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Church World Service JVA in Kenya now responsible for cultural orientation
First CWS Cultural Orientation class at JVA Nairobi.
Photo: Mark Cassini
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For the first time in its 17 years of operation, the Church World Service Joint Voluntary Agency in Nairobi, Kenya, has been granted the responsibility for pre-departure cultural orientation for all refugees being resettled to the United States from eastern and southern Africa.
The responsibilities of the CWS-administered Overseas Processing Entity in Accra, Ghana, have included cultural orientation for all refugees being resettled to the United States from western and central Africa since the OPE was established in 2001. But up to now, the International Organization for Migration held a separate contract with the U.S. State Department for the Nairobi cultural orientation program.
As of Oct. 1, 2007, the Cooperative Agreement between the U.S. State Department and CWS for the Nairobi-based JVA includes both case processing and cultural orientation.
Named to head the JVA's Cultural Orientation program is Mark Cassini, former director of Exodus Refugee Immigration, Inc., the CWS resettlement affiliate in Indianapolis, Indiana. He took up his new position on Oct. 8.
Cassini brings to this assignment an academic background in intercultural communication and four years' experience in a local refugee resettlement agency. He studied cultural anthropology at Indiana University in Bloomington, and currently is working toward a masters degree at The Intercultural Communication Institute in Portland, Oregon.
"I look forward to working with a culturally diverse staff of 12 to provide cultural orientation for about 13,000 people a year," he said.
Kristie Bailey, manager of the Accra-based Cultural Orientation program for the past four years, helped get the Nairobi-based program set up before leaving the Church World Service staff.
In other Africa staff news:
- Vicki Knight has been appointed to head the OPE in Accra, Ghana, after working there for the past six years as Caseworker, Information Officer, Operations Coordinator, and Deputy for Operations.
- Succeeding Knight on Nov. 26 will be Sarah Krause, now Director, Refugee and Immigrant Services, Lutheran Social Services, Falls Church, Virginia. Before that she worked for CWS’s New Windsor, Maryland, affiliate.
- Amanda Gordon is the new Cultural Orientation Manager in Accra. She worked previously as Caseworker and Team Leader for the OPE and as English as a Second Language and Employment Supervisor at CWS's affiliate in Columbus, Ohio.
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