Posts by bcomito

World Relief Spokane is a refugee resettlement agency, working in connection with the local community, to create a welcoming space for people fleeing persecution and violence in their countries of origin.

The Spokane office was started in 1992 by Linda Unseth, which means 2022 marks 30 years of resettlement work. In those 30 years, more than 11,000 immigrants have been welcomed to Spokane. Our parent organization, World Relief global, is working to address the causes of mass displacement – extreme poverty, disasters, war, violence and oppression – throughout the world.

One-Stop Shop

World Relief Spokane is a full-service resettlement agency – providing clients with housing assistance, connection to resources, job coaching, and extended case management.

We are the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, and as such, we believe welcoming the stranger is part of our biblical call to love our neighbor and spread the good news of Jesus’ love and mercy. We know that we cannot do this alone, and so, we are committed to engaging the local church, providing them with resources and inviting them to stand alongside refugees seeking to build new lives in Spokane.

Four Core Competencies

RESETTLEMENT – World Relief Spokane works with new arrivals from the time they land at Spokane International Airport and for the subsequent 90 days to help them find housing and to get connected with resources. In partnership with a generous community, we are able to provide new arrivals with all the essentials for setting up a home – furniture, bedding, kitchen wares, etc. The majority of former refugees come with little more than what will fit in a suitcase.  Resettlement staff and volunteers connect them with benefits, medical insurance and public transportation; help to enroll their children in school; and connect adults to agencies for English language learning.

EXTENDED CASE MANAGEMENT – Not all newly arrived refugees can become self-sufficient and independent in 90 days. Many immigrants need more support. Through our Integration and Wellness department, World Relief provides case management to those struggling to get established. Case managers help clients navigate the health care system, legal resources, housing and financial management services, educational services and more. They connect clients with other agencies who provide direct services, while coaching them in accessing services and resources. The goal is to empower clients and connect them with support systems (physical, emotional, social) as they adjust to life in America.

Volunteers are a significant help in walking alongside families as they figure out their tight budgets, work on their language skills, learn the culture, and build a network of support. They often bring a wealth of experience and knowledge and, at the same time, report back that they learned and grew through the experience.

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT – By and large, the goal is to help each new immigrant family find employment for at least one adult in the first 90 days. The first job may be an entry-level position while the clients work on their language skills, navigate transportation and develop skills. Clients are welcome to come back at a future date when they are ready to pursue a more career-oriented position. Job Club provides clients with information and mentoring on how to find and maintain meaningful employment.

IMMIGRATION LEGAL SERVICES – Providing legal assistance to pave the way for employment authorization, permanent legal residence and citizenship.  [The ILS Department of World Relief Spokane is currently on hold as we search for a new immigration attorney.]

Highlights

Two relatively new initiatives – one spurred by COVID; the other by the large influx of Afghans – are the Community Ambassador program and the Education Center.

COMMUNITY AMBASSADORS provide the bridge between World Relief and the various ethnic communities. Always ready to put on a party or event to foster a sense of belonging and welcome, the Community Ambassador Team play a vital role in two-way communication with their respective communities. They let the communities know the resources and services available at World Relief and throughout the broader community. At the same time, they provide feedback to World Relief staff about the trends, capacities and needs they hear about when working with community members. Melissa Stipek, Friendship Center Manager, refers to the Community Ambassadors as “the fun side of World Relief.”

Much of what former refugees are facing is heavy — employment, housing, language studies, cultural orientation. “I believe for people to be able to flourish,” Mely said, “they need to be happy. When people are happy, their mind clears, and they are open to new ideas.”

EDUCATION CENTER – This new endeavor provides intentional education in the areas most needed by clients, helping them to integrate fully into society and become self-sufficient. First two classes: 1) basic computer skills for Afghan women; 2) financial and housing education for Afghan men. More classes are planned for the future.

FUNDING – While the government (local, state and federal) contributes financially to refugee resettlement, their funding does not go the distance. World Relief’s goal in pursuing private funding is to fill in the gaps and create a robust environment of support for our new friends and neighbors.

Become a World Relief partner today!

Written by Susan Yem

In 1994, just one week after Mwambi arrived in her new marital home in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), her life and her future husband’s life changed forever in terrifying and unexpected ways. DRC is the second largest country in Africa. Although it is rich in natural resources like oil, diamonds and gold, civil war, political corruption and social unrest within its borders, as well as spillover from conflicts in neighboring countries, have led to decades of instability. 

Although Bashale’s family was well-to-do and lived in a beautiful house, their wealth and status could not save them from peril. As a judge, Bashale’s father had ruled on a case involving the son of a local military commander who had stolen his father’s gun and used it to murder a man he was attempting to rob. For this crime, the son was sentenced to twenty-five years in jail which incensed the commander. 

“He came with five of his soldiers to our house at night and threatened my father,” Bashale recalls. “He broke down our gate, broke into our home, and shot my mother and father, killing both of them.”

Although Bashale, his siblings and Mwambi tried to hide, they were discovered. Mwambi was gang raped by five of the soldiers. Bashale and his older brother were caught by two soldiers, but Bashale’s brother was able to overpower them. The brother was wounded in the melee and died soon after. News of the incident spread quickly, and the remaining family members realized they could not safely harbor Bashale and Mwambi. An uncle advised them to leave the country and they headed to the Meheba Refugee Settlement in Northern Zambia.

“Our lives were very difficult in Meheba,” says Mwambi. “We suffered there because there was a shortage of food. We were not allowed to leave to find work, but we were not given enough food to survive.”

 Surviving through prayer

The family decided to take a risk and leave the camp to live in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. “We were in constant fear of getting caught and being sent to prison because we were living illegally outside the camp.”

As practicing Christians, they were sustained through prayer and trust in God as Bashale says, “We realized the only way we would survive was to pray to God. We fasted; we prayed overnight; we even climbed the mountain to pray.”

Others joined the family in prayer, and eventually two churches were formed which continue to meet today.

After 28 years of waiting, the family was finally notified by UNHCR that they had been accepted for resettlement in the United States. They arrived in Spokane in July. “The people in Spokane have been kind,” says Mwambi. “They accept us, give us shelter, give us food and help us with a lot of things.”

Hopeful for the future

World Relief has assisted the family in establishing themselves in Spokane by  finding housing, setting up medical insurance, preparing the kids for school and providing information on how to find jobs. Bashale and Mwambi are currently working with a World Relief caseworker to get the necessary documentation to enable them to work. Bashale hopes to continue to serve God. “I have a passion for working for God here in America,” he says.

Although he does not have happy memories of their lives in Africa, Bashale is reflective about their experiences, “In every situation whether you’re happy, sad, suffering, rich – you still have to praise God for everything.”

Building a just world means coming alongside families like Bashale and Mwambi’s once they’ve reached the U.S., and it means finding lasting solutions to the problems that force families to flee in the first place.

Currently, there are about 30,000 immigrants from DRC residing in the United States. Four hundred live in Spokane. While we work to welcome and help newly arriving refugees and immigrants integrate into life in Spokane, World Relief’s team in DR Congo is addressing the drivers of mass displacement that often force families to flee in the first place.  

We live in an interconnected world, and as crises converge, the only way to move forward is together. You can join World Relief Spokane as we build a more just and welcoming world by signing up to volunteer or partnering with us through a financial donation. 

Another great way to discover what’s happening at World Relief Spokane is to join us for our Around the Table Gala on November 16. Register here.

Not everyone who immigrates to the United States comes with the same status. While there is some overlap in terminology, following are some general definitions to keep in mind. 

A migrant is someone who moves from place to place looking to improve their quality of life, through work or education. This is not to say that their movement is frivolous or unwarranted. They may be experiencing extreme poverty or other conditions in their home country that make life untenable. Many people leave family behind and move to a new location so that they can send money back home. 

An immigrant implies someone who wants to live permanently in their destination country. Used in a general sense, the term does not mean that the person has been forced to leave their country of origin due to violence or persecution. Immigrants have to apply for visas and comply with immigration laws. The process can be expensive and take a long time, depending on a number of factors, including the country from which a person is emigrating. Immediate family of US citizens have top priority and the shortest wait. 

The definition of Refugee from the UN Refugee Agency: 

“Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. 

“They often have had to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones.  

“The 1951 Refugee Convention is a key legal document and defines a refugee as: ‘someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.’” 

Refugees go through an incredibly rigorous vetting process before they are approved for entry into the United States.

World Relief Spokane serves clients with other immigration classifications, as well. 

Humanitarian Parolee: The recent immigrants from Ukraine and Afghanistan are humanitarian parolees. Prior to the crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine, humanitarian parole was used quite sparingly by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and was considered a temporary status. 

“If you are granted humanitarian parole, you will be permitted to remain in the U.S. only for the period of time that is necessary for you to fulfill your humanitarian need or to tend to your emergency situation. You cannot obtain any permanent benefit with a grant of humanitarian parole, but you can apply for a temporary work authorization if you will need to work in the U.S. during your stay.” (nolo.com) 

While Ukrainians and Afghans were granted legal entry into the United States relatively quickly, the pathway to permanent residence is not as clear as it is for someone with refugee status. The current process through which Ukrainians are granted permission to work has been frustratingly slow. World Relief Spokane currently has more than 100 Ukrainians in our Job Search program waiting for employment authorization.  

Afghan parolees have been able to secure work authorization more quickly; however, their path to permanent residence is still in question. The Afghan Adjustment Act, currently before Congress, would address this issue and allow Afghans to apply for permanent residency. 

Asylee: According to the Department of Homeland Security, “An asylee is a person who meets the definition of refugee and is already present in the United States or is seeking admission at a port of entry.” 

Additionally, many people are displaced within their own countries or are living as refugees in countries where they are not eligible for permanent residence. Many of these people are living in refugee camps.  

“Approximately 22 percent of the world’s refugee population live in refugee camps – an estimated 6.6 million people. Among them, 4.5 million reside in planned and managed camps and approximately 2 million are sheltered in self-settled camps… Refugees may spend years and even decades living in camps, and it is common to have entire generations growing up in the camps.” UNHCR website 

Why Should You Care? 

What does all of this have to do with you and me? 

We have the opportunity to create a welcoming space for people who are different from us. Last week I interviewed a woman who had to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo 30 years ago. She had spent two decades in various countries in Africa, seeking a safe place to raise her family before finally coming to the United States, to Spokane. She had one word to describe her new home: Peace. I asked her to elaborate, but she said she couldn’t. She seemed to be pleading with me to understand just how much was contained in that one word. Peace. She kept repeating it. 

“Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me.”— Frederick Buechner 

It’s tempting to want to close ourselves off from the outside world and focus on our own lives, our own families, our own bank accounts, comfort, future, but that is a small world, a limited world, and ultimately, it cannot fulfill us because we were made for connection. We were made to bear one another’s burdens, to learn from each other, to share with each other and to comfort with the comfort we ourselves have received. 

If you’re interested in opening your life, your home, your world to immigrants and refugees, World Relief Spokane would love to walk alongside you in that.  

Continue your learning experience by following us on social media or join us for “Around the Table 2022.”

“We are all called to live out our faith. Why help the next person? Because that is what God called us to do in the Bible.”- Janine

Janine attends Garland Church and first got involved with World Relief through a Good Neighbor Team – a small group that surrounds and supports a family in the resettlement journey for six to twelve months. Garland owns a transitional home and were housing an Afghan family with ten children. (The family actually has 12 children, but the two married daughters remained behind in Afghanistan.) Janine was working with the family on their English language skills when the pastor of the church came in with a large stack of medical papers that needed to be addressed.

“We finished the English class, and I got up and walked over and said, ‘Can I see those?’ And I go, ‘You know what? The way that I can walk along side this family is by utilizing my experience as a nurse.’”

“Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God.”― Warren W. Wiersbe, On Being a Servant of God

Janine recognized that the family’s greatest need coincided with her experience as a nurse. She has been in the medical field since the 1970s and a registered nurse since 1989. The father of the family had a number of medical needs as a result of being hit by an IED in Afghanistan, and with 10 children, you can just imagine how the medical appointments added up.

Initially, it was a full-time job. “As a nurse, you cannot see that need and not help them. What I am doing is community health nursing, and if I could do it overseas, why can I not do it in America where there are people who desperately need the help?”

Janine’s husband is a construction engineer, and together they have lived all over the world. Coming to Spokane was her 25^th move, and she is hoping, her last. She has worked as a nurse everywhere they have gone —  Los Angeles, San Francisco, West Virginia, Maine, North Carolina, Bulgaria, Jamaica, South Carolina, Canada, and New York.

Above: Janine is checking Micah’s pulse.

“A nurse is a nurse around the world, that doesn’t change.” Janine recognizes that medical language and the processes surrounding medical care are complicated – even when you understand the language. Add in a language barrier, and it becomes overwhelming.

“I know what it is like for them, I have been in their shoes.”

She remembers living in Bulgaria. “The director at my kids’ school showed us all around, and he took time out of his day, and he said to me ‘Janine, you need to learn to step out on your own.’” Janine had to learn the language enough to ride the bus, get a taxi, go grocery shopping, etc.

“These people are here and they need the help… Some people will say, ‘Oh, well, they are just getting free handouts,’ but you know what? This family, I’ve watched them, and they want to make it on their own. They just need that little extra help to get started.”

Like Janine, you can help a recent refugee or asylee family or individual adjust to American life by walking alongside them with a group of volunteers (a small group of your friends and/or fellow church members). With World Relief’s support, you’ll be their guide from the very beginning, from meeting them at at the airport, to helping enroll them in social services, to building a relationship. Start the volunteer process here!

Just a little over a year ago, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. The following excerpt from The Washington Post describes those early days.

One year ago, the fall of Kabul to the Taliban stunned the world. Afghans fled to the airport in droves. A suicide bombing killed nearly 200 people. The departure of U.S. forces just days later brought an eerie quiet as the country grappled with its new reality.

Aug. 15 — The Taliban takes over

Kabul fell quickly. Taliban fighters faced little resistance as they entered the capital on the main roads. Afghan officials — including the country’s president — fled. And as the militants took over the presidential palace, so began a new era of Taliban rule.

Within days, billboards depicting women were defaced or torn down. Afghan flags were lowered. Cafes stopped playing music. (excerpt from The Washington Post, “Two weeks of chaos: A timeline of the U.S. pullout of Afghanistan)

Ibadullah Rasoli, a medical doctor, was living in Kabul at that time. He had gone to work as normal that morning. By the afternoon, he was working to ensure that his all-female staff made it home safely before he headed home himself.

“We lost our country in hours. 8:00 in the morning I went to my office. It was a normal day, and at 2:00, everything changed.”

Ten days of terror followed. Then, on the 25th of August, 2021, he received a call to be at the airport at 6:00 in the evening. Same day. Ibad and his family had two hours to evacuate.

“We left everything and everyone behind in two hours… And when I say ‘everything and everyone,’ I mean it, even my mom and my sister, because security protocol at that time, it was just for immediate family members. I don’t have access to my bank account, which is my salary account. It is frozen.”

Starting over in the United States

As the Deputy Country Director of 42 clinics throughout the country at the Marie Stopes International (MSI), Ibad held a place of prominence in the community. His wife worked for an international organization. He had a nice home and two nice cars. His children went to a private school.

While he is very grateful to be safe in the United States, it is humbling. “I just came and start from scratch at 44… with four children. It is very difficult.”

“When people are asking me what I was doing before, I am telling, unfortunately, I am medical doctor… And fortunately.”

Transferring his credentials to the United States is a possibility, but it would require additional education and exams, possibly years. In the meantime, Ibad is putting his experience and skills to work as a Community Health Worker at CHAS Health, focusing much of his time on helping Afghans like himself.

“I am trying to help people because I well know some of the barriers they have here. Suddenly, for most of them, everything changed – their lifestyle, their culture, and even, most of these families came from villages, not cities… Suddenly, they come to US – It’s a big, big change for them; so they have social barriers, cultural barriers, language barriers, and maybe some misinterpreted religious barriers. That’s why they are not regularly coming to the clinics; they’re not showing up for their appointments. I am trying to help them. I know better their problems and these barriers.”

Ibad is working with the team at CHAS Health to break down those barriers.

“We are planning to have events at CHAS Health for Afghan women and families. We have an educational program for families, including ante-natal care for Afghan women, and we will provide them transportation. Mostly, their husbands are working during the day and women are inside the house. They don’t know how to navigate their way around. They don’t know the language. They are very isolated.”

CHAS Health is beginning with pre-natal care for Afghan mothers, but, recognizing the traumatic events of the past 12 months, they have plans to expand their events to include behavioral health and other topics.

Spokane feels like home

Ibad said Spokane feels like home now, and he is enjoying his work because of the supportive environment and because his opinions are valued.

“People here in Spokane, they help me, they make me feel like, this is your second home, and you can live here like your home… I feel relaxed and good when I am working with people, when I am helping people, because that is now part of my life.”

Another huge factor in Ibad’s happiness is seeing his children happy and safe.

“Right now, in Afghanistan, girls are not allowed to go to school. When I am seeing… when my kids, especially my daughters, are coming back from school, and when I am seeing smiles on their faces, I am forgetting everything.” With a knot in his throat, Ibad finished, “I am happy they are going to school. They are safe, and they will have a bright future.”

Ibad is not ready to think too far. “We lost our country in just five or six hours, so having a goal for my life is not easy because I had my goals, I had my ambitions, I had my hopes for myself, for my family, for everything, but everything is gone, and I need time to reset goals. For now, just thinking for my kids. Just thinking for their future.”

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Would you like to be part of welcoming new neighbors like Ibad to Spokane? We invite you to partner with World Relief in these ways:

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