Emily Jones

Iskashitaa Refugee Network

Iskashitaa Refugee Network is a grass roots organization that helps rebuild refugee lives through our partnerships with volunteers and local organizations. Staff and volunteers unite refugees and the community through unique programs designed to empower the refugees. Programs emphasize community connections, sharing, and English language practice to build community of refugees and volunteers. Iskashitaa has also worked to build a networking community among Tucson area refugee volunteers and agencies. Our mission is to create opportunities to integrate UN refugees into the Southern Arizona community while educating the public and strengthening the local food system, reducing local food waste, and increasing food security. Iskashitaa grew out of efforts by its founder and director, Barbara Eiswerth. She recruited refugee students in 2003 to participate in a project identifying locations of produce that was going to waste in Tucson. The youth also worked to harvest and redistribute these locally grown foods. After organizing four youth mapping programs, Barbara received a grant from the United Way to begin regularly harvesting gleaning with refugees. In the first year of working with Somali Bantu youth, Barbara was taught the word "Iskashitaa". Iskashitaa is the Somali Bantu word for working cooperatively together and fit perfectly with what the group was becoming. As Barbara built a grassroots organization that focused on empowering and learning together, she knew no other word fit as well as Iskashitaa. At that time, the Somali Bantu did not have a written representation of their language.