COLUMBUS, Ind. — Teachers and administrators from a local adult education center were among those who helped refugees at Camp Atterbury learn English and other life skills as part of what state officials called a “herculean effort” over a short period of time.
Educators from the McDowell Education Center were honored at the Statehouse Jan. 24 as part of Adult Education Day, said Megan Shaff, the school’s director. Department of Workforce Development (DWD) officials also presented the school with a certificate of recognition for “outstanding service” in Operation Allies Welcome during an adult education meeting later that day.
More than 76,000 Afghans have come to the United States through Operation Allies Welcome. Aaron Batt, Department of Homeland Security federal coordinator assigned to Camp Atterbury, said that 7,200 refugees came to the base. The final group of Afghan refugees housed there left in late January.
The DWD worked on-site at Atterbury to help refugees in “transitioning to work opportunities in Indiana and across the country,” state officials said.
“This has been a herculean effort to get this done in such a short period of time,” said Department Commissioner Fred Payne.
McDowell is aligned with the department, which provides funding for adult education, and received a call from DWD official Jerry Haffner in early November, Schaff said.
“The governor’s office had reached out to the DWD and said ‘We want to put something together here to work with Operation Allies at Camp Atterbury to serve our Afghan guests, and we also want to include English classes with that. So how can you guys help?’” Shaff recalled. “So, anyway, he (Haffner) gave us a call, and we said, ‘Sure, we’ll help.’ And we were there a little over a week later.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
