BCAP STAFF

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Thank you for taking a moment to explore the mission behind the Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh. We are nonprofit organization based in Brentwood committed to assisting Bhutanese refugees in transitioning and adapting to life in Pittsburgh as they resettle into a new life. In addition to providing various services, our mission is rooted in learning the cultural values of Americans and sharing the roots of our traditions with hopes of providing capacity in addressing an often-challenging human services problem. In a time that can be difficult to focus on joy, we share a goal of building a bridge that connects all of us to the larger mission of community-building and togetherness.

We certainly cannot accomplish this mission alone—as they say, it takes a village. We’re grateful for support from valued community members, kind volunteers, committed donors, Board members, and other strategic partners. They give us time and resources that allow us to deliver helpful services to the community and expand our ability to be more inclusive and diverse. It is because of supporters like you that we’ve become a strong voice in leading and providing resources for the Bhutanese community. 

In fact, 2020 was probably our most trying year. Because of the strong foundation we’ve built, we overcame to the best of our abilities. Despite having a small staff, we introduced services and programs that met the moment to ensure mitigation of food insecurity in a time of rampant joblessness, dissemination of reliable information in times of misinformation, and reliability when it became difficult to find a shoulder to lean on. 

BCAP Stepped Up to Keep Community Safe Through COVID-19 Pandemic:

Direct Assistance: As the pandemic hit our state and our county last March, most social service-based agencies shut down completely for a while or switched to remote assistance for the whole year. Our community members were not prepared to receive assistance remotely. Thus, our organization had to remain open for most of the year 2020. We provided in person assistance following all CDC and county health department guidelines. BCAP stepped up in securing facemasks, hand sanitizer, fresh produce and dairy products, laptops, grocery food vouchers and rental assistance to the neediest families. We are proud to say all staff members managed to keep safe from contracting the virus.

COVID Testing in the Neighborhoods: As the COVID-19 cases started showing up, our prime focus was to make sure individuals and families received testing services in a timely manner. Because not everyone drove (and this remains so), we had to make sure testing was made accessible. We worked closely with ACHD and SHHC in reaching the right information to our community about COVID-19 itself and bringing mobile testing units to 7 locations in the south hills of Pittsburgh throughout late spring, summer, and late fall last year.

Citizenship Preparation Classes: One of our programs, the citizenship preparation and language classes was soon resumed after a short gap. It took us a while in preparing our older adults and seniors getting used to with their devices and virtual learning platform like the Zoom. We provided in person instruction in the office to many of the students, got them ready and had them join the virtual classes led by our long-time tutors.

The Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh continues to grow as an organization and the best way we have learned to do this is by staying on the ground and listening to the needs of community members. I hope you’ll take a moment to review our annual report to see the full scope of our work. I’d welcome any questions and feedback. Please reach me at ktimsina@bcap.us.  Thank you to all of you for making the work possible and keeping me inspired to stay committed.