The Refugee Sevices Office, Department of Workforce Services rewarded the Bhutanese Community of Utah (BCU) by Community Excellence Award for the year 2010 in recognition of dedicated services and support for refugee capacity building in Utah during the Third Refugee Conference on Jan 28-29 in Salt Lake City.
The conference 2011 was organised to give an opportunity for all the service providers involved in Utah to come to a place to discuss about the various aspects of the refugee resettlement in the state. Ghanashyam Dulal participated on the panel discussion on ‘ Refugee Community Progress and Continued Challenges’ on behalf of BCU and Jaga Adhikari shared his story of success in the USA along with the members from Myanmar, Iraqi, Sudanese, and Somali communities.
Three cultural entertainment programs were presented during the conference in which a group of Bhuanese children presented group dance to entertain the participants.
Several Bhutanese women were involved to exibit the handmade items like sweater, shocks, sacks, beads, bags and many other products at the conference center. It was a great opportunity where they sold their products and were also recognized about their skills by the community at large present at the conference.
The Sudanese Community in Utah, two individuals from the communities, volunteers, employers, and service providers were also recognized during the conference for the outstanding performance during the whole year as a community and as an individual for making the life of the resettled refugees easy in Utah.
The conference focussed mainly on the refugees’ road of integration, helping refugee youth succeed in school, importance of English as Second Language, overcoming barriers to employment was participated by more than 20 refugee communities in the States .
Reported by Khem Kafley from Utah for BNS
