SCALE- Volunteering with the Refugee Women’s Network
One of the SUMMIT parts at Agnes Scott, is the sophomore SCALE experience. I spent a week at the Refugee Women’s Network in Atlanta, GA with three other classmates volunteering for this non-profit organization which serves immigrant families from across the globe. We learned about the work that they do and how it relates to leadership, which is the core focus of the SCALE program.
Our time was short with them but it was inspiring to witness such important work and learn about ways that we could do better in our lives to help communities like these. Along with my other fellow classmates, we collectively interviewed the program manager Awaz Jabari. Awaz is originally from Kyrgyzstan but has spent the last 20 years in the US serving in various non-profits. She worked for the Domestic Violence Agency for 13 years before she moved onto a micro-enterprise job where she provided CDL opportunities for refugees and brought experts from different fields to teach classes. She now works for the Refugee Women’s Network as the program manager of the social adjustment program, the leadership program, the economic empowerment program, and any work having to do with the upcoming census. Awaz also engages with clients, especially since she can speak Arabic, English, Farsi, and Kurdish. When we asked her to reflect on the best part of her job she specifically mentioned the joyful moment when her clients realize she can speak their language because it brings them great comfort. She also reflected the most difficult part of her job is the language barrier with the Rohinga people who do not have a written dialect and that their office is not located in the communities they serve so it is hard to commute and find the time to be everywhere.
As I reflect on my experience working with the Refugee Women’s Network, I think about how inspired I was to see the incredible work they do in the Atlanta community. If I were to have the opportunity to work there or at a similar non-profit, I would be excited to have the ability to interact with local community members and help analyze and develop plans to bring more equity to the people they serve. Non-profit work is some of the hardest but most rewarding work there is so I know it would be meaningful to me to be in an environment where all members of the program are valued and appreciated and encouraged to fight for justice. I plan to be working abroad as a nurse and I know that having this experience will benefit me in my ability to interact with different cultures and develop strategic ways of providing healthcare to those in desperate need of it.
In terms of leadership at the Refugee Women’s Network, there was a sense that everyone’s voice is important. While there is a hierarchical structure in terms of the executive director, it is not an authoritative position. Everyone collaborates and facilitates conversation which creates a productive environment because everyone’s voices are valued and respected. In our involvement with their programs, we were often given a task and then we collectively used our strategic thinking and executive decision making skills as a group to organize and make a plan for how to efficiently accomplish our job. For example, we had to organize an entire room of donated clothes and prepare them to be delivered out into the community. We developed a strategic sorting system and then we each did a different section so that it could get done within the time we had. Leadership also became important when we went out into the community and had to take initiative to personally reach out to people. This is when our relationship building and influencing skills became crucial because we had to figure out ways of connecting to other unknown families who often did not speak our language. We took the clothes we had sorted and went to the apartments that house refugees. There was not a good time or location to put everything so we took it upon ourselves to put the clothes near the center of the apartment complexes and then go door to door and knock. Not everyone answered but those that did gave us the opportunity to share what we had brought. It was hard to overcome the language barrier but we used gestures and warm smiles so that they would hopefully feel comfortable. It was not easy considering many of them do not feel comfortable talking with strangers.
My education at Agnes has prepared me to be confident to make decisions and try new things even if they feel unfamiliar. It has also prepared me to be a leader who listens more than talks, to spend time with the people you are working with, and always stand up for what you believe in. Leadership only works when you give time to every voice because only then can we really have true empathy and understand the situation of others. And lastly, it is important to remember your why, to know why you are committing precious time to something, and that there is always room to shift and change what you are doing if you are not fulfilled where you are.
