Chicagoland
Medina
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 Medina. She’s 17, has learned four languages, and her dream is to be an English teacher. Her family is from the Afar people group of East Africa, and they were forcibly displaced from Eritrea to Ethiopia when Medina was a little girl. When she arrived in the U.S. in 2018, it was the second time she started learning a new country and new language.
Middle Child
Medina — In our country, they start from your own name, then your father, then your grandfather. For example, Fatuma Ali Hassan. But in America they just say Fatuma Hassan. My mom has a nickname. She was her father’s favorite child. So he used to call her Luli. The meaning of Luli – I don’t know how to say it in English – it’s something like a diamond, or gold. A lot of people used to call me Medi, but my nickname doesn’t have a meaning.
Before my little sister was born, my brothers used to listen to me and do whatever I wanted for me because I was the youngest one in our house. But after she was born, they did whatever she wanted for her. Now I’m in the middle so they don’t listen to me that much. Most of the time the middle one has to do everything. They say, “go and clean the room.” And if you say no, they pay you. They say, “I’m gonna give you ten bucks.”
America: “It’s good. It’s cold.”
When we came the U.S., it was me and my mom and my sister and my brother. My other brother and his family came before us. I think they came like one week before. We didn’t know we’d come that fast after my brother. But we were really happy when they said, “it’s time for you.” We had no idea what life in the U.S. would be like. We had some friends who moved here already, and they were telling us a little bit about America. They said, “It’s good. It’s cold.”
We were excited to see America – what it looks like and everything. For some people coming to the US takes like two years or three years. My other two brothers in Ethiopia are also waiting for their chance. One of them has a wife and one child.
When I went from Eretria to Ethiopia, it was a different life. And now it’s a different life in the USA. When I went to Ethiopia, I was seven or something. I don’t remember exactly. In Eritrea I used to speak Tigrinya, because that’s the language most of the people speak there. And when I came to Ethiopia, I completely forgot Tigrinya and I learned Amharic. Now in the U.S.A. I’m kind of forgetting some Amharic, and I’m learning English. In Amharic, when you write, it’s hard. Tigrinya uses the same letters as Amharic, I think. But in English, the letters are the same as the letters in Afar. My family speaks Afar, and I will never forget that language because we always speak it in the house and everywhere.
As a community of World Relief donors and volunteers, you have supported Medina and her family as they continue adapting in their journey from displacement to belonging. Through employment support, for example, you helped her brother increase his earning power by $10 per hour since his first job in the U.S.
Pizza & New Friends
I’m not gonna lie. School was very different over there in Ethiopia. I used to go sometimes and not go sometimes. It was half a day. We used to go in the morning and get out at lunch time. We all spoke the same language there, and we could say anything we wanted to each other. But here, sometimes if you want to say something to your friends, but you don‘t know how it is in English, it’s a little bit harder to explain.
I started in 9th grade in the U.S. in 2018. The first day of school was pretty hard. We didn’t know anyone. We didn’t know anything about English – just how to say “hello.” That was it. We didn’t eat the lunch. We didn’t like the food, or the milk. The first two days I brought my own food from home. But after a few days passed, I saw the pizza and I fell in love with it. There were some Muslim friends, and they told me the pizza was Halal. So it was okay to eat it. It’s really good.
After a while, we found friends. There were some girls who all came from Africa, but our language was not the same. They didn’t know English, and I didn’t know English. I think they’re from Tanzania. My English teacher helped a lot. She was so nice. She was understanding us, even though we didn’t speak English. Like when we explained to her with our hands if we needed water or something, she was understanding. My favorite subject is English. I’m bad at math. And I’m not that good at English actually, but when I try, it gets better.
You’ve been with Medina’s whole family through key moments like the first day of school in a new country. When COVID-19 hit, they had a team of volunteers who provided social connection, helped navigate shelter-in-place protocols, and offered emergency rental support when family members were laid off.
Dream Jobs
My tutor Jenny’s also really nice. I’ve only met her online. She lives in Indiana. She helps me with everything. We tell about ourselves. She tells me her story and I tell her my story. She told me about her family, and how she’s going to university. She’s from Korea, and lives with her mother and father and brother, and has some family in Korea. When I don‘t have homework we do extra stuff – reading and writing practice.
Jenny’s dream job is to be a doctor, and my dream job is to be an English teacher. English is not easy, but if you try and never give up it gets better and better. Other subjects are a little bit harder for me than English. So that’s why I feel like I want to be an English teacher. I think I‘ll teach kids, like 1st grade or second grade. (Read about Jenny’s path from interested to engaged here).
When I came to the US, I didn’t know how to speak English. A lot of people say I learn fast. That’s something I’m proud of. Another good thing is back in Ethiopia, to go somewhere for fun, it was a little bit far from my city. But here you can go downtown, to the zoo, to the beach. In the summer, Mr. Daniel from World Relief used to take us places. It was so fun, I’ll never forget. My favorite was the zoo. When we saw the animals and stuff like that. I hope the summer program can be in person this year.
Tik Tok & Covid
Learning on the computer is really hard. I go to Mather High School, and we are still not going in-person. The hardest part is sometimes the internet cuts off. Sometimes the computer is not working. Sometimes you just want to sleep. The teachers post the homework on google classroom and we send it back. It goes from 8am to 3:15pm. You get tired of sitting all day.
I feel like it’s way better to be in person. When everything is open. You can go everywhere without a mask. You can hang out and eat at restaurants. But now some people feel scared. Right now in our free time we just watch Youtube and movies. My little sister is on Tik Tok all day, doing a new dance, then a new dance. She makes her own videos, but I just watch. One time she made like 100 videos in a day. Tik Tok is crazy. If you watch Tik Tok, you forget about the other things.
Together, we’ve helped over 400,000 people like Medina and her family rebuild their lives in the United States. Continue your support today.
Photos by Rachel Wassink | Writing and interview by Jacob Mau
Spotlight on International Women’s Day
Honor International Women’s Day by watching this powerful event featuring immigrant women from all over the world!
Make a donation today to help other women thrive.
International Women’s Day Jenny’s Story
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
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.
On the Front Lines
May 27, 2020
Article by Robert Carroll
In this month’s feature, read how twin sisters from Iran went from religious refugees who couldn’t speak English to important front line workers in the fight against COVID-19. Click here for COVID-19 resources in over 20 languages, or click here to learn what items you can donate to help families in need during this time.
Sona Barichi can’t hug her young son when she gets home from work even though he cries for her and doesn’t understand. She has to take a shower first. She keeps her clothes and shoes in the garage until they’ve aired out for at least twenty-four hours, and then she washes them separately from her family’s laundry to prevent contamination. After she is convinced that she no longer carries any germs from her long shift at work, she can finally greet her family. She can finally hug her son.
Sona must take these precautions because she is a respiratory therapist at Delnor Hospital in Geneva who continues to work every day with COVID-19 patients. Her twin sister, Hana, works as a phlebotomist for Elmhurst Hospital, and she, too, is taking care of COVID-19 patients daily. Both sisters, they tell me, are doing their absolute best to help every single person that comes in through their hospital’s door, regardless of race, religion, or country of origin. As religious refugees from Iran, they know all too well what it feels like to be shoved aside, to be forgotten, to be refused. They also know what it feels like to be in danger.
“We are not Muslim, so it was hard. We have to take a lot of caution over there [Iran]. My uncle’s shop was recently robbed at gunpoint because he is not Muslim. And the government never helps over there. Every day, people are going hungry. People sell their kidneys just to eat. It’s a bad situation. It’s bad.”
Hana and Sona arrived in the United States on August 16, 2006. They were resettled by Catholic Charities, and soon after, connected with World Relief for help securing their first jobs as factory workers for Home Depot. But despite their good work performance and a praise from their supervisor, the sisters were eventually fired because neither spoke English well enough.
“Our supervisor liked our work,” says Sona, “But we couldn’t pass our English test and he had to let us go.”
That’s when Kara, a World Relief volunteer and friend to the sisters, decided to help out.
“Kara was a big reason I learned English,” says Sona.
Hana and Sona enrolled in English language classes in the Chicago suburbs. Hana’s husband, an American, helped her learn English, while Kara kept studying with Sona. Much of Sona’s English language training came from reading the Bible.
“We were working days and nights to learn English,” says Sona. “I was sleeping 2-3 hours a day just so I could have enough time to improve my English.”
After years of hard work, Sona and Hana were able to learn English and return to school to pursue their dream of working in the medical field.
“Our dad’s side of the family were all in the medical field,” Hana explains. “My dad was a surgical assistant. He inspired me to be in medicine.”
Sona agrees.
In 2014, Sona graduated from school and was immediately employed by Delnor. In 2015, Hana graduated and was hired by Elmhurst.
“It was always a dream to work in a hospital, and to help,” says Sona. “I see the sickest people get better and go home to live their life. That’s what I love about my job.”
“I feel like I’m here to help every person,” says Hana. “It doesn’t bother me anymore that some people look at me different because of my nationality or my accent, I’m there to help everyone no matter what. It makes me happy to come to work every day. It makes me so happy to help people.”
But now with COVID-19 taking its toll on the world, both sisters are once again faced with a grim reminder of the dangerous life they had fled. Both sisters deal exclusively with COVID-19 patients.
“I haven’t seen my family, my mom, or my sister,” says Hana. “Work is now very stressful. I do not want to get close to people. Every day, I see someone die. That really affects you. Just the other day, I was taking a COVID-19 patient’s blood, and ten minutes after I finished, he went into cardiac arrest and died.”
“It’s definitely scary,” says Sona. “People are very sick. Many are on oxygen. They need a good two months or more to recover. One of our first COVID-19 patients just recently recovered after forty-four days in the hospital. I’ve seen people recover after a month on oxygen, but they’re still too sick to be released from the hospital.”
“People need to stay home,” she continues. “They have to stay protected. Wash your hands. Use soap and warm water. Wipe down groceries. Empty boxes. Since grocery stores are not selling wipes anymore—they are keeping them for themselves—mix water with a tiny bit of dish soap and a tiny bit of bleach. I believe in bleach because that is all that we are allowed to use in the hospital. We are not allowed to use wipes.”
Not only do the sisters courageously help people in the United States, they also continue to help others back home in Iran as well.
“We send $100 back home to Iran every month,” says Sona. “We donate money to women who are not working due to the virus and who have children. Women are not as respected as men, and they do get jobs even in good times. They are not safe.”
Hana, meanwhile, continues to champion for the rights of her countrymen here in the United States.
“There are lots of language barrier problems with this virus,” she explains. “I know the language barrier is the biggest problem for many of them [COVID-19 patients]. My hospital had translator lines, but there wasn’t a line for Farsi. Farsi is the native language of Iran. So, I spoke my mind to the hospital administration and a line for Farsi was added.”
When asked what World Relief could do to help, Hana responds with an answer not related to COVID-19.
“More free English classes. More GED classes. It’s hard to get those classes even if you’re willing to work extra hours. Make more classes available for refugees. With more of these classes available, refugees are more likely to be a success. Their success will then motivate others who are happy to see the example.”
Hana and Sona have set quite the example themselves. Refugee or not, we can all be inspired by their work, their dedication, and their compassion for others.
“I’m not stopping here, though,” says Hana. “After the virus, I’m going to go back to school to become a registered nurse.”
Author
This article was written by Robert Carroll, Communications Manager for World Relief.
To contact the author, email him at rcarroll@wr.org.
Sharing the Love: Brenda’s Story
July 30, 2020
Article by Emily Miller, World Relief Staff Member
Our feature this month is a story of perpetual giving. Read how a young woman has overcome obstacles during the pandemic and is now mobilizing support for others in need.
Brenda’s heart sank when she logged on to her bank’s mobile app. She had been working at a laundromat, diligently saving extra pennies, when the unthinkable happened: the COVID-19 pandemic swept into Illinois. Her work hours were cut in half, several of her friends contracted the virus, and Brenda’s comfortable housing arrangement suddenly became unstable after three of her housemates decided to move away.
I have been Brenda’s case manager since October 2019, starting after she was granted asylum in the United States. After her arrival and prior to the pandemic, twenty-year-old Brenda had made great strides toward stability while settling into life in the Chicago area. She had established care with clinicians, started working, and had connected with a local church.
However, once the pandemic hit, Brenda suddenly found herself struggling to maintain a living. With a housing situation that was slowly crumbling and a job that could now only pay her at most $50 per paycheck, she needed other options. Together we brainstormed. We found an opening for an apartment in West Chicago, but in order to move in she needed to provide a security deposit and a rent payment of $450.
Due to emergency rent-assistance-funding from World Relief and a generous financial gift from Renewal Church, Brenda was able to secure not only one, but two months of rent while she looked for a job. She was relieved. Even though the pandemic had caused so much hardship, she felt she now had a safety net that prevented her from becoming homeless. She was inspired by the general willingness of different organizations to help her, so she decided to pay it back, but in a creative way.
Brenda told me that she had found discussions on Facebook about a Nicaraguan man living in her country’s capital city. He was leaving comments on popular radio and TV social media posts that he’d work in exchange for rice, oil, soap, and milk for his daughter. Nicaragua had been ravaged by COVID-19, and with an already faltering public health system, basic supplies and medicine were running out. Brenda got in contact with this man and heard a bit more about his dire needs and his inability to find work amid the pandemic. She was horrified at the situation her countrymen were facing. She then took to her own social media platforms, where she runs a popular podcast and Instagram account, both of which are dedicated to supporting the voice and struggle of the Nicaraguan people.
“I recorded a video asking people to either share it or to donate food or money to my PayPal account and I’d take that money and send it straight to him,” she explained, “I posted the video on Saturday, not thinking it’d get a lot of attention, but I was wrong. By Monday, it had reached 10,000 views and it now has close to 30,000 views on Instagram.”
Donations started pouring in. As a blogger with a substantial following, she had successfully mobilized her own audience to action.
“We raised $450 and a little bit more in total. Almost the same amount that World Relief helped me with for my new apartment.”
In the area of Nicaragua where the money was sent, this amount was equal to almost a full month’s salary. Brenda and her online community were able to raise it in less than three days. Brenda used a portion of the money to purchase quality food, diapers, and a first aid kit, and she donated the rest to the man in cash.
“When I left Nicaragua, I never thought I would be able to do anything for my country again,” Brenda told me. “That’s why I decided to start my blog. So I could at least educate people on important topics and show people that investing the right amount of effort can change someone’s life. I want to dedicate the fruits of this initiative to you and everyone who supports the mission at World Relief.”
Brenda was so encouraged by the response to this campaign that she plans to launch another one to help a young girl in Nicaragua whose house recently burned down.
“My next goal is to get others to follow my lead and go and find a cause themselves,” she said. “I will lead people to become fundraisers for their own communities. Find a cause. Start a movement. Share it with your friends. Eventually, it will spread like wildfire.”
Author
Emily Miller is a Family Case Manager based out of World Relief Chicagoland’s DuPage office. Emily works with immigrants and refugees to adjust to life in the United States and achieve self-sufficiency in their new communities.
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.