You are invited to our December SFBAPPA PhotoNight with Oakland Tribune/Bay Area News Group photographer/multimedia journalist Jane Tyska at the San Francisco Exposure Gallery on Thursday, December 9. She will be speaking on her recent project which follows a Bhutanese refugee family from a camp in eastern Nepal to their new home in Oakland.

She is covering the Mainali family who spent 18 years living in a hut at Beldangi Refugee Camp Number Two in Eastern Nepal before beginning a new life in Oakland where several family members already resided. The U.S. government began allowing Bhutanese refugees into the country in 2008, and their Bay Area community is growing. The government helps them out with cash, MediCal and food stamp assistanc for the first eight months, and then they must support themselves. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) runs the camps in Nepal, and the latest refugee count is at approximately 108,000. Over 30,000 have voluntarily immigrated to the U.S. since the resettlement began.

Jane Tyska bio:
Primarily a still photographer, Tyska is now also a multimedia journalist at the Oakland Tribune/Bay Area News Group, using new technology to tell stories for the web. She has won numerous awards for both for stills and video.

What: SFBAPPA December PhotoNight with Jane Tyska
Where: San Francisco Exposure Gallery
Address: 801 Howard (near the corner of 4th Street across from the Moscone Center)
When: Thursday, December 9
Time: 7 p.m.
Parking: 4th and Mission streets
Cost: free but bring something to share potluck style
RSVP: none

SFBAPPA PhotoNight is a very casual get together. It’s a pot luck – so please bring something to share to eat. SFBAPPA will supply drinks and sometimes additional food. No alcohol for any students under 21.