DIALOGUE
A Seed for Global Relations
The spirit and vision of human beings can be kept alive
Through "dialogue" as the key-
Irrespective of social status, money, and dwelling
From heaven to sea!
Dialogue knows no cultural, geographic,
Or social boundaries on this wide open Earth-
And may open the door to a process of reconciliation
To douse the flame from disparity or racial hearth!
Dialogue can remove the insurmountable walls
Between people and create a new vision-
To embrace interdependence of mankind
And promote diversity as the secret mission!
Replacement of hostility and confrontation can be achieved
Via open dialogue without a doubt-
And conceive our diversity as a step towards peace
To eliminate the matching game of shout!
Dialogue may strengthen friendly relations
Among the nations that we desperately need-
And remove the threats to global peace
Via dialogue as the only seed!
To foster mutual cooperation and promote human rights
With fundamental freedom for all-
Dialogue is the only resource available today,
To influence the Nations - big or small!
Greater inter-relatedness among people can be harmonized
Through dialogue as the essential tool-
While the interactions among cultures will create
The warmth like a blanket made out of wool!
Dialogue may promote the cause for peace
And mutual respect in a crisis time-
To prevent the deadly wars that kill human lives,
Valued only as nickel or dime!
With progress of modern communications,
I cherish to see the silver lining behind the cloudy mind-
To unveil the suspicions and deal with dialogue
For the betterment of precious mankind!
So there's no doubt in my vision today
That dialogue is a seed for the global relations of tomorrow-
And we must allow it to germinate now
For the joy of humanity while removing the sorrow!!
DIALOGUE, A seed for Global Relations written by Hillol Ray, used by permission.
For another Diversity Poem click on the heading: Diversity Poem #2
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving Message and Welcome Center Food Drive
To Download Poster click on Title above:
When I started to write a few things to be thankful for this holiday season and thinking with the economy being questionable, wars all over the world, corruption in governments, immigration problems, peoples lives being snuffed out for no reason, crime rates spinning out of control, bad news on every TV channel, I realized in the past 8 years I've been involved in the Faribault Diversity Coalition I have been amazed at the sharing and caring from everyone I've come in contact with.
This Thanksgiving we give thanks for all that all of you have done for our Immigrant friends and neighbors as well as for everyone in this community. I can't help but wonder what this community would be like without all you of you with big hearts. You have all helped in one way or another.
It started with the Faribault Chamber of Commerce led by Kymn Anderson and a small group of people called the Faribault Diversity Coalltion led by Bob Kell and Pat Wieseler. Along came the Humphrey Institute, with Prof. Kathy Fennelly bringing her students and knowledge. Without the Chamber and Kathy Fennelly I believe the citizens of Faribault and the new immigrants would have been strained.
The many organizations that have been a part of the coalition have been a tremendous help with their knowledge and expertise. Even the anti-immigrant groups have been a blessing in disguise. When things looked the bleakest somebody new would come along like Joseph Mbele from St. Olaf College who helped me understand that there are all sides to every situation and everyone needs to be heard.
Organizations like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, United Way of Faribault, City of Faribault, Foldcraft, Diving Mercy, Our Savior's and other Church's in Faribault and surrounding communities have been a tremendous help. The Daily News with their positive news and especially Paulene Schrieber who has been doing a wonderful job for the past 8 years. Thanks to the Police Dept. and Mike Monge from the Fire Department, Turkey Store, non-profit organizations, schools, South Central College, Banks, Dist. one Hospital, K.D.H.L., Buckham Library for use of their facilities and their Librarians who have helped in many ways. Ordinary citizens like Greg Caron my friend and mentor, a librarian from St. Paul, Kathy Fennelly's sisters from New York, Linda Letts from Rochester, Betty Z from Lonsdale, Dr. Richard Huston from Faribault to name a few have given of themselves, money, and encouragement.
Without Bob Kell as our fearless leader and the many wonderful people that have made up our original board of directors, Pat Wieseler, Dan Burns, Larry Lundblad, Kymn Anderson, Shirley Drentlaw, and others we wouldn't have been able to still be going today. Today's Board is equal to the task, there is so much yet to be done and we continue with great enthusiasm.
We're thankful for Hashi and Abdullah from Somali Resettlement Service for being part of the Welcome Center. We are all learning about and from each other.
We are a richer community for learning, absorbing and accepting one another. The world is in our laps with the customs, foods, and stories and knowing we are making a better life for all of us.
The hardest part in thanking everyone is the fear of leaving people out and I know I've done that. To that, I'm sorry. I can't thank all of you enough for bringing a positive attitude and bringing all human beings closer together, we are all God's children and doing His work.
With that I'm asking one more thing and that is the Food Drive below.
Have a gentle day and Happy Thanksgiving, Milo
Many people are working hard. Their children are making tremendous efforts in school. As immigrant families, they have brought so much to our community. But sometimes it is hard to keep food in the cupboard…
When I started to write a few things to be thankful for this holiday season and thinking with the economy being questionable, wars all over the world, corruption in governments, immigration problems, peoples lives being snuffed out for no reason, crime rates spinning out of control, bad news on every TV channel, I realized in the past 8 years I've been involved in the Faribault Diversity Coalition I have been amazed at the sharing and caring from everyone I've come in contact with.
This Thanksgiving we give thanks for all that all of you have done for our Immigrant friends and neighbors as well as for everyone in this community. I can't help but wonder what this community would be like without all you of you with big hearts. You have all helped in one way or another.
It started with the Faribault Chamber of Commerce led by Kymn Anderson and a small group of people called the Faribault Diversity Coalltion led by Bob Kell and Pat Wieseler. Along came the Humphrey Institute, with Prof. Kathy Fennelly bringing her students and knowledge. Without the Chamber and Kathy Fennelly I believe the citizens of Faribault and the new immigrants would have been strained.
The many organizations that have been a part of the coalition have been a tremendous help with their knowledge and expertise. Even the anti-immigrant groups have been a blessing in disguise. When things looked the bleakest somebody new would come along like Joseph Mbele from St. Olaf College who helped me understand that there are all sides to every situation and everyone needs to be heard.
Organizations like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, United Way of Faribault, City of Faribault, Foldcraft, Diving Mercy, Our Savior's and other Church's in Faribault and surrounding communities have been a tremendous help. The Daily News with their positive news and especially Paulene Schrieber who has been doing a wonderful job for the past 8 years. Thanks to the Police Dept. and Mike Monge from the Fire Department, Turkey Store, non-profit organizations, schools, South Central College, Banks, Dist. one Hospital, K.D.H.L., Buckham Library for use of their facilities and their Librarians who have helped in many ways. Ordinary citizens like Greg Caron my friend and mentor, a librarian from St. Paul, Kathy Fennelly's sisters from New York, Linda Letts from Rochester, Betty Z from Lonsdale, Dr. Richard Huston from Faribault to name a few have given of themselves, money, and encouragement.
Without Bob Kell as our fearless leader and the many wonderful people that have made up our original board of directors, Pat Wieseler, Dan Burns, Larry Lundblad, Kymn Anderson, Shirley Drentlaw, and others we wouldn't have been able to still be going today. Today's Board is equal to the task, there is so much yet to be done and we continue with great enthusiasm.
We're thankful for Hashi and Abdullah from Somali Resettlement Service for being part of the Welcome Center. We are all learning about and from each other.
We are a richer community for learning, absorbing and accepting one another. The world is in our laps with the customs, foods, and stories and knowing we are making a better life for all of us.
The hardest part in thanking everyone is the fear of leaving people out and I know I've done that. To that, I'm sorry. I can't thank all of you enough for bringing a positive attitude and bringing all human beings closer together, we are all God's children and doing His work.
With that I'm asking one more thing and that is the Food Drive below.
Have a gentle day and Happy Thanksgiving, Milo
Many people are working hard. Their children are making tremendous efforts in school. As immigrant families, they have brought so much to our community. But sometimes it is hard to keep food in the cupboard…
Welcome Center Food Drive
We opened a small food shelf in May of 2007
to assist immigrant families and others with food needs.
Through the end of October, we had provided 194 families with 5251 lbs of food.
To be able to continue providing food to families when they
experience emergency need, we need your help.
How can you help?
Needed items:
Rice • Pasta • Oil Flour
Sugar • Tuna • Canned Corn • Cereal
Tomato Sauce • Spaghetti Sauce
Cash donations accepted.
We can purchase many items from the Channel One Food Bank for 18 cents/lb.
$10 can purchase nearly 180 lbs of food.
Donations are tax-deductible.
Donations can be dropped off at the Welcome Center (24 W. Division) or
Faribault Print Shop (402 Central) M-F, 8:30-4:30.
Thank you for your support.
To Download Poster click on Title - "Happy Thanksgiving Message and Welcome Center Food Drive" above.
We opened a small food shelf in May of 2007
to assist immigrant families and others with food needs.
Through the end of October, we had provided 194 families with 5251 lbs of food.
To be able to continue providing food to families when they
experience emergency need, we need your help.
How can you help?
Needed items:
Rice • Pasta • Oil Flour
Sugar • Tuna • Canned Corn • Cereal
Tomato Sauce • Spaghetti Sauce
Cash donations accepted.
We can purchase many items from the Channel One Food Bank for 18 cents/lb.
$10 can purchase nearly 180 lbs of food.
Donations are tax-deductible.
Donations can be dropped off at the Welcome Center (24 W. Division) or
Faribault Print Shop (402 Central) M-F, 8:30-4:30.
Thank you for your support.
To Download Poster click on Title - "Happy Thanksgiving Message and Welcome Center Food Drive" above.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Celina's Story "Growing up in El Salvador"
A little background from El Salvador.
People from El Salvador are very humble and we live in a small country, we only have fourteen Departments and they are Au’achapa’n, Santa Ana, Sonsonate, La Libertad, Chalatenango, San Salvador, La paz, Cusctlan, cabaña, San Vicente, Usulutan, San Miguel, Morazan, La Union. El Salvador is located in the central American coast of the pacific ocean, and bordering on the north and east with Honduras, on the west with Guatemala. We have a tropical climate. Winter starts in May and ends in October, summer runs from November to April.
My name is Celina Yarbrough; I was born in Houston TX but raised in El ¬Salvador. My mother is Salvadorian and my father was American. He died when I was four years old. When I was little like four and half or five my brother, my sister, my mom and I didn’t have anything to eat after my father death. He died on May eighth of 1992. Our lives were very hard, because we had to work at an early age. My sister Claudia was the oldest. She was six, I was five and my brother Eduardo was four. I never know how to play with dolls, because I never had the time for it, and because we where really poor and didn’t have the money to buy one. We didn’t know anything about agriculture we were too little, but we had the necessity to eat.
At the time my mother, brother, sister and I started working in the fields. Our first job was to plant grass for the animals. My mother was making holes, my sister was putting the roots of the grass in the hole, I was closing the holes with the grass indeed and my brother was jumping on top of the holes that were closed to seal them up really good. When the grass grew nice and big, my mom gave it to some people for the rent and put animal inside of the parcel to eat the grass but, they were going to pay for month either with money, beans, rice, corn, or milk. That was the first year.
The second year we did a bigger parcel of grass, the same process. We also planted corn, squash, rice, sorghum, and beans. Let me tell you how little kids planted so much corn and a very straight line of it. My mom put a rope very tight tied to a tree from end to end so we don’t get the lines like a snake. I don’t know people grow the rice here but, I will tell you how we do it: by hand hoe or oxen drawn plow. After the plow passes there is a person that has the rice in a bowl that is throwing it in the ground and at the same time covering with their feet. When the rice is ready, we cut the plant close to the root. We put nylon on the ground, the nylon had to have a rock in each corner so the wind wouldn’t blow it away, and for the rice we put a plastic barrel in the middle of the nylon with a rock inside so it doesn’t move. The barrel was laid down so we can hit the rice stalks on the barrel to remove the grain. At the end of the day we pick up everything and the rice goes in the plastic sacks. After all the fun of work we had to chase the horse put the saddle on him and put one sack of rice in each side of the horse saddle.
You may laugh about my work experience being so little but, that is something that I know by heart. I might not know how to play with a doll but I know how to work hard.
The third year when I was seven year’s of age we still grew the same kind of vegetables and corn, and school was part time only from seven to noon and from 12 to 5 PM for everybody. Our classes were in the afternoon so in the early morning my mother used to wake us up so we can go to work. It’s true we went to work but it takes 45 minutes walking to field we used to put plastic sacks on the ground so we started sleeping under the corn plants close to the road. At 9:30 AM my mother brought food for us because we were “working really hard” but she always caught us in the field sleeping. Something we worked since the morning stars.
In the small town where I got raised there are people who are very kind and respect each other. The water that we drink we have to go bring it from the river in gallons, or water jugs. We don’t have washing machines, but we have good hands to wash it by hand and dry it on a rope. When there was no electricity we lit a candle at night or for the machine to make masa (dough) for tortillas we have like a shaped rock and hand rock to break the corn seed to make masa (dough). Instead of having are own vehicle for transportation we have buses or horses to ride. There is no stove for cooking but, we have wood to burn. The students don’t use backpacks to bring their books to school. They use plastic bags. If you want to take a shower, you go to the river. I am just giving you some tips on how people from El Salvador are very poor. You know the president is a person that doesn’t have a brain, because he exchange the colon money for dollars and the people that work in agriculture get really low pay for 5 hours they get paid 3 dollars and for 10 hours of work they get 5 dollars per day just imagine. But that includes breakfast and lunch for does that work the ten hours. To get pay in colones there is difference 25 colones per half day no food, 43.75 colones for ten hours that is all I can tell you for right now.
Made on November of 2007
Celina Yarbrough
People from El Salvador are very humble and we live in a small country, we only have fourteen Departments and they are Au’achapa’n, Santa Ana, Sonsonate, La Libertad, Chalatenango, San Salvador, La paz, Cusctlan, cabaña, San Vicente, Usulutan, San Miguel, Morazan, La Union. El Salvador is located in the central American coast of the pacific ocean, and bordering on the north and east with Honduras, on the west with Guatemala. We have a tropical climate. Winter starts in May and ends in October, summer runs from November to April.
My name is Celina Yarbrough; I was born in Houston TX but raised in El ¬Salvador. My mother is Salvadorian and my father was American. He died when I was four years old. When I was little like four and half or five my brother, my sister, my mom and I didn’t have anything to eat after my father death. He died on May eighth of 1992. Our lives were very hard, because we had to work at an early age. My sister Claudia was the oldest. She was six, I was five and my brother Eduardo was four. I never know how to play with dolls, because I never had the time for it, and because we where really poor and didn’t have the money to buy one. We didn’t know anything about agriculture we were too little, but we had the necessity to eat.
At the time my mother, brother, sister and I started working in the fields. Our first job was to plant grass for the animals. My mother was making holes, my sister was putting the roots of the grass in the hole, I was closing the holes with the grass indeed and my brother was jumping on top of the holes that were closed to seal them up really good. When the grass grew nice and big, my mom gave it to some people for the rent and put animal inside of the parcel to eat the grass but, they were going to pay for month either with money, beans, rice, corn, or milk. That was the first year.
The second year we did a bigger parcel of grass, the same process. We also planted corn, squash, rice, sorghum, and beans. Let me tell you how little kids planted so much corn and a very straight line of it. My mom put a rope very tight tied to a tree from end to end so we don’t get the lines like a snake. I don’t know people grow the rice here but, I will tell you how we do it: by hand hoe or oxen drawn plow. After the plow passes there is a person that has the rice in a bowl that is throwing it in the ground and at the same time covering with their feet. When the rice is ready, we cut the plant close to the root. We put nylon on the ground, the nylon had to have a rock in each corner so the wind wouldn’t blow it away, and for the rice we put a plastic barrel in the middle of the nylon with a rock inside so it doesn’t move. The barrel was laid down so we can hit the rice stalks on the barrel to remove the grain. At the end of the day we pick up everything and the rice goes in the plastic sacks. After all the fun of work we had to chase the horse put the saddle on him and put one sack of rice in each side of the horse saddle.
You may laugh about my work experience being so little but, that is something that I know by heart. I might not know how to play with a doll but I know how to work hard.
The third year when I was seven year’s of age we still grew the same kind of vegetables and corn, and school was part time only from seven to noon and from 12 to 5 PM for everybody. Our classes were in the afternoon so in the early morning my mother used to wake us up so we can go to work. It’s true we went to work but it takes 45 minutes walking to field we used to put plastic sacks on the ground so we started sleeping under the corn plants close to the road. At 9:30 AM my mother brought food for us because we were “working really hard” but she always caught us in the field sleeping. Something we worked since the morning stars.
In the small town where I got raised there are people who are very kind and respect each other. The water that we drink we have to go bring it from the river in gallons, or water jugs. We don’t have washing machines, but we have good hands to wash it by hand and dry it on a rope. When there was no electricity we lit a candle at night or for the machine to make masa (dough) for tortillas we have like a shaped rock and hand rock to break the corn seed to make masa (dough). Instead of having are own vehicle for transportation we have buses or horses to ride. There is no stove for cooking but, we have wood to burn. The students don’t use backpacks to bring their books to school. They use plastic bags. If you want to take a shower, you go to the river. I am just giving you some tips on how people from El Salvador are very poor. You know the president is a person that doesn’t have a brain, because he exchange the colon money for dollars and the people that work in agriculture get really low pay for 5 hours they get paid 3 dollars and for 10 hours of work they get 5 dollars per day just imagine. But that includes breakfast and lunch for does that work the ten hours. To get pay in colones there is difference 25 colones per half day no food, 43.75 colones for ten hours that is all I can tell you for right now.
Made on November of 2007
Celina Yarbrough
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Warm Clothes Drive
CLICK ON TITLE TO DOWNLOAD FULL SIZE POSTERS
“Bring Warm Clothes”
Winter Clothing Drive and Distribution
Sponsored by the Faribault Diversity Coalition
Supported by BlueCross/BlueShield Foundation and the United Way of Faribault
Just as early Scandinavian immigrants to Minnesota wrote back home to tell friends and relatives to “bring warm clothes” to fend off the winter cold, some immigrant and other families in our community still need those “warm clothes” as cold weather approaches. Please consider donating gently-used or new items of winter clothing that will help a local family this season.
Donations Needed
Coats, Hats, Gloves, Boots
(for children and adults)
(Please bring items that are clean and in good condition only)
Donated Items can be dropped off at:
Faribault Print Shop,
402 Central Avenue N., M-F, 8-4:30
Donations can be dropped
off during the month of Nov.
Distribution: Need warm clothes?
Saturday, Dec 1, 9 am until noon,
Buckham Memorial Library, Great Hall
(11 Division St. E., Faribault)
Please Contact the Welcome Center, 333-5036 for more information.
“Bring Warm Clothes”
Winter Clothing Drive and Distribution
Sponsored by the Faribault Diversity Coalition
Supported by BlueCross/BlueShield Foundation and the United Way of Faribault
Just as early Scandinavian immigrants to Minnesota wrote back home to tell friends and relatives to “bring warm clothes” to fend off the winter cold, some immigrant and other families in our community still need those “warm clothes” as cold weather approaches. Please consider donating gently-used or new items of winter clothing that will help a local family this season.
Donations Needed
Coats, Hats, Gloves, Boots
(for children and adults)
(Please bring items that are clean and in good condition only)
Donated Items can be dropped off at:
Faribault Print Shop,
402 Central Avenue N., M-F, 8-4:30
Donations can be dropped
off during the month of Nov.
Distribution: Need warm clothes?
Saturday, Dec 1, 9 am until noon,
Buckham Memorial Library, Great Hall
(11 Division St. E., Faribault)
Please Contact the Welcome Center, 333-5036 for more information.
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