The first family we visited arrived on December 9 from a refugee camp in Nepal after living there for 18 years. They and other families (roughly one-sixth of the Bhutanese population) who are ethnically Nepali were forcibly driven from their homes in Bhutan by a king who wanted to purify the Bhutanese population. In their previous life in Bhutan they had a small farm and two of their children were born there. Three other children were then born in the refugee camp. The children are now 19, 17, 16, 14, and 11. Their oldest, the only daughter, is not yet in the country but they hope she will arrive in the next few months. Having never flown on a plane, they were a bit frightened when they traveled to this country and the travel was arduous. It took five flights to get here as they flew from Katmandu to Delhi to Newark to Dallas to Phoenix. Their apartment is only sparsely furnished. The wife, who is partially deaf, looked quite listless and sad. There was no food in the kitchen, a problem that Catholic Charities planned to quickly rectify, and they have no other family in the States.

The Second family  is a young couple expecting their first child within a month. This couple, from Bhutan, has nothing except a few borrowed items like a table and two card table chairs. They met and married in the refugee camp. We asked if they had any photos of their marriage but they explained that a large fire had swept through the camp and burned all their possessions, including the few photos they had. The husband’s devotion to his wife was very evident. He was sweeping the apartment as we arrived and he told us he will not let his wife do any work because she is pregnant. They were very sweet with each other. They have nothing for the baby. Luckily, her family is already in Phoenix so they have some emotional support. His English is quite good and he was a teacher in the refugee camp. He is very anxious to find a job to support his young wife and soon-to-arrive child.

Our third family is a young Burmese couple who has five children. They arrived October 28 and the apartment is very sparsely furnished. Translation was difficult with this family; we found someone nearby who speaks their dialect and some English. We learned that they have three girls (14, 12, and 4) and two boys (6, 2) and that they spent nine years in a refugee camp in Thailand.

We had the opportunity to meet with three lovely, memorable families today.

As we entered the first apartment, we were met by four pairs of very large brown eyes staring at us. The four little children of the first family were hungrily eating their breakfast when we arrived and didn’t pause as we entered! The children are two girls, ages 6 and 2, and two boys, ages 5 and 3. All the children were darling. The family lived an affluent life in Iraq where the father was a salesman and the mother stayed home with the children. They left Iraq because of threats against them based on religious sectarianism and because of the deaths of many in the mother’s family from a missile strike. They fled to Syria for two years. Life in Syria for Iraqi refugees is not easy; they are not able to work legally and their children are not eligible for free education. While there, the father worked twenty hour days doing the clothes trading and also cooking in a restaurant. When the threats followed them to Syria in April of 2009, they realized they had to come to the US. They have very little in their apartment.

The next family was equally charming and we were enchanted with the bright, polite, cheerful and friendly children, a boy (9) and two girls (8, 3). The father was a barber when they lived in Iraq but faced persecution and harm from fundamentalists right when the war started for being someone who cut hair and trimmed beards. He was kidnapped but escaped and fled to Syria. The mother then followed with the two oldest children. They lived in Syria for five years where the youngest child was born. They arrived in the US just one month ago to join the members of the mother’s family who arrived in Phoenix one year ago. While in Syria, these children were able to go to school so they speak and understand a few words of English. They are very anxious to start school here once they get their inoculations. A particularly cute image we saw was of the three year old little girl casually leaning with one arm against her father’s leg, very comfortable in that security. These children, like those in the first family, seem very bright and would take full advantage of any teaching aids we have to give them.

The third family is a young couple, married only fourteen months, from Iran. They fled religious persecution in their home country because they are members of the Baha’i faith. The followers of that religion in Iran, who number about 350,000, have faced persecution for many years and under current leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, their trials have worsened with many being imprisoned and killed. This couple first went to Turkey for one year and then came here with an “anchor,” meaning family members who were already living here. They have now moved out on their own and need help. For one month they have been in their apartment with no furnishings; they have no tables, chairs or bed so they eat, sit and sleep on the floor. In Iran, the young man was a jeweler and the young lady was a dentist’s assistant. Both would love to go to school, a privilege denied to them in Iran because of their religion.

In 1992, at the ages of 11 and 4, the parents of this family left thier homeland of Somalia and traveled to Kenya. They would spend the next 18 years of their lives in a refugee camp in Kenya. They did not know each other beforehand, but would meet, get married and have two beautiful children in that camp. They have a 3 year old daughter and 1 year old son. When they got the news that they would be leaving the camp to head for the United States, they were thrilled. From Kenya they traveled to Paris, then NYC and finally Phoenix. The long trip was exhausting. They have been in Phoenix for 3 months. They wondered if we had been to Kenya to see the refugee camps.

 

Our second family is a mother who is 50 and her developmentally delayed daughter who is 31. The father has been missing since 1983 when he fought in the Iran/Iraq war. This mother also has a son, who was an interpreter for the US Army. When extrremists found out he was an interpreter, they threatened the family. Leaving Iraq in August 2008, they traveled to Turkey and stayed there until recently when they arrived in Phoenix. They miss their homeland terribly, but glad they are safe. The mother was very upbeat, organized and tidy. She is looking forward to getting her daughter into appropriate programs for help. The son also lives in Phoenix with his wife and 2 children, but at a different apartment complex. On the day of delivery, the mother will be out of town, but the son will be there.

 

Living in Mosel, Iraq in 2000, the father of the next family was a high ranking officer in the Iraqi army. After a conflict he had with some others in the military, he fled to Lebanon, leaving his family in Iraq. His wife was killed and his 3 children would live with his brother. In November of 2007 he married his second wife, who is Palastinian. She is expecting their first child in mid February. They know that it is a son.

Our first family is a family of four from Iraq: a father, mother, and two sons, ages three and two.  The father worked as a surgical nurse at a Baghdad hospital and the mother worked as an anesthesiologist assistant.  But when the father’s life was threatened after one of his superiors was murdered, the father fled Iraq and took his family to Jordan.  The family lived in Jordan for four years.  While there, the father earned a Master’s Degree in public health from the University of Jordan and the couple had their two children.  Life was also challenging in Jordan because the couple is Shiite while most Jordanians are Sunni Muslims.  They have been in the United States for almost two months and are excited by the opportunities that lay ahead.

 

Our second family is a family of five from Bhutan: a father, mother, two daughters, ages 17 and 15, and an 11 year-old son.  The father and mother met and married in Bhutan, but had to flee to Nepal shortly thereafter.  They lived in the Nepalese refugee camp for 18 years and had all three of their children there.  The father was very active in the refugee camp, volunteering with several groups like Caritas and the Red Cross.  The family is happy to be here in the United States, but has found the language barrier more challenging than originally expected.  However, the family is optimistic and working hard.  The father has a job at the airport and the children are enrolled in school.  The father also has two brothers who have been resettled in the area as well.

 

Our third family is a 19 year-old young man from Afghanistan.  Almost five years ago, the Taliban killed the his father.  Fearing for her son’s safety, his mother sold the family home, gave him some money, and pleaded with him to flee the country.  He fled to Iran and Turkey for a few years where he worked as a tailor and a barber.  He is not optimistic about the future of Afghanistan but is hopeful about his own future here in the United States.