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Graphics from UNHCR Turn Refugee Agency's Truck into a Rolling Billboard

Heartland Refugee Resettlement's truck
Heartland Refugee Resettlement's truck is a "rolling billboard" for the program and its request for donations of household goods for refugees.
Photo: Jeff Jensen/LFS
July 17, 2006

Heartland Refugee Resettlement, part of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska in Omaha, is getting its request for household goods for refugees out all over town, thanks to a donation from Norm and Joyce Riffel of A-1 Metro Movers.

"Their generous donation enabled us to purchase a truck and to paint it and apply graphics," said Jeffrey A. Vandenberg, Heartland's Program Manager. Heartland Refugee Resettlement is a Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program affiliate agency.

Jeff Jensen, Graphic Designer for Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, worked with the UNHCR's Public Information Office in Washington, D.C., to select a refugee photo for the truck's left side. Also included are an invitation to "donate furniture or household items to refugee families" and Heartland's phone number.

On the truck's right side, LFS invites people to "be a hero -- be a volunteer," and on the back, people are urged to contact LFS about adopting a child.

Heartland Refugee Resettlement has primary use of the truck, for collection of donations and the moving of furniture to set up apartments for newly arriving refugees. "We share it with any other LFS department that needs a truck to move items," Vandenberg said.

For its part, another CWS refugee resettlement affiliate, Lutheran Social Ministry of the Southwest in Phoenix, Arizona, just replaced its old, too-small pickup, which kept breaking down. Thanks to a successful fundraising campaign among churches, "Our guys can carry enough furniture to set up two or three refugee apartments at one time," said Sponsorship Developer Donna Buckles. "It's wonderful!"

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