Vermont Public Radio reports that "twenty-seven families of African refugees are going to be farming plots in Burlington's intervale" as part the New Farms for New Americans initiative. The program is in its first year and primarily targets unemployed women. "Officials say most of those who signed up to farm had some sort of agricultural experience in their home countries" and that "the women in the program come from Somalia, Congo, Burundi and Tanzania. The food raised in the gardens can be sold at farmers' markets."

Link to article

The Rutland Herald reports that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services holds 14 naturalization ceremonies in Vermont each year Vermont, "bestowing citizenship on 600 to 700 immigrants" annually. During a recent ceremony at Neshobe Elementary School in Brandon, Vermont, 40 immigrants became U.S. citizens. "The new citizens took an oath as a group foreswearing allegiance to any foreign power and promising to uphold the laws of the country before coming forth individual certificates. The ceremony featured patriotic songs and a recitation by local students of the preamble to the Constitution laced with a commentary on U.S. history."

Link to article

The Addison County Independent reports that Lincoln residents Tom Verner and Janet Fredericks "visited a dozen refugee camps and settlements in Iran [last month] with a delegation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. While most of the group brought supplies or medical care to refugees displaced from their homelands by years or even decades of war, Verner and Fredericks came to entertain refugees with magic tricks and sleight of hand in performances for children." In 2001, the couple founded Magicians Without Borders. The organization has performed "in refugee camps, orphanages, schools and hospitals around the world, from India to Kosovo to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina." The couple "entertains partly to offer relief from the day-to-day problems of living in a camp, but also to bring hope for the future to people who probably don’t have much." After a recent show in Iran, one camp worker told Verner that she'd "never seen the children laugh like this in [her] six years working in [the] camp."

Link to article

The Burlington Free Press reports that last fall St. Michael's students launched a mentoring program that connects college students with Somali Bantu youth. As part of the program "once a week, nine Somali Bantu youths from three families and five St. Michael's students [spend] Thursday afternoons together." The program's activities have included "visiting the campus, picking apples and attending an Akoma drumming class."

Link to article

The Burlington Free Press reports that 100 attendees and "about two dozen of Vermont's Sudanese refugees gathered in St. James Episcopal Church on Friday night for the church's fourth annual Africa Night," a fundraiser to benefit the the New Sudan Education Initiative (NESEI). NESEI is a group organized by refugees that builds schools in Southern Sudan. "Last year, NESEI won a $250,000 grant from the World Bank Development Marketplace Competition, and used the money to construct its first school, The New Sudan School of Health Sciences, in Yei, Southern Sudan." The school is scheduled to open next month. NESEI also "plans to build 20 schools in the region by 2015."

Link to article