A Little Something: December 2014

Monday, December 29, 2014

You can still make a 2014 tax-deductible donation!

Just click on the PayPal "DONATE" button above or over at the column to the right of this post. We'll send out a receipt later this week. Your donations help us pay rent at our studio space, buy supplies, and pay event fees.

Thanks for your generosity!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Frankly, we need the money

A Little Something board member and Realtor, Olivia Kunevicius, is offering a special gift to our organization. For those of you wondering how you can offer financial support to A Little Something in 2015, you can help us by referring your friends and family to Olivia for real estate services.

Olivia will donate 5% of her commission upon a successful closing back to A Little Something. Olivia works with both buyers and sellers throughout the Denver Metro area and has been awarded 5280 Magazine’s Five Star Real Estate Professional Award for the past three years in a row.

This is a very generous proposal Olivia is making on behalf of A Little Something. If you're entering the real estate market as a buyer or seller, please keep Olivia and our organization in mind.

We have rent to pay and overhead expenses that aren't covered by the small percentage of sales that goes toward our operating budget. Please consider hiring Olivia as your agent if you're buying or selling property in the Denver area. Thanks!

What is a Refugee?

A refugee is a person who has had to flee his or her country of origin due to a well-founded fear of persecution due to war, race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, political opinion, or association with a particular group. The United Nations must formally identify a displacement situation and declare it is legitimate in order for the population involved to be given refugee status. Ideally, refugees would be able to return home after conflict passes, but in most cases, this day never materializes.

When the United Nations determines there is no reasonable expectation that repatriation is possible, refugees are resettled elsewhere. Currently, there are more than 32.8 million asylum seekers, refugees, and internally displaced persons of concern to the UNHCR (the UN's refugee agency). Of these 33 million, 50,000 refugees are resettled in the United States annually--more than in all other resettlement sites combined.

In addition to the USA, 15 other UN member nations accept refugees for resettlement, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Other countries may consider resettlement petitions on a case by case basis, normally because of family reunion or strong cultural links.

Escaping conflict is just the first step in starting over; refugees face immense challenges throughout the resettlement process as they attempt to negiotiate a new language, new culture, and often harsh economic realities. In the US, refugees are expected to achieve 100% self-sufficiency within 4-to-8 months after arrival in this country. Could you do it?

Learn more.

UNHCR: The United Nations' Refugee Website. Everything you ever wanted to know about refugees and their situation worldwide.
Rain in a Dry Land, a PBS/POV documentary film by Anne Makepeace
A short book offering insight into the cultural background of the Somali Bantu
The Somali Bantu profiled in-depth in the UNHCR magazine
Learn about Htee's loom Information about backstrap looms, including how they're made and where they're used
The Burmese Karen: Who they are--a BBC report
Everything about the Karen People: An Adobe Acrobat PDF file

A Little Something

Donate any time!

Monday, December 29, 2014

You can still make a 2014 tax-deductible donation!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Frankly, we need the money

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

It's a sale at our studio!