and for the Middle East, and he co-directs the Narrow House press.


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