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March 8, 2010
Deliveries for March 13th.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.
10:51 pm mst
March 2, 2010
Deliveries for March 6th.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.
2:26 pm mst
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