Meet Bhutanese Next Door Neighbors at Scarritt-Bennett Center

NPT and Catholic Charities Invite You To Meet Your Bhutanese Next Door Neighbors at Scarritt-Bennett Center

July 13th  Screening of Fourth Installment in NPT’s Award-Winning Original Documentary Series 

and 

Follow-Up Panel Discussion Aims to Educate and Enhance Dialogue in the Community

Building on the success and popularity of a similar event last year, Nashville Public Television (NPT), Catholic Charities of Tennessee and the Scarritt-Bennett Center invite the community to a free screening of the NPT “Next Door Neighbors” documentary, “Bhutanese” – and get an even better understanding of the people from those cultures when they offer their thoughts and answer questions in a follow-up panel discussion – on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Scarritt-Bennett Center (Fondren Building).

The event is free, but RSVP’s are suggested 615.340.7557 or programs@scarrittbennett.org. Scarritt-Bennett Center is located at 1008 19th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37212.

Expected to attend the panel discussion are Bhutanese refugees Yam Kharel, Naresh Dahal and Mon Timsina. Will Pedigo, “Next Door Neighbors” producer, will moderate.


About “Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese”:
Each year, new refugees with different backgrounds flee a variety of struggles to arrive in cities such as Nashville. They face an utterly new environment and a demanding sacrifice of their history, culture, friends and family. Every refugee community resettled to Nashville brings a changing combination of assets and challenges, but they are unified by a common aspiration. They all seek a better life, a permanent solution and a new home.

The Bhutanese are Nashville’s newest refugee community, and Nashville Public Television offers viewers a chance to see the city through this new community’s eyes with “Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese.” The documentary is the fourth installment in NPT’s four-part “Next Door Neighbors” series, a recipient of a 2009 My Source Community Impact for Engagement Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

“The ideals of refugee resettlement are sometimes at odds with reality,” says series writer, director and

producer Pedigo. “The isolation and new environment can be harsher than imagined and the resettlement process can deliver less than expected. For new arrivals, every day is a race against time. After eight months the federal funding ends and the health insurance disappears. In Nashville and across the US, newly arrived refugees often go unnoticed, until they emerge as contributing residents and eventually Americans.”

In January 2007, the U.S. Department of State announced it would host the resettlement of 60,000 Bhutanese over the next several years to cities across the U.S. The first reached Nashville in July 2008, but most arrived in the middle of 2009. After their first year in Nashville, almost all of the Bhutanese lived in one southeast Nashville apartment complex.

When refugees first arrive in the U.S. they come with less than fifty pounds of baggage and an airplane ticket they have to repay within three years. Acceptance into the country is secured by the U.S. Department of State, but the local resettlement process is provided through volunteer agencies. In Nashville, that includes Catholic Charities and World Relief. Placing new refugees in a tight geographical location like a single apartment complex has shown to speed up the resettlement process.

“Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese” provides a picture of initial refugee resettlement, and examines the birth of a community. Viewers will learn about the resettlement process through the stories and challenges the Bhutanese face.

The “Next Door Neighbors” series includes in-depth web content at http://wnpt.org/productions/nextdoorneighbors, public forums and panel discussions after each of the four programs.

“Next Door Neighbors: Bhutanese” is made possible through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s My Source initiative and is supported by the Nissan Foundation and The HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals. A partnership with the Vanderbilt University Center for Nashville Studies provided valuable research and community outreach.

About Nashville public television
Nashville Public Television is available free and over the air to nearly 2.2 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. The mission of NPT is to provide, through the power of traditional television and interactive telecommunications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve.

About Scarritt- Bennett Center
Scarritt-Bennett Center is a non-profit education, retreat and conference center devoted to addressing issues of social justice by offering programs and events that promote dialogue and cultural understanding. Included in these is the Celebration of Cultures – an annual multi-cultural festival. The center has a strong commitment to the eradication of racism, empowerment of women, education of laity and spiritual formation. For more information on this and other programs, please visit www.scarrrittbennett.org.

About Catholic Charities
Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Inc. is a non-profit that was originally engaged in humanitarian aid to refugees, starting with the finding of foster homes for 43 Cuban refugee children in 1962. In 1975 at the request of the United States Catholic Conference, the agency’s Refugee Resettlement Program was formally established and primarily served refugees fleeing political turmoil in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. To date, we have resettled refugees of many different faiths from more than 35 countries.