Happy New Year!

Why Toledo is not Europe

Why we are doing a better job with immigration: Unlike the Belgian community from which the mastermind of last week’s attacks on Paris emerged, the Toledo community is proactively working on one of the most important elements of detecting and preventing terrorism:...

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How Strangers Become Family

in-ti-grey-shuh n  (Integration) - Noun:  behavior, as of an individual, that is in harmony with the environment Images of refugees and migrants are filling the news. Solutions to this humanitarian crisis are complicated and divisive. The reality is that refugees and...

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One Stranger’s Story

“Thank you.”  It’s probably the one sentence we hear most often these days at Water For Ishmael. Rafi’s two teenage boys had been coming home from school every day with that “deer in headlights” look.  Since they arrived in the US in June, they had managed to learn...

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Come away with me.

“The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ ”...

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WFI wins an Award!

Every year, the Toledo Community Foundation awards one small organization a Nonprofit Excellence Award. There were 19 organizations competing for this award. As you can probably guess where we are going with this, we won! This is a milestone achievement in the life of...

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24 years of rejection

Do you ever find yourself asking the question, “Am I actually making a difference?”  Here's proof that you are! This past month, a Vietnamese refugee family arrived in Toledo.  Mother, father, and three adult children came to the United States after 24 years of...

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Our Neighbors Are Different

60 flags. 4000 people. 20+ local churches. The Toledo area is a place like nowhere else. If you don't look around, you will miss how unique it is. Yes, our zoo and the Jeep factory are unique. But the uniqueness that I'm talking about is in the Toledo area people. The...

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Our Most Important Asset

For the winter semester, the American Language Institute received an especially large number of international students enrolled in their English program. 86 international students applied to receive an American Conversation Partner. Despite the huge number of...

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West Toledo Evening ESL has begun!

We have been waiting for years to offer English classes for immigrants and refugees in the evening! It has been made possible through the Toledo Community Foundation.  Our first class was last night and it was a great turn-out! "My important goals is to improve my...

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A MUST-READ Donor Testimony

The following is a testimony from a valued Water for Ishmael donor: "So I was sitting with my financial advisor a few months ago going through an annual checkup. Now this may sound about as exciting as watching paint dry (no offense to you who actually find that...

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Healthy Living Newspaper

Water for Ishmael wants to thank Healthy Living Newspaper for the excellent article about the American School for Women and Children. If you haven't checked out November's paper, go to a local provider and check out page 27 to learn about a little boy named Eduardo...

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