Zoeann first learned about the Karen situation in upstate New York. She was teaching an unseenamerica class, sponsored by the Workforce Development Institute, at a refugee center in Utica with her friend Connie Houde. Utica has a refugee population of nearly 12% and is known internationally as the town that loves refugees. The class participants were from Darfur, Somalia, Bosnia and Burma. Each week she would ask the refugees a question in English and they would answer with photographs. The most interesting responses were to the question: what is home? One participant named Robert Ban, took photos of his community and explained, “I am not Burmese. I am Karen. We have our own homeland and a very unique culture.” At the end of the Utica unseenamerica class the Karen refugees suggested we do something similar with their families in Thailand.
In September 2007, Justin and Zoeann created unseenworld to bring unseenamerica’s innovative program to Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, India and to Karen refugees in Thailand.
In September 2007, Justin and Zoeann created unseenworld to bring unseenamerica’s innovative program to Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, India and to Karen refugees in Thailand.
