By Ben Shanahan

Special to the Sentinel-Tribune

The 2023 Immigrant Heritage Festival included food, art and a place for people to feel like they belong.

The festival was held Friday night at the Kiwanis Memorial Shelter at City Park.

The organization that put on the festival, Welcome BG, has been trying to set up an in-person event for all immigrants in the BG area for a while now, said Welcome BG Coordinator Mojabeng Kamala.

“Usually I do it online, where I would highlight immigrant-run businesses like El Zarape or feature people like that, but I think we might have to do this from now on,” Kamala said.

“The decision for the change was simple. I keep advocating for people no one sees. I can tell you all the statistics and how many of us are in Bowling Green, but if you get to actually see them face-to-face, you might turn out liking them.”

The organization that put on the festival, Welcome BG, has been trying to set up an in-person event for all immigrants in the BG area for a while now, said Welcome BG Coordinator Mojabeng Kamala. (Ben Shanahan | Sentinel-Tribune)

Kamala, an immigrant herself from South Africa, got involved with Welcome BG from the beginning and became coordinator because she knows what it is like to come here and have that lost look.

“Initially, when it was a welcoming task force, I just gave out information. But one thing I kept saying was that unless you have been an immigrant or foreigner to some other country, there is something education cannot replace,” Kamala said.

“You know that look when someone looks lost or overwhelmed. Then someone told me I needed to become a coordinator. And I did it, because I came to the U.S. in 1978 with my whole family as refugees from South Africa, and coming to America as a teenager here, I have lots of experience.”

Food was part of the festival. (Ben Shanahan | Sentinel-Tribune)

Welcome BG has come a long way from its start in 2019 and now has similar organizations in Toledo and Dayton.

The hope is to show people moving into the community that they are not alone and that people are here to help.

“In 2019, the city council passed a resolution proclaiming Welcome BG as a safe, welcoming organization for all the diverse people in the community, and now organizations like ours are all over Ohio,” Kamala said. “We are needed that much more now as many migrants are coming here with families, so when their kids go to school, they do not know how to integrate, and most people here do not know how to celebrate other cultures. So we are here to bridge the gap between them.”

The highlight of the Immigrant Heritage Festival was another proclamation from Bowling Green Mayor Mike Aspacher, who named June 23 Immigrant Heritage Day for the City Of Bowling Green.

The mayor’s proclamation. (Ben Shanahan | Sentinel-Tribune)

“Now therefore, I, Mike Aspacher, mayor of the City of Bowling Green, Ohio, do hereby proclaim June 23, 2023, as Immigrant Heritage Day in the City of Bowling Green and encourage all citizens to join in the celebration not only today but for the entire month of June,” he said.

To learn more, visit their Facebook page, Welcome BG.