Our first family arrived in the US on February 11th, from Jordan and are originally from Iraq. In this family is a grandfather, grandmother, and two grandsons, who are not brothers. In 2003 the older grandson left Iraq with his mother and two siblings for Jordan. The mother was divorced at the time and remarried while in Jordan. In 2005 the grandparents also fled Iraq and headed to Jordan. Because family members were helping the US Military, extremists in Iraq stole from them, destroyed their things, and threatened them. The grandmother is very overwhelmed because she is taking care of her 72 year old ailing husband and raising two grandsons, as well as dealing with her own medical problems.


Our second family arrived January 26th from Tanzania and are originally from the Congo. This family is a mother and father with their seven children and the father’s brother. The father left the Congo in 1975 with his parents when the rebels were recruiting people to fight. In 1996 he met his wife in a refugee camp. In the camp there were many problems with sanitation and food. The government of Tanzania tried closing the schools in the refugee camps to force the people back to the Congo. All the children are now going to school here except the two youngest who are 4 and 3 years old. The 4 year old boy misses his brothers and sister terribly when they go to school and he cried the entire time.


Our third family is from Burma. They arrived February 9th from Malaysia. They are a young couple with their 2 year old daughter, and the brother and sister of the father. In 2005, the government of Burma said that the family was part of a group called CNN and told them they had to leave the country. They fled to Malaysia where the father worked in the furniture industry.

The first two families we visited were actually one large family, split
between 2 apartments.  The family left Bhutan in 1992 as a family  (parents
and six children) and spent the next 18 years living in a camp in Nepal.
While living in Nepal, the family's father died in hospital (eight years
ago) and three brothers were married (two have children - a boy, 1, and a
girl, 2).  The family of 12 eventually learned of the process to immigrate
and were approved to do so this fall.  5 arrived in October and the rest
followed in December.  The family has seen the WTAP truck before and one
brother has helped translate for another family that has been helped by WTAP
- needless to say they were very happy to have a visit from WTAP.

The final family we visited was a single mother and her 12 year old son and
11 year old daughter.  The son was about to celebrate his 13th birthday a
few days after we visited.   The mother was raised in Congo by her uncle
with her cousins after her parents died.  When her uncle was killed, she
took on the responsibility of looking after her cousins.  Eventually, they
fled to Zambia due to armed conflict in Congo.  At this time, her son was
just a year old and her daughter was born on the way.  The family eventually
went their separate ways, leaving the mother and kids.  Mom managed to find
work as a hair stylist at a 5 star hotel, enabling her to provide for her
children, though this was not easy in a country that is tough on
foreigners.  She wanted to move forward with her life and better provide for
her children.  The family arrived in Phoenix on Dec.1.