Economic Growth United States Project #36181

Economic Empowerment for 70 Colorado Refugees

by Teach by Tech, Inc.

Economic Empowerment for 70 Colorado Refugees

Project Report | Sep 3, 2019
August 2019 Report

By Linnie Pawlek | Executive Director

Dear Teach By Tech community,

We are so grateful for all of your support and generous donations! You make it possible for us to continue providing this important service to the refugee and immigrant community in Denver. Summer has been great! We have been hard at work with classes and workshops. Of course, we have had a little fun too with BBQs and community events.

To date, we have provided four 9-week financial literacy classes to refugees and immigrants from 13 different countries. It is wonderful to watch this community grow and build relationships with one another. The majority of our students now have checking accounts as several women asked their husbands to open joint accounts. We also discussed the importance of becoming or naming beneficiaries for all financial accounts. All of our participants set financial goals and began using budget planning to open savings accounts for the future or to prepare for financial shocks that may occur. We have been really developing our online banking workshops and have been teaching and helping refugees set up their online accounts and bill pay options. This will save them time and money over the year as they no longer will need to travel to the local market to pay their bills. We have also provided a few workshops with partners Hope Communities and Mercy Housing. The workshops have been focused on understanding credit cards and how to prepare a budget.

One of the greatest aspects this year has been to meet new students and learn more about their stories. Neela, from Burma has been an extraordinary asset to us. She received an Economics degree prior to coming to the U.S. Her husband is currently serving active duty in the U.S. military and she has an 8-month old baby. She has attended our workshops and served as translator. Because she speaks several of the Burmese languages, she is able to bridge the language gap for many of our students. This is an immense benefit to our workshop participants. Watching refugees help each other and share experiences and knowledge is a privilege. I am so proud and thankful for all of our Teach By Tech students.

Thank you again for all you do to make Teach By Tech successful and available to refugees and immigrants in our community!

Warm regards,

Linnie Pawlek

Links:

http://www.teachbytech.org

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May 6, 2019
May Report for Financial Literacy classes

By Linnie Pawlek | Executive Director

Dear Teach By Tech community,

We are so grateful for all of your support and generous donations! You make it possible for us to continue providing this important service to the refugee and immigrant community in Denver. We have had a very busy spring and summer is gearing up to be very active.

To date, we have provided two 9 week financial literacy classes to 23 refugees in our community. Our particpants hailed people from around the world: Afghanistan, Burma, DRC, Ethiopia and CAR. It is wonderful to watch this community grow and build relationships with one another. The majority of our students now have checking accounts as several women asked their husbands to open joint accounts. We also discussed the importance of becoming or naming beneficiaries for all financial accounts. All of our particpipants set financial goals and began using budget planning to open savings accounts for the future or to prepare for financial shocks that may occur. We have also provided a few workshops with new partner Jeffco Family Literacy. The workshops have been focused on understanding credit cards and how to prepare a budget. We have served 20+ refugees and immigrants with this partnership.

One of the greatest aspects this year has been to watch a few of our students become leaders in the class. Ramzambi and Sha Ney Say are both from Burma. One grew up in Burma the other grew up in a refugee camp in Thailand. One received no formal schooling as a child, the other graduated high school. Though these women experienced differences in upbringing, they also share the commonalities of being a refugee and being forced from home. Each of these women is taking the financial literacy course again this Spring. In the class they help other students to understand financial concepts, count money and practice math. These women do not care about gender, religion or nationality they just want to help others integrate into American culture. These women are a wonderful reminder of the good in the world! I am so proud and thankful for all of our Teach By tech students.

Thank you again for all you do to make Teach By Tech successful and available to refugees and immigarnts in our community!

Warm regards,

Linnie Pawlek

Links:

website

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Feb 5, 2019
February report

By Linnie Pawlek | Executive Director

credit card workshop with Hope Communities

Dear Donors and Supporters of Teach By Tech,

We are so grateful for your continued generosity and dedication to our mission. January has been an extremely busy month. We are 4 weeks into our 9 week finacial literacy course at Hidden Brook. Interest has grown and our class is full of engaging and curious women from around the world. Our last class focused on opening and maintaining a checking account. We learned how to write checks and keep a check register. For the majority of our students this is a completely new concept and keeping records of all transactions is imperative to pursue the path of self-sufficiency. The students have asked that we practice basic numeracy skills with a calculator to make balancing bank statements and checkbooks easier.

We also hosted a credit card workshop with Hope Communities. Thirteen women came to learn about using a credit card. Because many of the women were beginner English language learners, Hope Communities provided a translator. This was a great asset to the workshop. The women were so engaged and asking great questions. The concept of interest was unknown to many. We showed them how interest can become overwhleming and discussed that minimum payments were not sufficient and would cost the user in the long run. Because of the success, we were asked to conduct another workshop next month on budgeting and saving. "Before I knew nothing about credit cards, now I know to be careful." Hawar, Burma.

This week we are attending a community dinner at Crawford Elementary School to bring awareness to our classes and sign-up parents. Crawford has offered us space to teach our financial literacy course on campus during school hours. This will allow parents to learn while their children are at school. We are so thankful for this opportunity.

In March, we will begin another 9 week financial literacy course at Village Exchange Center and we have two workshops scheduled with Colorado African Organization and Jeffco Family Literacy. Thank you again for all you do for the refugee community. Your support allows us to provide free financial literacy classes and workshops as we work with refugees to transform lives and strive for economic empowerment.

Links:

organization website

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