Posts by justinli

“My mom was so grateful. Even for the littlest things, she would say, ‘Thank you God!’ She would appreciate everything.”

Anzhella (she goes by Angela here in the United States because people often have trouble pronouncing her given name correctly) came to the US when she was six years old. In addition to a twin sister, her parents had three more children at the time, and her mom was pregnant with her second pair of twins. After their arrival and before World Relief set them up with housing, they all lived at her grandparents’ house, along with a variety of other relatives who had arrived in the US.

“One huge family at my grandma’s house.” Her overwhelming memory of that time, however, is not chaos, but joy.

“When we got here in 2000, my parents were the happiest people in the world. There was a huge group of people at the airport to greet us. We could go to school, have religious freedom, and opportunities. My parents were excited to make that happen for us because there wasn’t much future for us in Ukraine.”

Angela and her family came from the Ukraine through the Lautenberg Program, a special program created in 1990 to allow family members currently in the US to bring their relatives from the former Soviet Union to resettle in the US as refugees. The program, which focuses on freedom from religious persecution, is still in effect today. It closes every year on September 30 and must be re-approved on an annual basis.

Angela said her family arrived with very little. “World Relief gave us furniture and clothing. Clothing was huge for us because we didn’t have the right clothes for the season when we arrived. They set us up with housing and connected us to Habitat for Humanity so that we could build our first house in the US; a place we can truly call home.”

A New Community

Perhaps the biggest gift, however, was that World Relief connected Angela’s family with a case manager, Alla Derevenchuk, who in turn connected Angela’s family with a school Support Specialist, Sandi Solverson, who became a lifelong friend. “It was a perfect match.” Like Angela and her two little brothers, Sandi was also a twin and connected quickly with the family. Angela’s mom was so grateful to have someone she could call to help navigate life in this country. Sandi would notice what the family lacked, and she would help them acquire those things by connecting them with available resources. “She always set us up with resources like the Christmas Bureau, back-to-school supplies, vouchers for shoes, and so much more! We still keep in touch.” Sandy came to her sisters’ weddings among other events. “She was someone my mom trusted, and that gave her peace of mind during the chaos of resettlement.

“My parents’ goal was to work hard and make a better life for us; so that we had the opportunity to get an education and good jobs instead of ‘toiling in the sun’ the way they did.” Her parents both worked and went to school to learn English. After about five years, her father, who is an entrepreneur, started his own trucking company. “When the market crashed and the business closed, he didn’t give up there. He opened up an adult family home which has been running for 12 years now.”

Joining the Team

After getting her Bachelor’s degree in social work, Angela came to work for World Relief. As the Initial Healthcare Coordinator, she makes certain that new arrivals are set up with health insurance. She navigates the Washington Health Plan Finder for health insurance, secures a State ID card for each person and coordinates refugee health screenings. For pregnant women and moms with young children, she makes sure they get set up with WIC. And for elderly patients, she helps them apply for SSI.

“I didn’t know how hard it can be to coordinate so many different areas of a person’s life.”

Angela does all of her work behind the scenes before a family arrives – reading their medical records, researching their needs, and coordinating with healthcare providers for a smooth transition into the US healthcare system. “I want to be prepared ahead of time so that families receive the care they desperately need right away.”

Angela said one of her favorite Bible verses is Matthew 7:12, the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“When I meet new immigrants and refugees, I want to give them everything I can so they can succeed.”

When I asked Angela what made her want to do this work, she referred again to her mom: “I remember hearing how thankful my mom was for all the resources. We wouldn’t have been able to get to where we are today without those, and that’s why I wanted to help others. Nothing makes me happier. My mom had that happiness when she helped other people who came here after us, and my dad when he gave driving lessons to newcomers. Being able to give instead of just receiving brought us great joy.”

Family is still a binding force in Angela’s life. “Nobody in our family is going to forsake one another. We’ll always be there for each other.”

In fact, every Sunday, they gather together. It used to be at her grandma’s house, and now, Sunday dinner is at her mom’s house. Stuffed peppers, garbanzo bean soup and plachinte, a cottage cheese pastry, are just a few of the favorites. Here’s a recipe for you to try from Angela’s family.

Garbanzo Bean Soup

Ingredients

1 cup Garbanzo Beans (also known as chickpeas)

3 cups of homemade chicken broth

1 onion (chopped into cubes)

1-2 tablespoons cooking oil

1/4 teaspoon of crushed chipotle pepper (or less)

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of dried dill

Instructions:

1. Soak 1 cup garbanzo beans in 3 cups of lukewarm water overnight. Before cooking, throw away the water from the garbanzo beans.
2. Add garbanzo beans to room temperature chicken broth. Bring to a boil. (The temperature of the chicken broth should be room temperature to avoid hardening of the beans.) Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours (until tender).
3. While beans are simmering, chop 1 large onion into cubes. Add 2 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan and sauté the onion on medium-low heat.  If desired, add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic. Once onion is almost ready, add 1-2 teaspoons of Smoked Paprika (or regular paprika if you don’t have smoked) and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed chipotle pepper (or just a pinch for flavor) and sauté for another minute or until onions are a golden color.
4. Once the beans are tender and ready, add the sautéed onions, 1 teaspoon of dill , and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the chicken broth and beans (you may add more as desired, but it will not taste good if it’s too salty)
5. Bring to a boil and then turn it off, mix altogether and ENJOY!

You can learn more about World Relief and the work we do by clicking here.

Balinda. Anzhella. Rezvan. Ibadallah. Aziz. Ivan. Massuda. Elena. Haitham. Ivan. Abdul. Andrey. Morella. Halima. Viktorya. Just saying the names of a few of the people and new neighbors I have met in my first week of work at World Relief Spokane makes me smile. They come from the Ukraine, Congo, Afghanistan, Russia — places I have never been and may never have the opportunity to visit. Still, right here in Spokane, Washington, I have the opportunity to meet them, to listen to them speak in beautifully accented English or to catch snippets of their conversations in other languages. At lunch, I am offered poppy seed cookies (a Ukrainian favorite) or naan (middle eastern flatbread). My world – my senses, my understanding, my perspective – is about to undergo a radical transformation. I can hardly wait.

I hope you will join me as together we meet people from all over the world and hear their stories.

Last Monday, I arrived at 1522 N Washington as the Development Director for World Relief Spokane. In some ways, I was not the most likely candidate for the job. Yes, my career has been in marketing and fundraising for non-profits, but immigration and refugees are new subjects for me. I have barely been over the borders into Canada and Mexico and no further. I speak one language, and up until now, frankly, my world has been pretty white and pretty ethnocentric. Although not entirely. For 14.5 years, I worked for Union Gospel Mission in Spokane, telling the stories of people experiencing homelessness, many of whom had experienced horrific childhood trauma. Their stories expanded my understanding of what it means to love my neighbor, to see beyond the surface of a person’s life, to extend compassion in a meaningful way, to live for reasons beyond my own success and comfort. Now, I’m preparing to further grow my understanding, to hear and tell stories that will encompass a different kind of homelessness, another form of trauma, and rejection on a national scale.

I have to start with the basics:

Who is a refugee? A refugee is someone who has had to flee his or her home country due to violence or persecution. By definition, a refugee has been invited to come to the United States and comes here legally.*

In 2021, 89.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order.

• 53.2 million of these people are internally displaced within their own countries; 27.1 million are refugees.
• Roughly 36.5 million (41%) of the 89.3 million forcibly displaced people are children below 18 years of age. (The UN Refugee Agency)

This week, I spoke with a woman whose family fled Ukraine twenty-two years ago when she was six years old due to religious persecution. Because they were Christians, the children were not allowed to go to school. I spoke with a medical doctor whose wife worked for the US Embassy in Afghanistan, and when Kabul fell, they had two hours’ notice to evacuate. I spoke with a woman who had been a refugee her whole life before coming to the United States. They are all our neighbors.

How many refugees come to the US? A total of 11,411 refugees (18 percent of Biden’s announced target of 62,500) were resettled in the United States in fiscal year 2021. (Center for Immigration Studies)

Which countries are accepting the most refugees? 38% of the total number of refugees are hosted in just five countries: Turkey (3.8 million), Colombia (1.8 million), Uganda (1.5 million), Pakistan (1.5 million) and Germany (1.3 million). Poor and middle-income countries are shouldering more than their share of the burden.

Who is an immigrant?

An immigrant is anyone who takes up permanent residence in a foreign country. All refugees are immigrants, but not all immigrants are refugees. We will look at other categories of immigrants in future blog posts.

First and foremost, refugees and immigrants are human beings created in the image of God. They are our brothers and sisters.

“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners because you were foreigners in Egypt.” Exodus 23:9

“Immigrants today, whatever their manner of entry, come primarily for the same reasons that immigrants have always come to our country. Though immigration policies have changed quite drastically over the last two centuries, immigrants themselves are still pushed out of their countries of origin by poverty, war, and persecution, and are still drawn to the United States by promises of jobs and economic advancement, freedom and family reunification. These push-and-pull factors explain most, if not all, of immigration to the United States from the time of the first settlers to today.” (Welcoming the Stranger, p. 45)

For most of us, the idea of being forced from our homes or prevented from going to school or church or the market, the fear of being kidnapped or killed, or receiving notice that we must be evacuated within hours are so far removed as to seem unreal, but for millions of people those scenarios are very real.

We cannot fix the global problem, but we can make our city a welcoming place for the 650 new neighbors we expect to arrive next year. And to those 650 people, it can make all the difference in the world.

Learn more about World Relief and the work we do by clicking the link here.

*Legal definition of “refugee” from the UN Refugee Agency: someone who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

Ehblu recently graduated Spokane Police Department’s reserve training. This is his story.

“My name’s Ehblu. I was a refugee. I came here in 2008, to Spokane, with my family. I was eighteen years old when I got here.

“Before I came here, I was born and raised in a refugee camp. My family, they were from Burma. They ended up in a refugee camp in Thailand. Back in 1989. The name of the camp is Maw Ker. I was born in that camp in 1990, and I lived there about 10 years. We had to relocate to a different camp – the name of that camp was Ump Hiem. We moved there in 1999. We lived there for about 8 years before I moved here. When I was there, I was just a student. I didn’t do anything. I just went to school and had fun with friends, that’s all. Didn’t do anything much.

“When I came here in 2008, they connected me with World Relief. They would help me with trying to find shelter, a house, and help me find a job. I still remember Pingala. She still works here! She helped me with finding a job. From there, way back, 12 years ago – that’s how I got connected with World Relief.

“My first job was at Spokane Valley. Spokane International Pet Rescue. There’s a lot of Karen people who work there now. I worked there about 6 months and got laid off. I stopped working, about a year. But when I stopped working, I went to school. I was trying to improve my English at that time.

“I went to the adult education center on Monroe Street for about 2 years. I started to work at Spokane Public Schools as a bilingual specialist in 2010. I was a part time employee for about 4 years. In 2014, I got hired as a full timer there, and in late 2015, I started college here at Spokane Community College. I just finished my AA this summer. It took me about 4 or 5 years. In 2017, I joined the US Navy Reserve program. Then, in 2021, I joined the SPD reserve, the Spokane Police Reserve program. We have training and a lot of classes, about 280 hours of classes. I just finished last September. This September, about 2 months ago. So I’m in both the Navy Reserve and the Spokane Police Reserve.

Image description: photo of Ehblu receiving his police badge from a family member at his graduation ceremony.

“The reason I joined the police officers – it’s because I came straight from the refugee camp to Spokane. The people are very nice. They welcome me. The communities are great. Spokane is part of my community now. I think, for me, it’s my responsibility to keep my community safe, and do something back for the community. Maybe to set the example for other refugee youth who came here, to show them that, hey, it doesn’t matter where you came from. As long as you keep trying, you can do anything. That’s what inspired me to do the things I’m doing now.

“To have a community, it’s about neighbors that help one another. Everyone wants to be in a community that’s safe. My family is in a safe community. Like a bad community, no one helps each other. In a good community, you feel safe to leave your family when you go somewhere. Your community has your back when you’re away from your family.

“There’s a pastor called Pastor Doug. He is the one who helped my family a lot. He helped with transportation, and with living stuff that we didn’t know. He basically helped us with everything when we got here, during the first 1-2 years. There’s a church – he sometimes take us to go to church. He’s not just helping us with basic stuff. He also helps sometimes with the forms. When we came here, we didn’t have jobs, so there’s a form when people need work. He connected us with those people, so we can earn some little money. When you need him, he’ll be there for you. I’m getting really busy with my work, and things are better now, but sometimes I still connect with him. There’s also a woman called Susan. Most of the Karen people, we also know her. She helps us a lot with stuff. We go to see her, with a lot of mail, and some food stamps and social things. She’s helping us a lot. These two help us a lot.

Image description: Official image of Ehblu in his Navy uniform.

“I’m still doing the Navy Reserve. I signed up for about six years. This is my fifth year now, so I have one more year. But I plan to do at least 20 years. I love what I’m doing in the Navy. Before I came here, I lived in a refugee camp. Without this country, without this government, I won’t be able to make it here. Living in a refugee camp, it was very hard to make money. Even if you have money, you might not be able to come here. Because of this government, I was able to be here. I don’t want to take things for granted, so I want to do something back for this country. So that’s why I chose to join the Navy Reserve. I didn’t have any ideas about what the Navy looks like, I had no one to talk to. But I signed up for it. And boom! It took just a little bit of time to sign up and get to boot camp and to the training camp.

“My goals keep changing. My goal is to be a social worker one day, trying to help. When I help others, I feel so happy. When I get to do something and change someone’s life, when I am able to help them, it makes me feel like I want to do some more. It makes me feel more motivated to help others.

“I did apply to go to Eastern Washington University, but I haven’t started yet. I still need to talk to the advisor. So I finished my AA here. My goal is to be able to start university at Eastern and to start to take some classes in the next year. Next month. I think you can do anything you want to, as long as you keep trying.”

Justin Li | 12/23/21

This Christmas season, we’re celebrating the accomplishments of former refugees in our community. This is the story of Mustaba and Tantuni Restaurant.

“I’ve been in the United States five years and 2 months. I came to the US when I was 19 years old, and I started as a student in high school. Everyone told me at that time that I can’t graduate from the high school, because I only had 2 years. I started as a freshman, but after 2 years I graduated, and finished all my classes. Yeah, that was my first achievement here. It was a lot of sadness, a lot of giving up. At the same time, I thought, ‘Everyone can do it, why I can’t do it?’ If you believe in yourself, you can do whatever you want.

“I came from Turkey. I used to live in Turkey. Most of the struggles I had there, were because I didn’t know if I would come here or not. You really get frustrated there. You don’t know what’s your future, don’t know what you’re gonna do. I came here on October 6, 2016. After that, I started thinking about my life, thinking about my future.

Image description: a portrait of Mustaba sitting at a table in his restaurant. He is looking out the window.

“When I first went to World Relief, they taught me about the life here, what people are thinking. I like the classes there. They teach you how to live with the other people from different cities, from different worlds. They’re all thinking you’re a human, and they’re just thinking everyone should deserve a better life. Which is what I like about them. Whenever I went there, they would help me with a smile.

“When I got my first job here, I was working in a restaurant. I worked with Fadha. He was my manager. We used to share lots of breaks together, so we would talk. He’s from the same country, so it was easy to talk about lot of stuff, especially in Arabic. So he told me about himself. Fadha’s been a chef for 22 years now. He used to work with an American company to do a buffet, for American people. He was the head chef over there. Fadha told me a lot of stories, and he cooked for me as well, and I really liked his food. I was joking with him, I was like, ‘if I open a restaurant, I will make you my chef.’ And we were joking about it because he didn’t believe that. I didn’t believe it either. Fadha was my manager. And I really didn’t think about it.

“I always say I have two families. One is my regular family, like my parents, my brothers. My other family is my friends. In this life, you have to find two families: a family who raises you and takes care of you, and family who will support you – that’s my friends. Whatever’s happened, whatever’s going to happen, I will still have these two families forever. In the happy time, in the sad time. All the time, they were with me. I love both my families.

“My brother is from both families. He is my brother and my best friend as well. We don’t have that rivalry between brothers. When we were kids, we were like Tom and Jerry. We were fighting all the time. My brother, he’s older than me by five years. We were fighting so hard. This scar on my eyebrow, that’s from him. Today, the eyebrow scar, it’s like the models, it’s like a style. When I was 4 and he was 9, I broke his train toy. My dad brought it from India, I think. He brought it to him. And my brother was playing with it, and I just broke it. And he was mad and hit me. Now, he is my best friend and my brother at the same time. But I like to call him best friend better.

“He found a place, and we planned to open a restaurant there in March 2020. A restaurant called Tantuni. I studied everything. If you don’t know anything about the business you’re going to open, you’re not going to get anything. So I studied the people here, the ethnicities here. I studied the culture. I studied what people like and don’t like. I was going to a lot of restaurants. When I went, I didn’t want to eat. I was looking at the décor, the customer service. Sometimes, I asked people if they liked the food or not. I got ideas, and collected those ideas together. When we tried to sign the contract for the restaurant, COVID hit and cancelled everything. We’re back now, after everything.

Image description: a picture of Tantuni’s newly remodeled interior. There is a Christmas tree beside the serving counter.

“My brother and I used to remodel houses before we started Tantuni. From our experience remodeling, we remodeled all the restaurant all by ourselves. Everything here is by our hand. The lights, the pictures, the TVs, even the logo. It was our idea. We went to the guy who did logos and said we want something like this. We gave him the idea, and he just drew and made it for us. We brought our ideas together. The colors, my brother picked the black color and I picked the orange. Even the décor we had ideas together. We did everything together. Our friends helped a lot. Hussein, and Mohamed, and Tito. They helped us open this restaurant. I called Fadha, my old manager, and I told him, ‘Hey, I’m opening a restaurant called Tantuni. Do you still want to work with me?’ And he laughed, because he thought I was joking. When he met me and my brother, we agreed about everything. Fadha’s our chef now. I still can’t believe that.

Image description: a photo of Mustaba posing with the sign for his new restaurant, Tantuni.

“It’s just the beginning. I don’t want to do something and leave it in the middle. I’m not stopping when people say you got success, you did a great job. It’s not a great job for me until I see Tantuni as a brand, like the fast food chains. A better brand. The idea of opening this restaurant, I wanted to make it a mix between fast food and cuisine food. Cuisine is fresh food, delicious food, and cooked right away. And fast food, the order is going to take 10-15 minutes at most. I just want to show the people, it’s fancy fast food. When people come here, they’ll trust me about what they’re eating. That’s what it’s all about here. I don’t want to make money, I want to make customers.

“My brother’s in Turkey now. He got married, and he’s waiting for the consulate in Ankara so they can meet his wife and he can bring her here. He’s just waiting there. I’m praying for him every day. So he can come and see what he did. He was here when we signed the contract for the restaurant. But he left 2 weeks before Tantuni opened. He can’t see what we do until he sees with his own eyes. Even if I told him everything for 24 hours, it would not feel right until he sees with his eyes. Hopefully, he’ll come soon. “I got a lot of ideas. I like to think differently than other people. I like to be unique in my thinking, in my ideas. I like to be positive all the time. You’re only going to live one time, this life. If your mentality and mind are set up for positive thing and happiness, if you like to see people happy, you’ll be happy as well. I just hope everything will be fine in 2022, and all the people will be safe and happy. That’s what I wish for. But what happens in the future, let’s just keep in the future. As my dad says, ‘Don’t think about the future, make it.’ Whatever you want to do, whatever you’re going to be, make it by your hand. Nobody’s going to come to you and say, ‘Oh, you want to be a doctor? I’ll make you a doctor.’ I want to finish my dream, to be an engineer. I wanted to be a petroleum engineer. But I think in the future, the petroleum will be all gone. The world will need new energy. So I believe electrical engineering will be the best path for me. No one’s walking with a magic stick to make your wish a reality. If you want something, make it happen.”

Justin Li | 12/20/2021