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International Women’s Day Yomardy’s Story
Rebuilding Connection and Pride
Every day World Relief staff and volunteers are invited into stories. We are challenged to recognize the nuanced image of God in each person we serve, and remember that their stories stretch far beyond the boundaries of words like “immigrant, refugee, asylum-seeker.” The posts in this section—voiced in first-person, too long for social media, and lightly edited—extend that invitation to you.
In this post we meet Gao Guanghua. When he arrived in the U.S. after spending years as a refugee in Thailand, you were there to walk alongside him. As a community of volunteers and donors, you helped Gao find a doctor who speaks his language, gain access to subsidized senior housing, and connect with Chinese-American friends.
Journey
My journey to America is a long story, but I can make it brief. In China, I was a doctor. I was a soldier. I was a teacher. In 1989, June 4, the Tiananmen Square event happened, as we all know. I went from my home to Tiananmen Square to participate. After that, I was affected in a negative way because of my participation. So eventually, I went to Thailand and I stayed there seven or eight years.
I had been a doctor in Chinese medicine for ten years. So, in Thailand I could make my personal information public and open my own clinic. I also worked at a hospital and split the profits with my supervisor. But now in the U.S., not only can I not open a clinic. I cannot even be a doctor. If I want to be a doctor, I must have my certificate mailed here from China. Then I have to take some tests and turn it into an American certificate in order to be a doctor legally here. In that sense, I had more freedom in Thailand than I have here. It’s like a hero who has no place to show off (laughs).
Anyway, UNHCR had an office in Bangkok. I spent a lot of money applying to become a refugee. It took a lot of time and it was complicated. Eventually, they approved me as an international refugee. It was a different kind of refugee than the way we talk about it in my culture. It doesn’t mean you have to be homeless. It’s more about people being politically persecuted. Most of the refugees from China are refugees because they are persecuted by the Chinese government. I belong to that group. So I was approved as a refuge, and after that UNHCR took care of me very carefully and sent me to the U.S. I came here, and got some benefits from the U.S. government.
My caseworker found a college student — also from China — who picked me up at the airport. All my I.D. and documents are now at World Relief. I didn’t have to get a lawyer or spend any money. WR just actively provided me with those things. This is a brief summary of how I came to the U.S.
A Story from My Childhood
I have so many stories from my life, I don’t know where to start. Here’s a positive story from when I was in middle school – around 15 years old. There were six middle schools around several kilometers from my home to the north, and that’s where I went to school. I had to go across a river to get to school. It was around 5-6 meters wide. In winter we could just walk on the ice. In summer, usually the water was not that strong. It only came up to our chests, and we could just walk across. But in the rainy season – July and August – it’s stormy. Then, people will sink into the water if they cannot swim.
During one rainy season, there were 8 or 10 times when the flowing of the water was harsh. Me and five other boys needed to cross the river. There was no boat, and I was the only one who knew how to swim. So I brought them across the river one-by-one.
We all brought lunches to school. We called it dry food. Life wasn’t easy, so we ate these wild vegetables and a kind of wild wheat. We made it into a kind of steamed bun. So everybody carried many of these buns. I took my friends across the river. They had to take off their clothes becuase if they wore them into the water, it was hard for me to take them swimming. After I got them all across, I came back to get all the food too. I was so tired. The boys gave me applause.
When I got to school, my teacher praised me too. And the president also honored me in front of all the students. They even put me into the school newspaper. I was so proud of myself because of this. This was in the 1960’s. I didn’t have a cell phone to take a picture of that newspaper article so I could remember it. We didn’t even have bicycles. We just walked to school.
Teaching School and Calligraphy
When I was a student, it was before Chairman Mao’s cultural revolution. Later, I became a middle school teacher after the cultural revolution. Before the cultural revolution, most teachers were not officially hired. But I was officially hired in a public school.
I taught in schools in remote areas of the countryside. Physics, chemistry, math, geography, biology, and some other courses like writing, music, physical education, and arts. Calligraphy was not an important part of what we taught.
If you went to school before the cultural revolution, you’d learn calligraphy. If you went after, you wouldn’t learn calligraphy. It disappeared. So right now, very few people in China can write like this.
Calligraphy is a treasure of Chinese culture. I was seven or eight years old when I started learning calligraphy. I didn’t like it at the beginning. But the more I practiced, the more I developed an interest. Especially in my home town in the northern part of China, people in my father’s generation could do excellent calligraphy. Each year for the Chinese new year, every home had a person who could create a banner for each side of the door. The banners had phrases or blessings with the same general idea – well wishes for people in their careers, wishes that they’d be prosperous, peaceful, and healthy. But there are a variety of ways to say it.
Now, I’m part of Chinese calligraphy organization here in Chicago. We do a lesson once a week. We’ll give you one brush and some ink for free. It used to be $10 per lesson, but now it’s only $5. Still, very few people come to learn. There’s another organization that does lessons for free, so there are more people there. Most of them are elderly Chinese. Also, every Tuesday, I go to a senior center in little Vietnam and teach Chinese calligraphy.
Explaining a Chinese Proverb
This one is a saying from Confucius, quoted by another very famous leader. In Chinese, each character represents an idea. So, this first one on the right means the heavens. The second one means everything under heaven – many people, many nations, but they’re all human beings. The third one has many different meanings. But in this context it means to do something in order to reach a goal. The last one represents the public. Look at the image of this last character. One stroke to the left, one stroke to the right. Below those two strokes is a symbol that means, “self.” It basically means, eight people can make a group or fellowship.
So the combined meaning of the whole phrase is: Everything under the heaven and down to the earth is done for the public. For ordinary people. It’s not determined by only one person or politician.
We can use this to describe America’s political system. But China is far away from that kind of system. And that’s the best I can explain it. The Chinese language is very deep. Very complicated. For example, maybe you can learn English in three years, but you cannot acquire Chinese in thirty years.
Like his language, Gao Guanghua’s story is deep and rich. Together, we’ve helped restore a tiny bit of the pride and connection he felt back when he had his own medical practice, or the day he swam his classmates across the river. You can help more people like Gao rebuild their lives in the U.S.
Updates on President Biden’s Immigration / Refugee Executive Orders & Day 1 Immigration Bill
Below are the Executive Orders signed by President Biden that affect refugees and other immigrants, and/or the work of World Relief. To view the full list of Executive Orders and actions, click here.
Immigration
Repeal Muslim Ban​: rescinds Muslim Ban and directs State Department to restart visa processing
Border Wall Proclamation​: Terminates national emergency and halts obligation of funds for wall construction; directs a pause in ongoing constriction as soon as possible but no later than within 7 days
Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for Liberians:​ Reinstate DED and work authorization for Liberians (which expired January 10)
DACA​: Directs DHS and DOJ to take all actions they deem appropriate to preserve and fortify DACA
Census​: Rescinds Trump EO and PM on excluding non-citizens from the census
Rescind Trump Executive Order on Immigration Enforcement​, cleaning the way for Removal Moratorium(see below)
Removal Moratorium​: This DHS Secretary memo directs a review of immigration enforcement policies, interim priorities, and a 100-day pause on most removals
Send immigration bill to Congress
COVID-19
COVID-19 Mask Mandate Executive Order​: Directs Agencies to require mask wearing and other public health practices for federal workers, in federal buildings, and on federal lands
Safe Travel Executive Order:​ Directs agencies to implement public health measures on certain public modes of transportation (airports, aircraft, trains, public maritime vessels, intercity buses, and all forms of public transportation); directs agencies to act within 14 days to require that any person who seeks to board a flight to the U.S. from foreign country is required to provide a proof of a recent negative COVID-19 rest prior to departure
Global Health PPD​: Directs Agencies to strengthen efforts to combat COVID-19 globally and strengthen global pandemic preparedness
Testing/Workforce Executive Order:​ Creates Pandemic Test Board and directs HHS to support states’ efforts to deploy public health personnel to combat COVID-19
Treatment Executive Order​: Directs actions to support research into novel COVID-19 treatment, secure an adequate supply, and promote equitable distribution
An Open Letter
To the people we serve at World Relief,
We want to express our unwavering support to you and express our deep grief over the events of January 6th, when a group of rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol. The scenes we all witnessed left us feeling sick and unsettled and were reflective of the divisions that the country is facing.
We acknowledge that many of you may be fearful as you witnessed violence, terrorism, anarchy, and instability — all resembling the dynamics you may have left behind in your countries of origin, and which you never expected to face again in the United States. We also acknowledge that refugees and immigrants have often borne the brunt of a hostile political narrative that has discounted or diminished the validity of your story and experience and your tremendous contributions to our country.
We also recognize that at least some of the confirmed perpetrators of the attack espoused explicitly racist and white supremacist views. We grieve that the response from law enforcement to this attack stood in stark and unjust contrast to the violence with which largely peaceful demonstrations against police brutality were met in the past year. We know that you may be seeing and experiencing historical events unfold that are often checkered with racism and bias against people of color. And the American church has been complicit in perpetuating untruths that do not affirm the image of God in every person. We want to recognize that we, as part of the church, have often placed an allegiance to a distorted vision of our country over our commitment to God. But, the view of the people we saw at the Capitol building does not represent the view of all Americans. In fact, Christ calls us to be peacemakers and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We know pursuing peace is not a passive act but an active one that seeks the good of our neighbors and our communities.
We condemn in the strongest terms the riots last Wednesday and the scourge of conspiracy theories, anti-democratic misinformation, and white supremacy that plague our nation. The continued assault on truth, decency, and our basic democratic ideals is not just emanating from the far corners of our society but carried out from the highest levels of government.
We mourn the lives that were lost in the violence and grieve the ongoing trauma that refugees, immigrants and people of color, in particular, experience in this country. At the same time, we commit to continue our work in creating welcoming, just communities where you and your families can find safety and thrive.
We pray for peace, for reconciliation, and for justice and accountability for those who perpetrated the violence in our nation’s capital last week. We pray for truth, decency, and the rule of the law to prevail. We pray that there will be no further bloodshed and that a peaceful transition takes place. And beyond that, we pray that the seeds of division and discord begin to wither in the light of truth.
Most of all, we are praying for you. We are praying for your families to be safe during this time and for you to continue to find a welcoming and loving community that represents the best that this country has to offer.
We do not write today because we have answers to offer but, as an organization that has served over 400,000 people like you and whose staff is composed of many refugees and immigrants, we want to affirm our commitment to continue serving you as best as we can. To that end, please do not hesitate to reach out at any time to any of our staff if you are feeling overwhelmed and need someone to speak with. Please note our list of local offices on our website at www.worldrelief.org/us-locations.
We thank you for allowing us to journey with you and believe we can work together to contribute to the healing this land needs. We want you here. We recognize you. We stand with you.
With respect and affection,
World Relief Chicagoland
A Letter to Our Clients
We at World Relief are sad about the events of Jan 6th at the U.S. Capitol.
We know that many of you may be scared as you saw the violence at the Capitol. This may look like the situation you left behind in your country.
The beliefs seen at the Capitol building are not the same as World Relief and not the same as all Americans. In the Bible, God tells us to love our neighbors and be peacemakers.
World Relief does not agree with what happened at the Capitol.
We are sad about the people that died in the violence. We are sad about the difficult times refugees, immigrants and people of color are experiencing in the United States.
World Relief’s goal is to create welcoming communities. We want everyone to be treated fairly and feel safe in the United States. We want each person and family to find peace and hope for a good life in the United States.
We are praying for you and your family to be safe during this time.
Please let someone at World Relief know if you feel scared about the situation in our country, including the pandemic, and need someone to talk. We see you, we are glad you are here, and we stand with you.
-World Relief Chicagoland
Loving Patient Care
December 16, 2020
Article by Robert Carroll
In this month’s feature, read how an immigrant from Sierra Leone is now using her skill as a nurse, and her compassion for people in need, to help a refugee woman with her years-long health crisis. The name of the patient has been changed for privacy reasons.
Life as an Immigrant and Nurse
World Relief Volunteer Health Advocate, Angela Jalloh, knows firsthand the importance of providing compassionate assistance to refugees and immigrants in need, especially when that need is health related. She knows this because Angela is both a Registered Nurse and an immigrant.
Twenty years ago, Angela, her husband, and their three young children left their home in the west African country of Sierra Leone to start a new life in the United States. The family settled in Chicago and soon made the city their home. Angela enrolled and graduated from all her post-secondary schooling while living in the U.S. and has been working as a nurse for fourteen years. She is currently employed at The Admiral at the Lake, a senior living community on Chicago’s North Side. Her three children are now grown, and her son is currently serving in the United States Marine Corp.
“It’s a never-ending thank you,” she adds, referencing her work as a nurse and her son’s military service. “It’s a constant feeling of wanting to give back.”
Angela explains how being welcomed into the country as immigrants back in the year 2000 has instilled a deep sense of gratitude in the heart of her and her family, and how they have committed themselves since to helping others in the same way they were helped.
That commitment to helping others is what ultimately led her to World Relief.
Call to Action
Just this year, after giving a presentation on healthcare careers for immigrants, Angela was introduced to World Relief Chicagoland staff members who believed she would be a perfect Volunteer Health Advocate for newly resettled refugees and immigrants. World Relief Volunteer Health Advocates are matched with an immigrant or refugee in need of health assistance and someone who can walk with them on their health journey. As both an immigrant and a medical professional, Angela was a perfect fit.
“I was so humbled,” Angela remembers. “I was so happy when World Relief reached out to me [to become a Health Advocate]. I saw it as an opportunity to do the right thing.”
“The good World Relief does is endless. They have changed the lives of so many people that are going through so much transition in their lives. The employees are so dedicated, and so caring, and they really want to make the world a better place. It just touched my heart [when she was asked to help]. I have been given so much opportunity here [in the U.S.].”
Life as a New Volunteer
After enrolling as a Volunteer Health Advocate with World Relief, Angela was quickly matched with a woman refugee named Aisha who had been struggling with health problems for many years, and who had to this point, been unable to receive the care she needed. Aisha had seen many doctors in the past, but she doesn’t speak English and the best she could hope for was a translator who would directly translate her concerns to the attending physician. Unfortunately, this left much to be desired. As anyone who has visited a doctor knows, properly diagnosing a health problem is more complicated and takes more nuanced communication than a simple translation of symptoms allows. Especially when the symptoms are being described by a patient who is already confused and disoriented by the process, as well as the terminology used by a doctor when attempting to diagnose.
According to Angela, what ended up happening in Aisha’s case is that she was being treated based mostly on assumption. This is not meant to be an indictment of Aisha’s care, but rather an insight into the problems that arise when an immigrant patient is not given the proper support during a health crisis.
As Aisha’s new Volunteer Health Advocate, Angela worked hard to help her overcome the obstacles that stood in the way of a proper diagnosis. Angela does not speak the same language as Aisha, and since Aisha does not speak English, there is no way the two can communicate without an interpreter. But Angela’s willingness to connect on a level beyond words is what has made all the difference in the world.
Angela accompanies Aisha to all her doctor appointments, and even though she must speak through an interpreter when communicating between doctor and patient, her ability to translate the information being exchanged into a usable framework is what finally cracked the code.
“I am there to help the patient comprehend,” Angela explains. “Once she was able to comprehend what was being said, the doctor was able to explain things that the patient wasn’t even aware of.”
Angela is speaking, of course, to the subtext that exists in all conversations, but that can carry extra importance when attempting to diagnose and treat a health condition. Aisha would hear a translation of what the doctor was saying, but without comprehension, she would not know how to answer, or would not answer properly, or would not understand the next steps in the treatment plan and become even more confused.
“The biggest challenge was not being able to explain herself,” Angela says. “There were all these preconceived notions from the doctors. I told them that I didn’t want judgement. I wanted to bridge the gap. How do you care for someone without thinking about who they are or where they come from?”
Achieving Results
Angela is still very much on the journey with Aisha, but now with Angela’s help, Aisha is getting very close to a firm diagnosis and a proper treatment plan. Besides accompanying Aisha to her appointments, Angela also helps her schedule visits with specialists and navigate the health insurance system so that Aisha doesn’t become discouraged by the complexities of the U.S. healthcare system. This way, Aisha can just focus on getting better.
“It means so much to me every time I’m around her [Aisha],” Angela says. “I’m so happy every time we make a positive step. The feeling is hard to describe, really. It’s just such a great feeling to have a positive impact on someone else’s life. In my mind, it’s what we should all be doing. We should all care for each other. I wish I could do more. I just want to fix all the problems, but I know that everything takes time. But we’ll get there. We’ll get there.”
How You Can Help
When asked how others can help, Angela replied, “I just ask them from the bottom of my heart to do more. It doesn’t matter what your strengths are. Just reach out to someone. Everybody needs help. Everyone needs someone to help you along, to believe in you, and to listen to you as a person so that you may reach your full potential. Without a good foundation, it’s hard to succeed.
“There’s so much we can do to help others, and it doesn’t have to be a lot. Whatever you can do will make a difference. Every good act opens a door for a person. Helping a person when they are at their lowest helps lift them up to their highest point of potential where they can fully look back at themselves and be content.”
Learn more about how you can volunteer with World Relief, and how you too can make a difference in the life of a refugee or immigrant.
Author
This article was written by Robert Carroll, Communications Manager for World Relief.
To contact the author, email him at rcarroll@wr.org.
The Path to Peace
Article by Jerome Bizimana, World Relief Staff Member
Our feature this month is the firsthand account of life as a refugee from World Relief staff member, Jerome Bizimana. Read about his struggle to escape hate and violence in what felt at times like a hopeless quest for peace.
It was 1996 and the war had just broken out. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had always been my home, but it was a brutal, bloody war, and it was too dangerous to stay in the country, so my family and I fled. For the next nineteen years we lived in one Tanzanian refugee camp after another. When one camp closed, we packed up and moved to another. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a life away from the war.
One night in 2012, I was attacked by criminals at my home. Luckily, nearby police officers were able to save me from harm, but my assailants escaped. Before fleeing, they told me that they would kill me. They told me that they had to “terminate my life,” but never gave a reason why. My heart was broken, and from that day forward, I lived in constant fear. I couldn’t sleep, and many nights I would go to bed wondering if I would wake safely in the morning.
My eyes are wet with tears as I write this. I do not usually talk about my past. I prefer to forget the thirty-one years of my life that I lived hopelessly, but I hope that sharing my story will help others by bringing awareness to the need for refugee resettlement support.
Had it not been for the support systems in place, my family and I never would have been given the opportunity to resettle in the United States as refugees. But thanks to United Nations refugee services, we were given that chance in 2015, which is the year we arrived in the U.S.
But relocation was only the first step.
Life in the U.S. was more difficult than I expected it would be prior to my arrival. My family and I had lived a rural life in Africa. This means that we had never rented a house, paid a monthly bill, or applied for health insurance. I was so confused. If wondered if I was destined to be homeless. I wondered how I would survive. During sleep, I dreamed of someone breaking into our new apartment and killing us. The trauma from my 2012 attack was apparently still causing me great anxiety and pain, which was now amplified in this new place.
And the culture was so new, too. During the week leading up to my first Fourth of July, I mistook the sounds of fireworks going off at night for bullets. It wasn’t until I was able to speak with my case worker the following morning and hear her explanation, that I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
With the help of the great staff at World Relief’s Aurora office, my family and I slowly built a new life here. At first, we survived on less than twenty dollars a week. But thanks to the case managers and employment counselors at World Relief, my family and I continued to work and learn and acquire new skills.
After a while, I started to think about ways that I could give back. I felt so fortunate, and I wanted to help others. In the beginning, I provided transportation for new refugees who needed a way to get to their appointments with World Relief, but I wanted to do even more, and so I kept this request in my every day prayers.
Then one day, I was informed of a job opening at World Relief.
“But with my broken English, do you think I will get this position?” I asked.
I was encouraged to try, and to leave the rest to God. So I prayed, and then I applied for the job.
A few weeks later, I was offered the position. I am now a Family Support Coordinator at the World Relief office in Aurora.
I love working at World Relief, because World Relief changes lives. When I do my job, I am helping God’s children. When my service brings a smile to their face, I am happy.
Back in Africa, I lived a life without goals. But now I have many goals. I have hope and dreams and plans for the future! I go to bed every night feeling safe, and I wake up in the morning without fear.
I never thought I would be living the life I live now. But with the support of World Relief, my life has changed. I believe their services are crucial for building a new, prosperous life here in the U.S. Even a one-dollar donation to World Relief means a lot. That dollar will save the lives of countless families in need.
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if World Relief had not come to my aid. I still do not know the answer, but I do know that partners of World Relief’s mission empower millions of families like mine. I have nothing to give that can show you how important your love and support is, but I do want to say thank you so much. I keep each and every one of you in my every day prayers.
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