| KaRen Community Development Ministry Starfish Ministries is now working to provide assistance to KaRen refugees, the newest refugees arriving in Minnesota. The KaRen is an indigenous group who live primarily in the mountainous regions of Burma, now known as Myanmar where they are the second-largest ethnic group in the country. The military government is trying to eradicate the people and their culture. They began arriving in large numbers in 2007 and the numbers arriving continue to grow. Because they come from an agrarian society, the are unequipped for employment in this country. And, since many of them have been hiding in the jungle or living in refugee camps for decades, they are often illiterate in their own language which makes learning English that much more challenging. Starfish Ministries is partnering with New Life Christian Reformed Church, a church now predominantly KaRen, to identify needs, connect refugees with existing resources, and find resources where none currently exist. ELL (English language learning) is being provided in cooperation with Hmong American Partnership at their facility on University and Western Avenues in St. Paul. Volunteers are needed. Tutoring for elementary, middle and high school children is currently being done by volunteers from Faith Christian Reformed Church at their building in New Brighton. Volunteers are needed. CAPI, another non-profit who serves refugees, is seeking a KaRen speaking employee so they can provide employment services at a location we are seeking in St. Paul. In the summer of 2009, New Life Church had a soccer league made up of KaRen men and boys. It was very successful and will continue. We are seeking space to lease within 1.5 miles of where most of the KaRen live in St. Paul so that we can make our services more accessible. More information on that should be forthcoming soon. |
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Testimonials
In 1988, people...protested to the government for democracy… They shot many...people with machine guns... Some people were not dead yet, but soldiers picked them up and put them in a trailer mixed with dead people. They caught many people, and sent them to jail.
Many people...escaped to the Thailand-Burma border.
-A KaRen ELL student
