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News Chattanooga, TN, US: Refugee Children’s Summer Camp Leads to Community Sewing Class
by Pieter Damsteegt, North American Division News, courtesy Adventist Review
Every summer, the Adventist Muslim Friendship Association (AMFA), a North American Division-based initiative located near Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States, provides a summer school for children of refugee families in the area. According to AMFA, the goal is to help integrate refugee children into the United States in a godly way.
In 2016, around the same time that AMFA’s summer classes for children started, leaders in AMFA began to discuss activity options for the mothers who brought their children to the summer programs. That first summer included English and geography classes, hiking, and some crocheting classes for the mothers. The following summer, after observing another organization, Peace of Thread Atlanta, that taught women how to sew bags and purses, AMFA expanded the summer program to include sewing classes for the women.
“When we sent out word, we expected maybe half a dozen women to come to the classes,” said Nema Johnson, who helped spearhead the sewing program. “By the end of the first week of sewing, I had more ladies interested in learning how to sew than the number of borrowed sewing machines we had.”