Resettlement re-cap: a periodic report from the Cuban Refugee Center, August 1967

              SPONSOR CUBAN REFUGEES
Fulfill Their Faith in Freedom
AUGUST  1967
RESETTLEMENT RE-CAP
FOR   ADMINISTRATIVE   USE
A PERIODIC REPORT FROM CUBAN REFUGEE CENTER — FREEDOM TOWER, MIAMI, FLORIDA 33101
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
SOCIAL AND REHABILITATION SERVICE
U.S. CUBAN REFUGEE PROGRAM JOHN FREDERICK THOMAS, Director, Washington, D. C.
ERROL T. BALLANFONTE, Director of Center HARRY B.  LYFORD, Editor
nSPWUSE
TM0ST HUMANITARIAN PROJECT I HAVE SEEN, ' WRITES IRANIAN VISITOR
Foreign visitors who have opportunity to visit facilities of the Cuban Refugee Program in Miami, and to hear its operations described, can be the envy of others whose
schedules did not provide for a Miami stop over.
Such was the experience of Mrs. Mokhadekeh Ziai, Director of the Iranian-American
Society Student Center, Tehran, Iran.  So impressed were persons in Washington with
her report of what she saw of the Cuban Refugee Program that she wrote the Center in
Miami predicting more and more foreign visitors will be asking that Miami be put on
their itineraries.  Her message to the Center:  "I enjoyed my visit and the tour of
your wonderful operation...This is the smoothest and most humanitarian project I have
ever seen.11
Representing countries around the world, visitors continue coming to see how the
more than 257,000 Cubans who have reached the U.S. have been received and how they
have fared -- without refugee camps, but with opportunities offered them by the
American people in all parts of the country.
Equally interested in the airlift, and the story of the Program,are American citizens who visit Miami and find they have lacked a full understanding of the coming of
Cubans before seeing the Program's operations and hearing about its development.
NUMBER OF REFUGEES ATTAINING PERMANENT RESIDENT STATUS IS RISING
The number of Cuban refugees gaining permanent resident status is rising steadily, according to report from
the Immigration and Naturalization Service.  The nationwide figure has passed the 15,000 mark and continues
upward.  Those in parolee status (temporary guest) who entered the U.S. from Cuba after January 1, 1959 and
have been in this country two years may apply at Immigration Service offices for application forms.  The Social Security Administration emphasizes that Cuban refugees 65 and older, who have been in the U.S. five years,
should apply to Social Security for Medicare benefits immediately after filing application for change of status.
Another report from the Immigration and Naturalization Service is that 2,834 Cuban-born residents of the U.S.
attained citizenship in the first half of 1967.
Mrs. Ziai is shown leaving
Freedom House.  Cuban refugee children are playing
nearby.
ENGLISH SPOKEN HERE --
A WORD OR TWO, SO FAR
A CHILDREN-TO-CHILDREN SCENE UNDER
AUSPICES OF THE RED CROSS
Everybody's eager for a Junior-—*
Red Cross Friendship Box, judging
by this scene at Freedom House.
Children of the Junior Red Cross
welcome young refugees from Cuba
by providing boxes of items helpful and entertaining for the newcomers.  The young man with the
wide grin, his eyes on the staff
worker, is ready to take his box.
And the little fellow at the
bottom has his hand up for one
but is momentarily diverted by
that camera flash bulb.  (He
received a box soon afterward,
as has the young lady whose face
is hidden by all the reaching
arms.)  It's a children-to-children greeting in the name of the
Red Cross, which also provides
comfort kits for adult refugees.
These Cuban children have been in the U.S. only a few hours, but their eager looks indicate their hope to learn the English language quickly.  They are at Freedom House, the Cuban Refugee Program's hotel-like facility where they and their
parents stop briefly while transportation is arranged to take them on to join relatives.  Gesturing and shaping her lips
for simple English words is the bilingual Patricia Figueroa, child welfare worker of the Cuban Refugee Assistance Program.
When she is not explaining English words she is directing recreation activities and talking with the children's parents.
The books they hold are titled "English Through Pictures", provided for Cuban refugees by the Payne Fund.