Together for Tukwila was created out of the admiration and inspiration from witnessing a teacher’s leadership in bringing a whole school together for a cause. This teacher’s name is Eric Ensey at Pine Lake Middle School. Mr. Ensey’s passion and drive made an impact on hundreds of kids living in Tukwila by conducting school wide drives for Pine Lake’s sister school, Thorndyke Elementary.
Thorndyke Elementary is a normal school just like Pine Lake, except for the fact that many students and kids who attend the school are living in a refugee camp called Riverton Park United Methodist Church.After learning about the school Mr. Ensey tried to inform our society about the issues a community not too far from us face. In 2021, when I was just a 6th grader, for the first time ever, I got to see someone making a real impact.
It started with Pine Lake Middle School’s winter drive where the school was collecting food and clothes for Thorndyke. I was amazed to see these efforts, and being in the school’s orchestra I was fortunate enough to even make a visit to the school for a performance. While the kids were stunned from seeing big instruments and music, I was intrigued from hearing the wild stories of kids that were half my age. With my curiosity and resources I decided to devote my time in creating something that could help Tukwila, hence, beginning my new mission of refugee empowerment.
Our journey of refugee empowerment really began when we decided to volunteer at Riverton Park United Methodist Church’s food bank. It was an early morning and I wasn’t completely awake yet, this became evident when I struggled to pick up a 10 pound cart with bread.
That’s when Umafui came to my rescue and helped me lift the crate. As he helped me he laughed and asked if it was my first time volunteering, we continued to converse as we picked up the rest of the crates. As I moved on to a different section of crates, parting my ways with Umafui, I felt more energized with his kindness.
Later that day when we were discussing our experiences and future visits to Riverton Park with one of the volunteer coordinators, we learned Umafui was once a refugee at this very camp. We were too stunned to speak, the same thought crossing all our minds. How can someone who has endured so much be so hopeful and kind? This is the moment that was our call to action. Seeing how Umafui turned his life around and comes back every single day to help others do the same was truly inspiring.
To gain more insight on what we can do for the camp we conducted an interview with Jan Bolerjack, who opened the church’s door for asylum seekers in 2022 after the pandemic. Since then, pastor Jan has reached thousands of families right from seeking immigration help, or simply putting a roof over families heads. With her experience and efforts it was clear that she was the person we needed to go to.
Pastor Jan explained the stories of many refugee families. They traveled 7,365 miles to get here for a better life and to escape corruption from their own countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola. The journey begins with a long boat ride across the Atlantic ocean to Latin America. From there a long journey of 11 countries is awaited. Many don’t speak Spanish and it is extremely hard to find food or water. To avoid the authorities many are forced to find Kyats (travel guides) who help them travel through jungles. 95% of refugees coming from Angola take this journey, with approximately 6,000 people who have traveled through this path.
Even after enduring this long and hard journey, the struggle isn’t over. With new regulations, getting proper documentation has become an extremely grueling process. To get a deeper understanding of this we interviewed refugee families to ask about their voyage to America.
“After crossing the country we felt hope, but now we are afraid, we feel illegal” This is what a mother of two children from Angola had to say about life in America. After reaching Texas she was put into a detention center when she was 9 months pregnant for 15 days. She only got one or two pieces of bread every day there. For most of her stay she felt nauseous. Her 2 year old received old milk and became extremely sick. “They don’t care,” she said. She got out on June 13th and she gave birth 2 days later. After her hospital visit she was charged with a 6,000 dollar hospital bill with no idea how to pay it.
These interviews fueled our passion for helping Riverton Park United Methodist Church. In the past year we have conducted many community drives, spread awareness to more than 10,500 people, raised over 1000+ dollars, and have directly engaged with families through volunteering. At the beginning of the school year we reached out to many schools such as Discovery Elementary and Pine Lake Middle School, to collaborate with students to create care packages. During Christmas Mrs. Platt’s 4th grade class at Discovery helped us create more than 70 hot chocolate bags. In February, over 40 Pine Lake Middle school students helped us create over 85 goodie bags for valentines day. With warm winter clothing being an immediate need for many, we decided to host a winter clothing drive, raising over 200+ pieces of warm winter clothing. To expand our outreach within our community we not only partnered with the KCLS library to hang up flyers but we conducted educational seminars for over 50 students and staff and created a social media platform to engage and educate others. To raise money we set up a community bakesale and launched a GoFundMe page where we exceeded our goal of reaching $1000 to donate to Riverton Park United Methodist church. Lastly, one of our most memorable events was when Together For Tukwila partnered with team NOVA robotics, an all girls team to host and demonstrate STEM teaching sessions.
Although we are extremely proud of our efforts, we still have a long way to go. The community can help support Riverton Park by donating funds, participating Together for Tukwila community drives, volunteering at the camp, or advocating for refugee empowerment by reaching out to fellow Representatives in D.C. such as Kim Schrier. Products that can be donated include: food, clothing, hygiene products, and regular household goods. Make a difference now whether it’s directly engaging in the community or offering support. Everything you do counts.
Ahilya Dhole is a Sophomore at Skyline high school and has a passion for helping others. Avishi Jain is an incoming freshman at the University of Washington and is dedicated to serving her community.
For more information, visit rivertonparkumc.com.
