October, November, December Project Update
Dear all,
After a long break here comes yet another update for the Meskhetian Turkish Collaborative Project from Nationalities Service Center. Please find below the list of the activities held during the past two months, as well as activities planned. Thank you.
Meskhetian Turkish Community Building Collaborative Project is wishing you all a happy holiday season and all the best wishes in the New Year!
October 30th
Apple-picking trip to the farm
12 children and 10 adults from Meskhetian Turkish families joined the trip to the Snipes farm in Morrisville. Exciting trip in the eve of Halloween was a great fun adventure for children and for adults. There was apple and pumpkin picking, hayrides, corn maze, and a feast with pumpkin pies and apple cider afterwards on that beautiful fall day. You can find pictures from the event on www.ahiskaturks.blogspot.com. We had families from Chester, Philadelphia, Upper Darby present at the outing.
November 3rd
Eid celebration
The end of the holy month of Ramadan celebration was held by NSC at the Foundation for Islamic Education in Villanova. Families from Philadelphia, Chester Hill, Upper Darby, Lancaster, and Villanova were joined the gathering together with NSC staff. Traditional food was brought by the invitees and people were able to share the fun with their community. The celebration was a fun event where people of different ages in the community had a chance to interact with each other, play musical chairs, dance, and celebrate the end of the Ramadan, fist for most of them in the United States. You can find pictures from the event on www.ahiskaturks.blogspot.com. Each family left with a bunch of financial literacy brochures from Fanny Mae foundation in Russian on the following topics ” Borrowing Basics”, “Knowing and Understanding Your Credit”, “Opening a Door to a Home of Your Own”, and “Choosing the Mortgage That’s Right for You”.
Change of status application process
Many of the families are not yet ready to apply for their change of status or are being referred to other resources. So far NSC is working with 3 families processing their LPR applications. As soon as we have later arrived families ready to apply, the process will continue with those. The fees for the MT LPR applications are: $250 per person, however, households with more that 3 people do not pay the amount exceeding $750. Seniors are going to be processed pro bono.
Obtaining marriage licenses
The first family will be taken to the Philadelphia City Hall to apply for a marriage license last week of December. The process is going to be given the priority in the months of January and February, and the couples would gather for the celebration of their marriages possibly around the 8th of March – International Women’s Day. However, the date selected is very flexible and might be changed since it’s the event that is more important for the families. We are planning to work with the Foundation for Islamic Education, and Dr. Mustafa, who is able to register couples in the state of Pennsylvania, and agreed to assist the project in this matter. We will also be working closely with volunteers, churches and relatives of the young couples to make sure that community is aware of the process of obtaining marriage licenses and certificates for the future arrivals.
Collaboration with JEVS
NSC coordinator met staff of Jewish Employment and Vocational Services to introduce the project, since many Meskhetian Turkish families are being provided employment services by the organization. The possibilities of the project assisting the work of employment counselors through technical assistance were discussed.
Financial Literacy Workshop
NSC together with students from Wharton Business School of University of Pennsylvania conducted a financial literacy workshop in Russian that included the basics of banking, managing the credit history, family budgeting and money spending. We are planning to continue working with the families in the area on the issues of financial literacy since it seems to be one of the main concerns for them.
As always please feel free to share this information with anyone who you think would be interested, and please get back to us with your questions or comments.
Thank you.
Leyla
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Leyla N. Dursunova
Nationalities Service Center
1300 Spruce Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 893-8400, ext. 124
ldursunova@nationalitiesservice.org
… And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people the permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others!"
--Nelson Mandela
posted by Leyla @ 12/24/2005
