First things first.

Resilient Crafts is a non-profit organization which works to empower refugees resettled in the Chicago area.  We provide refugees with a method of earning a supplemental income through the creation and sale of traditional crafts.  We also give crafters English lessons for sales and financial literacy lessons for understanding taxes and saving.  Our weekly meetings also have the side benefit of giving the crafters a community of friends from several different cultures.

There are three main organizers of this non-profit.  They are Sue, Heather, and Kara.

Sue is a specialist in Adult ESL Literacy, which means she works with refugees and immigrants who had little or no formal education in their home country.  She was born and raised in the Chicago area and worked for two and a half years in a refugee camp in the Philippines with Southeast-Asian refugees.  She’s been working with World Relief for over 20 years.

Heather is an adult ESL teacher who has taught a range of levels at World Relief.  She’s currently teaching a refugee orientation and ESL class with World Relief in Aurora.  Prior to that, she spent a year in Thailand working in a Thai orphanage.  She was also a volunteer coordinator for a homeless shelter in Indiana for seven years.

Kara teaches Literacy and Job-Readiness at World Relief and Level 4 ESL at the College of DuPage.   She’s taught a range of ESL levels in the past few years.  She’s been teaching at World Relief since the last semester of her grad degree in Intercultural Studies and TESOL at Wheaton in 2007.  She’s an MK who lived in Liberia, Zambia, Suriname, and New York growing up.  She's also the resident blogger for this venture.