Friday, May 14, 2010
A special kind of matchmaker
Alice Duehl, once a refugee herself, has set thousands of immigrants on the right path.
Photo courtesy of Alice Duehl
Alice Duehl, who recently left the Refugee and Immigrant Services after 28 years, was joined by her husband Joseph (from the left), volunteer tutors Bob Johnson and Kelvin Gratton during a farewell celebration.
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For 28 years, Alice Duehl recruited, trained, mentored and matched volunteers with immigrants and refugees new to the Roanoke Valley.
As the English language coordinator for Refugee and Immigration Services, Duehl recruited thousands of volunteers to tutor refugees and immigrants from Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Burma, Cuba, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia and Ukraine, said former immigration services director Barbara Smith.
Duehl has been described as a matchmaker when it comes to lining up volunteers with non-English speaking newcomers.
Duehl, who lives in Botetourt County, drew on her own experiences to help others overcome language and cultural barriers.
Duehl was born to Jewish parents who had survived World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied Poland and hiding in the Soviet Union. After the war, they returned to Poland to a strong sense of anti-Semitism.
Duehl, now 60, was 9 when she, her parents and older sister arrived in the United States via Israel, France and Germany.
A maternal aunt in Jersey City, N.J., lobbied for the family to get into the country. They spoke no English.
"We were dependent on others to help us," Duehl recalled in a recent interview.
She went on to college, majoring in sociology, married Joseph Duehl and worked with the visually impaired before moving to the Roanoke Valley in 1975 and later having her two sons.
While looking for a part-time job, Duehl saw a newspaper ad seeking a part-time coordinator for the English program at what was then the Refugee Resettlement Office in Roanoke.
Being an immigrant, Duehl thought she had something to offer the agency.
Duehl likes forging relationships -- many volunteers became extended family to those who immigrated into the Roanoke Valley -- as much as she likes encouraging volunteers to put themselves in the position of those who come to foreign communities where they are unfamiliar with customs and traditions.
She's been honored as an Outstanding Citizen of the Year in Humanities by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for her work with the Lost Boys of Sudan.
The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration selected Duehl as one of six cultural exchange trainers in 1996.
Duehl recently left the Refugee and Immigration Services when her position was eliminated in a restructuring by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond.
"I lost them, and they lost me. My position ended," Duehl said of her mid-April departure. She was offered a chance to apply for the full-time replacement position but had no guarantee on the salary, she said.
Her work was always meaningful and she doesn't plan to stop. "I still feel like I have a lot to contribute," Duehl said, adding she'll be looking for similar work after taking time off for the arrival of her first grandchild and the marriage of her younger son.
