A local woman with the help of a Dallas-based non-profit called the Vickery Meadows Youth Foundation has created and published an inspiring book for immigrants in Dallas according to an NBC 5 DFW article published on December 17th. In it they say:
“A North Texas woman is doing something good to help immigrants and refugees more quickly acclimate when they come to Dallas. Natalia Padilla helped put together ‘Local,’ a bilingual, coloring guidebook full of resources that serve new residents, immigrants and refugees. It’s all through her educational push DSGN For Us. ‘It comes with a set of illustrations created by immigrant kids,’ Padilla said. ‘Our scholars from the Vickery Meadows Youth Foundation from an instructional class I have last summer.’ ”
This comes at a critical time. Earlier in the year the Dallas Observer published an article on May 15th about the worrying state of immigrants in Dallas. In it they say:
“Now, the old, cramped apartments are home to families from Liberia, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and many more countries. When school is in session, dozens of languages can be heard in the hallways in nearby schools. Recently, those hallways have been bare, and the apartments of Vickery Meadow are bursting at the seams with quarantined children and teens, some of whom are sick with COVID-19. Martha Stowe is the executive director of the Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation. By her own description, her job is all about ‘giving children a great life in Vickery Meadow.’ But you can’t do that without helping the parents, too, so Stowe and her staff are well acquainted with practically every family in the neighborhood. The most immediate problem is the mere act of quarantining, she says.”
Here’s wishing Natalia Padilla and the rest of the Vickery Meadows Youth Foundation the best of luck in all their charitable endeavors.
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