Support our Partner

Guest Speaker:  Cathy Campbell, volunteer teacher with the Refugee Sewing Collective and Board Member of AJPR

​

The Refugee Sewing Collective was formed by Refugee Services of Texas over seven years ago and is a volunteer-led program to give women of newly-arrived refugee families a place to learn to sew and to socialize.  Currently, it is sponsored by the AISD International Welcome Center and Austin Jews and Partners for Refugees, AJPR, a non-profit that provides volunteer support to refugee families. 

​

These refugee women are often isolated in their new country and it is difficult to forge new friends and navigate a new culture.  The sewing collective provides childcare and volunteers to teach a 10-week beginner sewing course that covers basic sewing skills by making practical projects each week.  Most have never used an electronic sewing machine before.  Women from different countries and cultures  gather each week to learn new sewing skills, practice English,  and just enjoy a creative outlet with new friends.

​

Over the years many people have donated fabric, thread, sewing kits and funds to purchase sewing machines in order to keep this program going.  This year AISD is providing interpreters, a few sewing machines, and is providing stipends to 3 women who previously completed the sewing course to help teach the current classes, alongside the volunteers.  But, there is a great need for more sewing machines to enable 10 AISD refugee moms to participate in the fall semester and another 10 to participate in the spring semester. 

​

We will be hosting a silent auction for handmade quilts from the Collective to support purchasing sewing machines for the initiative.