| | Our 2022 Community Partner
While the challenges continue, so do the good works done by our neighbors, our teachers, our health care providers, our volunteers and so many others. This is their story. Ledyard National Bank is proud to support the 2022 Hometown Heroes, who were nominated by members of the community and selected by editors of the Concord Monitor. Nominate your Hometown Hero Today. |
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| | Hometown Hero: Leslie van Berkum’s volunteer work helps refugee organizations thrive
By EILEEN O’GRADY Monitor staff
When Leslie van Berkum’s friend invited her to volunteer at Ascentria Care Alliance, an organization that resettles refugees, about 10 years ago, the suggestion came at a good time. Van Berkum, a Deerfield resident, had just finished reading the book Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.
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| Van Berkum found the book – which is about oppression and other challenges women face across the globe – inspirational, and she was eager for a chance to help other women rebuild their lives. She soon saw that kind of volunteer assistance is exactly what newly-arrived refugees need to make a new community home.
"A lot of the women come as single mothers. Because they were single mothers, they also had incredible challenges coming to this country," van Berkum said. "How hard it is for them to come and leave their homeland to go to a new place where they don’t know the language or anything."
Van Berkum, a lifelong musician, has worked as an elementary school teacher in Londonderry, and in 1987, she and her husband Peter started Van Berkum Nursery, a wholesale perennial nursery which they ran until last year when they sold the business to their operations manager. Van Berkum has also volunteered at Girls Inc. and for a domestic violence crisis hotline.
At Ascentria, van Berkum worked directly with clients, going to local refugees’ homes and teaching English. Along the way, she met Clement Kigugu a local pastor and caseworker who was preparing to start his own organization called Overcomers Refugee Services. Van Berkum decided to follow Kigugu to his new venture. For years, she divided her volunteer hours between the two organizations and joined the board at Overcomers in 2019.
"I just loved his vision, the idea of what Overcomers could do beyond what Ascentria could do," van Berkum said. "So I kind of followed him. I just went over and started volunteering for him as well as Ascentria. I’m just available for consulting if they need help with anything."
Overcomers Refugee Services quickly grew into a resource center for Concord-area refugees and immigrants that provides them with practical support, education and cultural orientation. They assist newcomers with applications for food stamps, Medicaid and housing, with resume building and job interview prep. They also offer conflict-resolution for people who fled countries torn apart by violence. Van Berkum loves volunteering at Overcomers because of how accessible the organization is for the refugees who need it.
"They could just walk in the door anytime, even if they’ve been here 10 years and they have a question about something," van Berkum said.
At Overcomers Refugee Services, van Berkum describes herself as a "jack-of-all-trades," who helps Kigugu with anything the organization needs. She manages donations that people send in, like kitchen supplies and home goods that the refugees need. She drives up to Durham to pick up donations, brings them to Concord and organizes them to be ready to be picked up. She also helps with development, fundraising, financial oversight and editing org communications. Clement Kigugu, Executive Director of Overcomers Refugees Services, who nominated van Berkum to be a Hometown Hero, said she also donates money to the organization to help pay rent for the building.
"Leslie has been advocating for the organization in her town. As a result we have many donors and volunteers from Deerfield," Kigugu said. "She drives from Deerfield to attend in-person meetings in Concord. She is very friendly to New Americans, she tries her best to speak Swahili and this makes them comfortable to interact with her."
Van Berkum says the organization fills an important gap in the area with necessary resources.
"Ascentria does the official resettling of the refugees after they attain status with the UN, but then after three or six months, they’re supposed to be independent," van Berkum said. "And they’re really not ready to be independent. Overcomers was created as a way to be a place for them to come to after that. And that’s what’s really sparked my interest, because I do not feel that three to six months is long enough."
Leslie and Peter van Berkum have also prioritized hiring refugees at Van Berkum Nursery for the last 10 to 12 years, a practice that’s continuing under the new ownership.
Volunteer work is something that has always been a priority for van Berkum. She has been running a musical coffeehouse series since the mid-1990s that benefits local Deerfield causes like the Parks & Rec department, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Bear-Paw land trust and local church projects. Typically van Berkum, who sings and plays guitar, opens the coffeehouse with her band Benjammin’ (so named because every member has a son named Ben), and they invite rotating bands as the main act.
"People love it because they’re spending $20 for the night, but they get food and they feel good because they’re giving to a good cause," van Berkum said. "So it’s a win-win thing. It keeps me playing music, which is great."
Van Berkum was honored with a Spirit of New Hampshire award in 2015 and 2016, and was named Deerfield Volunteer of the Year in 2008.
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