Helping Hands Lift Newcomers In Bewildering World -- Salvation Army Assists Immigrants
This is one in a series of articles on The Times Fund for the Needy. The fund provides necessities for the elderly, sick, unemployed, homeless, and the working poor, in addition to abused or neglected children. All contributions go directly to these charities locally: The Salvation Army, Senior Services of Seattle/King County, Childhaven, Deaconess Children's Services and First Place school for homeless youngsters. No funds are used for administrative costs, and no money or goods will be given by The Times to individuals featured in the stories. Contributions are tax-deductible. The fund is registered with the Secretary of State's charities division in Olympia.
How do you say Merry Christmas to a newly arrived family from the former Soviet Union, or Africa, or the Far East?
Perhaps with a smile, an outstretched hand of welcome, a holiday food certificate and some toys for the children.
This is the kind of greeting the Salvation Army is extending to thousands of recent immigrants and other Seattle-area residents in need this Christmas season.
The joy of giving, however, is tempered by an increase in the numbers of people showing up at the Salvation Army's Christmas Center in downtown Seattle and similar outlets in King County.
"The recession is dragging out longer and longer," said Capt. Sherry McWhorter, the Salvation Army's director of social services for King County.
Many who are seeking assistance this year have seen their unemployment benefits run out, or have taken lower-paying jobs, said McWhorter.
In Seattle alone, said McWhorter, the downtown Christmas Center served 22,000 people, including 10,000 children, last year. A 15 percent increase is expected this year, she said. And last year's numbers were a 15 percent increase over 1990, she added.
The mix increasingly includes recent arrivals from the former Soviet Union, Central America, Ethiopia, Uganda and Southeast Asia. Approximately 3,000 people served by the downtown center last year didn't speak English, said McWhorter.
Vladimir and Anna Shtelen and their 8-year-old daughter, Olenka, arrived in Seattle Nov. 13, carrying suitcases of clothes, but not much else.
With Salvation Army caseworker Stephen Karganovic providing the translation in the Shtelens' barren apartment in the Rainier Valley, Anna Shtelen explained how she had been a doctor and her husband a physicist and mathematician in Kiev, Ukraine.
But they were concerned about the turbulence in the former Soviet Union, and also about ecological damage from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Anna Shtelen thinks her father-in-law, who also came to Seattle, may be suffering from exposure to radiation. So the Shtelens sought to resettle in the United States, where both hope to resume their professional work as they learn English.
For now, they are receiving public assistance and food stamps. They are under the sponsorship of the Refugee Resettlement Office of the Episcopal Church of Western Washington.
As Christmas approaches - as Orthodox Christians the Shtelens will celebrate it Jan. 7 - thoughts turn to Olenka. Their young daughter, who was starting to play the violin in Kiev, likes to folk dance and read poetry. But she has virtually nothing here, save for a smiling head of Mickey Mouse that the family received on the flight to Seattle. It is now propped on top of the apartment refrigerator.
As Karganovic and Sandra Smith, director of the Salvation Army's Seattle Social Service Program, explain the Christmas Center to Anna Shtelen, her eyes light up when she is told about how parents can select a donated gift for their children.
"That would be nice. She had to leave all her toys back home," said Anna Shtelen.
As Karganovic and Smith left the Shtelens' apartment building shared with other recent immigrants from around the world, Karganovic remarked, "Immigration is a very leveling experience."
Until a couple of years ago, most of the immigrants or refugees the Salvation Army was seeing came from Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The Salvation Army continues to see immigrants from those countries and from other Asian nations like China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, said Kien-nong Lieu, an interviewer and interpreter for the Salvation Army.
But with the increase of people from the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Africa, Mexico and Central America, the Salvation Army this Christmas season hired Karganovic, who speaks Russian, Spanish and French, among other languages.
"Frankly, I was surprised by the diversity of people here. You are used to it in California or Chicago (where he previously lived after arriving from Yugoslavia in 1961), but I didn't expect it here."
Karganovic, Lieu and other Salvation Army workers have been busy interviewing those interested in using the Christmas Center in the days before Christmas.
Eligibility is based on income: They cannot receive more than 125 percent of the federal poverty level, which, for a family of four, is $17,438 a year.
The downtown Christmas Center in the former US West building at Fourth Avenue and Spring Street mainly serves Seattle residents. The Salvation Army operates other centers serving Renton/Skyway, White Center and West Seattle, the Eastside, South King County and the Carnation-Issaquah-North Bend area. In all, the Salvation Army Christmas Centers served 34,000 individuals, including 19,000 children, last year in King County, said McWhorter.
Those who are eligible can receive a Safeway food certificate, the amount of which is based on family size. Parents also can select a major gift for each of their children from the Salvation Army's Toy 'n' Joy Shop (on the second floor of the US West building) and stocking stuffers for each child. The toy store opens tomorrow.
The major gifts can range from basketballs and hair dryers to clothes, radios and games.
Parents are allowed to pick the presents, rather than being handed gifts. "We want it to be a present from the parent to the child," said McWhorter.
McWhorter then mused: "I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall in the home of some of these families on Christmas morning, when the kids get their toys. That would be fun."