Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | R | Refuge

Coming Home: connecting older Liberians in the Diaspora with the family and friends at home.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Coming Home is an arts initiative that uses photography and film to connect older Liberians in the Diaspora with friends and family at home. A group of elders in Staten Island came together to create messages for the author to carry to friends and family in Liberia. The author delivered the messages, filmed responses, and returned them to the Staten Island community. The project will culminate in a multimedia exhibit featuring the stories, photos, and films. The author used components of Photovoice, a participatory action research strategy, and Social Network Theory as Well a resilience framework to guide the arts initiative. In this Article the author describes the process of developing and implementing this project with Liberian elders in the New York Diaspora and discusses the ways in which its methodological approaches amplify the voices of community elders, address their culture and values, and raise public awareness about their special needs.

Resume

"Coming Home" ('Retour au bercail'), est une initiative artistique qui utilise la photographie et le film pour faire le pont entre des aines liberiens de la diaspora et leurs amis et familles au pays. Un groupe d'aines de Staten Island se sont regroupes pour creer des messages que l'auteure a portes a leurs atais et familles au Liberia. L'auteure a livre les messages, filme les reponses et les reactions, et les a ramenees a la communaute de Staten Island. Le projet va cuhniner dans une exposition multimedia presentant les narrations, les photos, et les films. L'auteure a utilise des elements de Photovoice, une strate gie participative de recherche active, et s'est laisse guider par la "Social Network Theory"--la theorie des reseaux sociaux--ainsi qu'un cadre de "resilience "pour cette l'initiative artistique. Dans cet article l'auteure decrit le processus de developpement et de mise a execution de ce projet avec l'aide des aines liberiens de la dia@ora de New York et discute comment les approches methodologiques du projet amplifient les voix des aines de la communaute, mettent en exergue leur culture et leurs valeurs, et sensibilisent le public quant a leurs besoins specifiques.

**********

Coming Home is a project offered in a support group setting for older Liberians who live alone and are interested in exploring, through photography and film, their experiences and strategies for surviving in the United States. The project has three phases: self-exploration and reflection; reaching out and reconnecting; and education, public awareness, and social action. The project emerged out of my work as a public health social worker with a program for survivors of torture and war trauma. Working with the West African community over several years, I found that many older Liberians live alone in subsidized housing with minimal support. The literature on refugee elders is limited. When I talked to project participants it was very clear that isolation is a common thread that exacerbates physical and mental well-being and socioeconomic vulnerability. My primary intention in piloting the Coming Home project was to enhance the social networks and social support of older refugees on Staten Island. My secondary intention was to give something back to a community that has shown and taught me so much about resilience.

Project Overview

The Coming Home project is a therapeutic tool and a community education and action strategy for older refugees to explore their experiences fleeing from civil war. Coming Home is also a means of educating the masses about these experiences and generating resources to support displaced communities. The project is centred on Liberian elders' photographic representations and associated narratives of migration and their strategies for survival and safekeeping. The project has three separate but interrelated components: (a) participant-generated photographs and participant-focused films from the Diaspora, (b) participant-generated photographs and participant-focused films from Liberia, and (c) a multimedia exhibit. The program uses a progressive participatory action strategy. Elders participated to the extent that they could. A common goal of all three sections is to empower people to share their stories and in so doing provide support for others in similar situations. This paper offers some preliminary reflections on the value of this alternative methodology for enhancing social support and social networks in displaced communities.

Project Goals and Objectives

1. To enhance the social connections of and support for older Liberians in the Diaspora

1.1 Mobilize a group of elders in the Liberian community to explore individual and collective challenges and the potential of the Coming Home project to address some of the identified challenges

1.2 Use different mediums such as photography, film, and letter writing to reconnect older refugees with families and friends from whom they have been estranged during more than a decade of civil war

1.3 Establish a means for members of the Diaspora to remain connected with friends and family in the community and in the old country

2. To allow local service providers a better understanding of the context from which the Liberians on Staten Island fled

2.1 Send a Staten Island service provider to Liberia

2.2 Create a means for the service provider to share details of visit with and further educate the Consortium of African Community Service Providers

3. To address the culture and values of older Liberians in the Diaspora

3.1 Use photography and/or film to help older refugees and asylees connect with their homes, land, and other places of cultural significance that they have not visited or seen since they fled from Liberia

3.2 Facilitate the exchange of donations between older refugees in the Diaspora and friends and family in Liberia

3.3 Identify potential ways for older members of the Diaspora to play an active role in rebuilding the country and preserving culture under the new democratically elected female president

4. To raise public awareness and funding to...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!