Immigrant and refugee clients of IRIS (Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Service) and staff members of local immigration agencies gather at IRIS’s facility at St. Francis’ Chapel in Atwater Village for fun, food and a chance to know one another. Photos: Courtesy of IRIS
Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Services (IRIS), a ministry of the diocese focused on resettlement, opened its doors Sept. 19 to welcome about 60 guests for a “Welcome Week” event, inspired by June’s World Refugee Day Celebration and organized by Hilda Sarkisians, a manager at IRIS and chair of Refugee Forum of Los Angeles (RFLA).
Attendees enjoyed a buffet of foods inspired by the native cuisines the immigrants knew from their original countries.
Due to limited space, the event was capped at 60 people, with a focus on refugees and other IRIS clients. “We’ve always had a problem bringing clients to these events,” Sarkisians said. “This time, 47 out of the 60 people that registered were clients, which is amazing.”
In addition to IRIS, local branches of Church World Services (CWS), the Red Cross, Jewish Vocational Services (JVS), Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment (PACE), helped to organize the event, which also was supported by the Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), the Office of Immigration Affairs (OIA), and RFLA.
As part of the Welcome Week celebration, the Red Cross gave out 50 baskets of household and childcare essentials. IRIS offered 30 backpacks full of goods donated by Baby 2 Baby, and CWS supplied emergency kits. Other organizations brought food and drinks.
“The purpose of this is not to give a table to agencies to sit there,” Sarkisians said. “It’s more about having fun, mingling, talking to each other, clients getting to know each other. We had Russian, Ukrainian, Afghan, Armenian from Armenia, Armenian from Iran, and Syrian [clients]. The fact that they’re all getting to know each other, seeing each other, eating the same food – that was the fun of the party.”