wfn.org | Former NBA star Manute Bol to address national refugee resettlement conference

["Lesley Crosson" <lcrosson@churchworldservice.org>]

>Church World Service 475 Riverside Drive
>New York, NY 10115

>MEDIA ADVISORY

>Media Contacts
>Lesley Crosson, CWS, (212) 870-2676
>Jan Dragin 24/7, (781) 925-1526

Former NBA star Manute Bol to address national refugee resettlement
conference
Resettlement agencies will address effects of economy on refugee
employment,
fundraising challenges

DETROIT, MICH., March 25, 2009--Former National Basketball Association
(NBA) star Sudanese-born Manute Bol will keynote the closing session of
a national conference in Detroit this week that is focusing on U.S.
refugee resettlement and the pressing issues facing new refugees and
those who serve them.

The conference, now in progress through Friday March 27, has attracted
some 350 refugee resettlement professionals and is presented by
humanitarian agency Church World Service Migration Ministries (EMM), and
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service (LIRS).

Bol's culminating keynote will highlight a closing plenary that is open
to media. Other event sessions are closed to media and public in what is
intended as a development conference for the staff of more than three
dozen local refugee resettlement affiliate agencies nationwide.

>WHAT:
>Partnering for Successful Resettlement
>Tri-Agency National Refugee Resettlement Conference
>Keynote Speaker: Former NBA Basketball Star Manute Bol

>WHERE:
>Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center
>100 Renaissance Center
>Detroit, Michigan 48243
>(313) 568-8000

>WHEN:
>Mon. March 23 – Fri. March 27, 2009
>Manute Bol Keynote
>Fri. March 27 - 10:30 – 11:30 AM
>and Closing Plenary
>NOTE: Interviews can be arranged with Mr. Bol before and after his
>address.
>EDITORS: Interviews, video and still photography with conference
>leaders, speakers and participants available upon request.

DETAILS:

Manute Bol: Bol's presentation will include his assistance to Sudanese
refugees, his work to rebuild Sudan, his NBA career and his family's
story.
Born in South Sudan, Manute Bol came to the United States in 1983 to
play basketball.
Throughout his successful career, he contributed most of his earnings,
estimated at $3.5 million, to help southern Sudanese refugees and is
credited with drawing international attention to the plight of the
Sudanese refugees. He now is raising funds to build a school in his home
village of Turalei.
The Conference: Participants in the conference will meet daily in
plenary, then choose from among more than three dozen workshops, several
of which will address refugee employment and agency fundraising in
today’s struggling economy.

Other workshops include “New Refugee Groups and Cultural
Orientation,” “Addressing Anti-Immigrant Bias in Your  Community”
and “Cross-Cultural Skills for Refugee Resettlement Staff,”  along
with more technical sessions such as “Pre-Arrival Processing,��
“Matching Grant 101” and “Cultivating an Effective  Board.”

Each year, the U.S. government invites a number of refugees--people
fleeing persecution--to resettle in U.S. communities. After a rigorous
screening process, refugees are assigned to Church World Service,
Episcopal Migration Ministries and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service or one of seven other agencies for reception and placement. In
fiscal year 2008, CWS, EMM, and LIRS and their local affiliates welcomed
a combined total of 17,026 refugees (of the 60,192 resettled by all 10
national-level agencies), meeting their clients’ basic needs and
helping them move as quickly as possible toward self-sufficiency.
 ###

Media Contacts: On site

Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, CWS Immigration and Refugee Program Information
Officer
646-258-8896

>John Denaro,
>Sponsorship and Media Development
>Episcopal Migration Ministries
>917-273-6873

>Cassandra Champion
>Director for Communications
>Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
>410-230-2791