In this week’s Epistle we focus on what is happening in the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center as we go through this challenging season. The newest member of our team, Giulia Bonoldi, has been hard at work reaching out to supporters and volunteers alike, and I’d like to share with you a document that she’s worked on that gives insight into how we are continuing to move forward in this time of closure.
 I’m so thankful for all that she has been doing, and so thankful for Piero, Mansur, Hammeh, and Nasim who have been busy putting together breakfast and supply kits for distribution during the week.
Even though we are a long way from reopening the center fully, we are using this time to organize and clean the center, and to make sure we have the proper resources we need to keep the JNRC safe and clean.
We don’t know yet what our new life will be, but we know that for us to live out our mission, we will have to keep guests, staff and volunteers as safe and healthy as possible. As such, we are asking for your help in contributing to and sharing widely this fundraising campaign aimed at helping us purchase un-budgeted equipment and supplies for the months ahead. You can find the campaign and donate by clicking here.
Thanks to all who continue to keep us moving forward during this season.
Yours in Christ,
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Dear JNRC Volunteers,
I hope this email finds all of you well in the midst of this unprecedented season.
It has been a long time since we had to suspend most in-person services, and I’m sure many of you are missing the precious work we do in direct contact with our guests.
I’m writing this email to give you some updates on our activity and to share some goals JNRC has recently achieved.
 As some of you might know, we started an outdoor distribution of breakfasts and essential supplies on the 8th of June. If all goes well, we hope to reopen the center in early October, and our aim is to carry out this kind of partial assistance until then (with our standard hiatus in August).
Our recent partnership with ItaliaHello has allowed us to increase our online support during these challenging months, and made it possible to keep our guests posted on recent legal provisions regarding economic support for the COVID-19 emergency, residence permits, and active labor policies.
In addition, the JNRC Works and Legal team are actively collaborating with ItaliaHello to help some of our guests through the ongoing amnesty: those that arrived in Italy before the 8th of March 2020 and who are currently engaged in “informal economy” work will finally have the opportunity to convert their jobs into signed contractual work; those whose permit expired within the 31st of October 2019, and who are since then without legal status, can now ask for a temporary permit (6 months) in order to find a job in a specific sector.
This week JNRC started to run a Gofundme Campaign. Our aim is to make sure that at the reopening we will be able to keep our space clean and safe. In order to provide assistance in total compliance with the health standards established by the Italian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, we plan to provide weekly professional sanitations, and stock special cleaning materials and individual safety equipment such as masks, gloves, disinfectant. If you can donate to this campaign, and most importantly, share this campaign across your networks, it will help us achieve our goal of protecting our community for the next 6 months, while we continue offering the essential in person services for which we are known.
Here is the link:
JNRC Gofundme Campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/safeandclean-JNRC
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Please help: share this link and our campaign with your Facebook, Instagram, Email and offline friends!
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As for our future activities, many of our supporters have reached out to us during this difficult time and committed to keep helping us pursue our unique mission. They are aware that the difficulties our guests experience will likely worsen, due to the economic consequence of the pandemic, and that reliance upon JNRC in this next season will be even greater.
Our ‘Employment Integration Project’ has been extended for another year, starting from October 2020. The Kahane Foundation is very happy about the results we achieved in the past two years, and has recently decided to contribute and support the third edition of the project. Our guests will continue to meet entrepreneurs from different job sectors, which increases their chances of meaningful job placement.
The Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem decided to support our CPM Program through a donation for Art Therapy Materials, starting from next October. As you all know, JNRC puts in a lot of effort to ensure the psychological well-being of our guests. People who are smuggled, trafficked, or exploited, even though they might seem ready to face everyday life or work challenges, can often face great difficulty executing the most basic life tasks, and we are very grateful to support them in rebuilding healthy lives through this kind donation!
St. Margaret’s Church in Annapolis and the American Cathedral in Paris are willing to support our humanitarian program in the next months and will help us provide for breakfasts and supplies. In addition to being a concrete help, these grants bear witness to the fact that our work connects to greater networks of care and concern beyond Rome.
Lastly, I’m very happy to announce that for the past two months JNRC has assisted a young refugee through an application process at St. George’s British International School. This guest managed to succeed and has been offered a one-year contract as a teaching assistant in the senior department for the academic year 2020-2021. We are very proud of his success and wish him the best of luck for his career!
I’d like to thank all of you for contributing to our successes and for being part of our great team! It will indeed be a joyous day when the center is able to reopen, and we get to see each other and work alongside each other once more.
Best regards,
Giulia
Giulia Bonoldi
JNRC Program and Development Director
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How we worship together on Sunday, June 28:
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- At 10:30 AM, tune in on YouTube for our Worship Service, celebrating the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Don't forget to say "hi" in the comments and chat!
- At 12:00 PM, we will re-gather LIVE on Zoom for "coffee hour." Please note that the Zoom link for this meeting has changed and you will need to update your bookmarks, etc.
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