Friendship Across Cultures

As our country becomes increasingly diverse in terms of age, race and ethnicity, fostering cross-age and cross-cultural relationships is a powerful way to create welcoming communities for immigrants and refugees.  Friendship Across Cultures, a collaboration between the Intergenerational Center at Temple University and Lutheran Children and Family Services, seeks to foster these relationships through connecting refugee women from Burma, Bhutan and Iraq with American women age 55+ who are seeking opportunities for meaningful community engagement and cross-cultural learning. The program recognizes that although most refugee women are responsible for managing household finances, securing healthcare, supporting children in school, and maintaining cultural traditions, many feel isolated and often lack the necessary life and language skills to navigate complex systems and access services.  Friendship Across Cultures taps the life experiences of older women volunteers to help refugee women build supportive networks, better understand American culture, communicate in English, and move towards self-sufficiency.   

  Over the past year, approximately 25 older volunteers met weekly with over 60 refugee women at sites in South Philadelphia and the Northeast to strengthen English language and life skills, as well as build trust, connection and friendship.  The weekly groups include discussion about how to make medical appointments, communicate with children’s teachers, access social services, and deal with community violence, as well as visits to local sites such as libraries, dentists, pharmacies and groceries.  Outside of the groups, volunteers have:

  •  helped organize field trips to cultural institutions  for the refugee women and their families; 
  •  engaged in interactive cooking, gardening, and arts activities;
  • advocated  for the refugee women at the hospital;
  • accessed scholarships for refugee children to a summer arts program;
  • provided one on one tutoring; and
  • connected children with culturally appropriate school services 

Click here to watch our video.

Iraqi women's group

Iraqi women's group cooking together and sharing recipes at a local church kitchen 

iraqi women's group: sharing a meal together after cooking in the kitchen

Iraqi women and volunteers at the Penn Museum Iraqi exhibit where the women's group organized a city-wide event celebrating Iraqi culture and history

volunteers and women refugees from Burma and their families

Burmese group: discussion and language learning 

women sharing weaving traditions 

Burmese women sharing traditional clothing 

Volunteers and Refugee women from Bhutan 

Walking to visit the Nepali market 

spring planting with the Bhutanese group

Friends resting at the trip to the zoo

sharing songs with the Bhutanese women

Early outcomes suggest that Friendship Across Cultures is a promising community engagement model for both refugee women and older adult women volunteers.   The program helps refugee women build on their strengths and talents, learn new skills, and access needed resources; and provides older adults with compelling volunteer opportunities that leverage their experience and enable them to learn more about refugee experiences.  For all women involved, the program has enabled them to develop broader social networks based on caring and mutual respect.  

For more information contact: [email protected]

 

 The program is funded by a generous grant from the Barra Foundation.