Nine refugee weavers from Nepal lived together in one-room bamboo huts with dirt floors and no running water or electricity. They cooked using wood fires or coal and had to wait in long lines for hours to get water from wells. The weavers attended schools in Nepal with dirt floors and no electricity, sharing tables and rugs. They fled Nepal, traveling over 8,000 miles by bus, planes, and multiple cities to resettle in Akron, Ohio, where over 4,000 refugees now live. The weavers demonstrated their textile weaving techniques for their audience.

1. Refugee Weavers in Akron
S. C. O. P. E. Academy
Summit County Educational Service Center
Dukula Katel
Liz Kuhn
Terry Kuhn
November 13, 2013

2. Namaste (Hello)

3. Where are we?

4. Where did the Akron refugee weavers live?

5. What is a Refugee?
• Person with no country
or citizenship
• Person with no hope to
fulfill their dreams
• Person who has been
treated unfairly by their
government

6. Where did we live?
Nine of us lived in one-room bamboo huts with dirt floors.

7. Where did we live?
Our huts had no running water or electricity.
The huts were crowded together.
We were near a forest and had lots of bugs and snakes.

8. How did we cook?
We cooked food with wood fire, solar panals, or coal briquettes .

9. Where did we get our water?
We had to wait in line for hours to fill two jugs with water.
We put our jugs out early to save our place in line.

10. What was our school like?
• Up to grade 7 we sat on small rugs
on a dirt floor.
• At grade 8 and above we shared a
table.
• The walls let light into the school
because we had no electricity.

11. How did we get to the United States?
Bus from camp to airport Airplanes from Nepal to Akron
We were allowed to bring one suitcase and the clothes we wore.

12. How did we get to the United States?
Camps  Kathmandu  Hong Kong  New York  Charleston  Canton
> 8,000 Miles

13. How many of us came here?
To the United States > 60,000 To the Akron area > 4000

14. How do we weave?
• Demonstration

15. Namaste (Good Bye)