Monday, March 9th, 2020
Rehema Mukeshimana’s family arrived in Tallahassee, Fla., in August 2016, but relocated, at a friend’s suggestion, to Knoxville in June 2018 for better employment opportunities and to be nearer to a more vibrant Swahili-speaking community. Like they do for most clients, Bridge Refugee Services, which reports the Congolese as its fastest-growing refugee group in Knoxville […]
Read More »Unlikely crossing: Refugee and friend reunite in Chattanooga
Monday, March 9th, 2020
When Sudanese refugee Marwah Kuku learned in 2019 she was going to be resettled in Chattanooga, she had never heard of the city. At the time, she was living in Amman, Jordan, and working for the global humanitarian organization World Relief to serve other refugees from various countries. “I did not know where this is,” […]
Read More »Couple supports Bridge refugees with tax savings
Wednesday, February 5th, 2020
When the federal tax overhaul was passed in 2017, Kevin and Courtney Brown made a decision. Although the new policy put more money in their pockets at the end of the year, they saw that it cost lower-income families more. So, instead of buying a new TV or going on vacation, the couple decided to […]
Read More »Congolese student excels at STEM
Wednesday, February 5th, 2020
Just a month into his freshman year at the L&N STEM Academy, student Phillip Sebu stood in the pit at the Tennessee Valley Fair’s Robo-Rodeo, tools at the ready. As a rookie member of the school’s Robotics team, the STEMpunks, Phillip cheered on the team’s robot, Rosetta, a.k.a. Rosie, as it completed a series of […]
Read More »Christmas project goes year-round for church group
Friday, November 29th, 2019
As the holidays approached last year, Vicki Suttle and Marsha Gentry went to a pastor at their church, seeking a way to better invest themselves in the lives of the people in their community. “We wanted to connect with people on more than a one-time thing,” Vicki said. The pastor steered them to Bridge Refugee […]
Read More »Former Bosnian refugee ‘pays it forward’
Friday, November 29th, 2019
Last Christmas, Olivera Dessieux delivered nearly 300 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to children served by Bridge Refugee Services and a Knoxville elementary school. This holiday season, the former Bridge client organized another community donation drive aimed at giving children entering the foster-care system a new duffel bag to carry hygiene products and other items so they won’t […]
Read More »Couple reunites after six years
Tuesday, November 5th, 2019
When Muhyidin came to Chattanooga in 2016, he made a decision. If his wife couldn’t join him within five years, he would go back home. He had left his country, a newlywed, in 2013 as one of hundreds of thousands fleeing ongoing conflict and ethnic struggle in his home city of Darfur. He and […]
Read More »‘My children got a better life’
Tuesday, November 5th, 2019
It’s been almost 30 years since Manjay fled civil conflict in Liberia with her four children, ages three to nine, and walked to the Ivory Coast. In 2005, the family walked off the airplane into a new life in Knoxville. “I didn’t know anybody,” she says. She didn’t speak English. Her children had never been […]
Read More »New sewing program brings clients together to learn enterprise skills
Sunday, October 6th, 2019
Claudine Tuyisenge didn’t know how to handle a needle, let alone a sewing machine when she participated last month in a sewing workshop offered through Bridge Refugee Services’ Knoxville office. “Now I can make my own skirt,” says Claudine, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who resettled in Knoxville with Bridge’s help. […]
Read More »Interpreter follows in father’s footsteps
Sunday, October 6th, 2019
When Sarah Whayeb greets Arabic-speaking refugees who arrive in East Tennessee, she welcomes them in her native language. But Sarah, an interpreter with Bridge Refugee Services, understands first-hand the culture shock, exhaustion and uncertainty they’re experiencing, as well. With Bridge’s help, she resettled in Chattanooga 11 years ago after fleeing war-torn Iraq with her mother, […]
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