A series of workshops that FIRM is organizing to help the Syrian families in Fresno adjust easily to the new life in the United States,, in order to help them overcome the challenges they face in their new lives in America,

1. The First Workshop for the Syrian Refugees Organized by FIRM:
The Topic: Child welfareand USlaws
The Speaker:Brenda Oraz, CommunityEducation Representative, Fellow fromAmerican FriendsService
Committeeand staff at Coalition for HumaneImmigrant Rights(CHIRLA).
EventCoordinator:Brenda Forbes,CBANSProgramCoordinatoratFresno InterdenominationalRefugee
Ministries (FIRM).
FIRMinitiated the Syrian refugeeprogramand hashired 4 full-timestaff (Wasan Abu-Baker,Layla
Darwish,Salim Syoufi,and MohammadTalib) all of whomspeakfluentArabicand are able to interpret.
Raising childreninAmerica
Parentingstyle,comingtoanewcountrywhere the language andreligionisdifferent. The community
networkisdifferentnow. Parentinginthe Middle Eastisdifferentthanthe US. Role modelingfor
childrengoodbehaviorandappropriate communicationisalsoaveryimportantand wasdiscussedwith
manyof the parents. Speakershoweddifferentstylesof parenting. Througheducation,newcomersto
Americacan learnhowto parenttheirkidsinthisnew environmentandhow tosue differentstrategies
than those theywere exposedtoathome inSyria. The speakerencouragedthe Syrianrefugeestoearn
an educationandlearnmore language. Goingtoadult school will helpthemachievethisgoal.
Hygiene Matters
Raisedawarenessamongthe familiesaboutthe importance of personal hygieneforthe parentsandthe
children. Thisincludeddental hygiene andphysical appearance. Itwasdiscussedhow importantthisis
for assimilationtoUS society.
SupervisionofChildren
The familieswere informedaboutthe dangerinvolvedwithchildrenplayinginthe streetunsupervised.
Also,a commonpractice isto leave childrenathome until the parentreturnfroma chore.
Accountabilityforthe safetyof childrenwasplacedonthe parents.
More workshopswill be developedtohelpthe Syrianfamiliesastheysettle intotheirnew life inFresno.