Catholic Family Service, Inc. has announced the date and schedule for the gathering on March 1st, 2012. Please visit the Symposium page for more information and to register.

Refugee Providers Symposium page

Who says kids can’t make a difference? Not us!

For the eighth year in a row, St. Anthony’s parish youth (7th and 8th graders) in Hereford, Texas, donated blankets to our newly-arriving refugee clients. During a pizza dinner and meeting on January 4th, CFS Executive Director Nancy Koons thanked the group and gave their priest, Father John, an appreciation plaque.

The youth listened as CFS Communications and Development Director, Dena Dyer, gave a short overview of the refugee resettlement process. Then two refugee resettlement staff (Alphonse Kayiranga and James Sai Zaw Zaw) spoke about their time as refugees and answered questions about their journey from tragedy and loss to helping other refugees as CFS employees. It was a lovely evening, and CFS truly appreciates the continued generosity of the youth group and their leaders.

Catholic Family Service, Inc. has created a fund to assist the Somali victims of a December 30 accident with medical expenses.  According to the Amarillo Globe-News, at about 1:50 p.m. on the 30th, a Chevrolet van carrying workers headed for the Excel meat packing plant in Plainview was traveling southbound on Interstate 27 when the vehicle hit some debris, swerved, overcorrected and rolled several times.  Twelve people were ejected from the van and were subsequently transported to Northwest Texas Hospital.  Three people — Amal Ashur, Omar Abdi Qadir and Abdirizak Addulle Mohamed, 24, all of Amarillo — were killed in the accident.

“Our hearts go out to the Somali community, and friends and family members of the victims,” said Nancy Koons, Executive Director of CFS.  “We are praying for all those involved and would like to support them by establishing this fund.  This provides an opportunity for our Amarillo community to rally around them with their support, love and concern.”

All of the funds donated to this fund will go directly toward the medical expenses incurred by the accident victims, Koons noted.  Donations can be sent to Catholic Family Service at PO Box 15127, payable to “Refugee Accident Victim Fund”.  Donations can be sent to Amarillo National Bank, Refugee Accident Victim Fund, PO Box 1, Amarillo TX 79105, Attn: Crystal 2nd Floor.

Thank you for visiting the new website for Catholic Family Service, Inc.! We are very excited about the new look of the site and hope you enjoy it too!

Please look around the site and let us know what you think.