Volunteer Spotlight: Charlie Nichols

The following is an interview I had with one of our most committed volunteers.  No need to say anymore, the interview speaks for itself, enjoy!Charis Steffel: When did you start working with refugees?Charlie Nichols: I started working with refugees in 1953 when I was drafted.  I was a contientious objector and so I was approved and sent to do volunteer service with the Brethren Service Commission.  They provided me with food and lodging and sent me to work in a refugee camp on the border of East Germany.  I worked in reception and planning activities for single men.  After about two months they would get “shipped out” to jobs in different cities in Germany.  The German government gave priority to these young refugees.  I had to learn German and it was such a great experience.  It has really helped me understand what refugees here experience when learning English and has given me a passion to help them learn English.CS: What made you want to continue working with refugees?CN: My church here was working with refugees (in the 70’s), but just a single family, no committee or anything; there was no ongoing commitment.  They recruited my wife and I to work with these families because they thought we would be interested (my wife spoke Chinese).  One day we received a call from Church World Service about a family that had moved to Columbus.  They had first gone to Athens, OH to live with a farmer and had come back to Columbus but had become so lonely for people of their background- other people from Laos- people they could talk to.  My wife was talking to them in the front room and I went into the kitchen and opened the fridge and there was no food in there.  And that basically was the reason we were sent out there to go do something.  So, then we enlisted people at church and formed a group of people and little by little that developed and immediately we were given another family by Church World Service and that’s how we got into this.CS:  How is your church working with the refugee families now?CN:  We’ve been purchasing dictionaries, helping people not get evicted, helping them learn English, find jobs, a coat drive- we provided over 200 coats this winter.CS: How many refugee families do you think you’ve worked with over the years?CN: Well I worked with hundreds in Germany and I know I’ve worked with hundreds of families here as well.CS: What has motivated you to focus on helping refugees find jobs?CN: Well that was my job for 30 years- I worked for the State of Ohio with the Rehabilitation Services Commission- I helped people with disabilities to find jobs. So, now I’m just doing the same thing.CS: What do you think is the most important thing to focus on when helping refugees find employment?CN: If you can help someone get on the ladder of employment you can break the barriers and get the door of the employer opened.  Start them on the upward ladder…I see that as such an important thing.  Sometimes that requires a lot of compassion, understanding, and then trying to help the person to see what you’re offering them can be a progression of improvement- so that they’re not fated to just be cleaning the floor of McDonalds or fated forever to be a maid in the motel making beds.  Because a lot of the people that are coming are working in ethnic restaurants or entry level jobs and they’re not fated – that is not the final answer for them.  But if that’s what we have to offer for them now and then their future is better (this is my experience). If they take such a job their employability increases and if their employability increases then opportunities open up for them.CS: What has been the most rewarding experience or best success story over the years?CN: They’re all the best.CS: What have you learned?CN: There’s hope for every refugee.  I have found them to be receptive to assistance. The assistance you guys (CRIS) offer, the assistance I offer…the assistance I can find.  There is a pathway there for them to improve their situation.  I have found them so easy to work with- they’re like brothers and sisters to me.  One of my religious thoughts is that all mothers are my mother all fathers are my father, all sisters are my sisters, all babies are my children.  I’m not judging them by their religion, their lack of religion, their color.  I don’t let it stop me.  They’re making a new start and all my work in the 30 years of working for the state; working with people who needed an opportunity to employment.  That’s what I worked hard to do, opening the doors to employment so that they could have an income flow that they could be proud of.  People have been very good to my family and to me.  My parents were both ministers and poor and I remember one time my mother going to the hospital and finding that her bill had been paid.  People always left food on our doorstep.  And I believe these things have had a profound effect on my life.  The people that have surrounded me and adopted me and the way my family raised me.  And I’ve tried to raise my children and my family and my children’s children and my children’s children’s children teaching them the same things that have resonated with me.  And I use the same approach in working with refugees and encourage others to do the same.

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