TEACHER SHOWS AND TELLS – David Cwirka, a substitute teacher, holds up ramen noodles and a box of macaroni as he teaches students in an English as a Second Language class the different names for similar types of foods. The recent class, held at the Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services’ building at 125 Market St., Hartford, preceded a regularly held food pantry distribution. (Photo by Roberta Tuttle)

“In 2007, we resettled 265 clients, refugees, and we are proposed through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to get the same number or more this year.”
— Judith Gough

Refugees settle in strange land
Appeal helps to fund initiatives for migrants
By Roberta Tuttle
Managing Editor

HARTFORD – Judith Gough and her staff didn’t get it right away.
When refugees from Myanmar (formerly Burma) picked up groceries at the food pantry, they held their bags of rice with blank looks on their faces.

Ms. Gough, director of the Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) office, said her staff knew that rice was a staple of the Karen people’s diet, yet, there they were, holding the bags and looking at staffers questioningly.

It soon became apparent that in the process of setting up apartments for the Karen people, the necessity for rice steamers was overlooked. Rice steamers now are standard issue, she said.

Karen people from Myanmar as well as people from Burundi in Africa are among those discovering that life in Connecticut is far different from what they knew.

“In 2007, we resettled 265 clients, refugees, and we are proposed through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to get the same number or more this year,” said Ms. Gough.

The Karen, victims of religious persecution, tribal wars and socioeconomic struggles, were driven out of their native country and then forced to leave refugee camps in Thailand before they arrived here. The Burundians, victimized by religious persecution, ethnic cleansing and heinous crimes, fled into Darfur, and from there, went into refugee camps in Tanzania, some for as long as 40 years.

Over the years, Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services, the largest agency of its kind in the state, also has resettled Cambodians, Laotians, Hmong, Liberians, Somalis, Somali Bantus, Liberians, Russians, Meskhetian Turks, Bosnians, Iraqis and Cubans.

Resettlement agencies such as MRS pave the way for refugees to find a place to live, find employment, learn English and generally improve their lives and adjust in their new country.

The agencies secure apartments for the refugees, furnish them with donated items and provide lessons in English and a variety of skills. Most MRS clients are self-sufficient within four months of their arrival in the United States.

The refugees also benefit from the MRS office’s place under the broad Catholic Charities umbrella, said Rose Alma Senatore, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities.

This “allows referrals to other services within the organization that the refugees may need, for example, educational services or counseling services, family centers, ESL classes and other services,” she said.
The Archbishop’s Annual Appeal is among its crucial funding sources.

“The reality is that all the money we receive from the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal offsets, subsidizes everything that we do,” said Ms. Senatore. “So it would be a real problem if we did not have any money from the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal because we would not be able to afford the array of services that we have.”

She said MRS is “one of the areas that’s near and dear to [Archbishop Henry J. Mansell’s] heart.” Housed in a two-story building at 125 Market St., the MRS offices are busy, particularly when classes are being held or the food pantry is open to provide refugees with staples.

On a recent Friday, David Cwirka, substitute teaching an English as a Second Language class to more than 20 people of all ages, primarily from Myanmar and Burundi, held up a variety of food items and asked the students to repeat the name of each food after he said it. It was clear that some syllables rolled off the tongues of refugees more smoothly than others.

Pi Naw, 17, who arrived in Connecticut six weeks ago from Thailand with her mother, father, a brother and four sisters, was all smiles after the class.

“I want to go to school,” she said without hesitation, although her English otherwise was tentative. She proudly pulled her report card from a colorful woven bag to show it to a reporter.

“I couldn’t imagine being plopped in the middle of the Sudan or the jungles of Burma and told to go figure out where to go get social services or where to go get milk or bread or eggs or whatever I need,” said Ms. Gough. “I can only imagine what these folks feel like coming to Hartford, Connecticut.”

By the time new refugees arrive at the airport, an apartment with furniture, bedding, a stocked refrigerator and other necessities is ready for the new occupants.

A case manager and interpreter meet the refugees and take them to their new home, where they teach the newcomers how to flush a toilet, turn lights on and off, turn on gas and other basics, Ms. Gough said. They begin the intake process the next day at the MRS office.

The refugees receive assistance in applying for Social Security cards and in registering for school. MRS also begins its process of assessing employment possibilities, health, education and clinical needs; ongoing case management; marriage/family support services; the regular provision of food, a food allowance and other basic necessities.

Because refugees frequently have no frame of reference other than their own cultures and experiences, both the newcomers and staff face learning curves.

“We encountered some Somali Bantus a couple of years back [who] sold their kitchen tables and chairs because they were an annoyance, basically, right there in the middle of the room,” Ms. Gough recalled with a laugh. “They put out blankets on the floor and ate on the floor.”

Even though the staff sees to it that apartments have appropriate numbers of bedrooms, “we’ll go into the home and find that they’re all sleeping in one bed, the whole family,” Ms. Gough said. “It’s their culture, primarily for the Burmese.”

The Catholic Charities Web site says that MRS maintains a 75 percent employment rate among its employable refugees.

The staff is a virtual United Nations, with members who speak Russian, Turkish, Karen, Burmese, Thai, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic, Somali, Albanian, Bosnian, Italian, Ibo and Armenian. Most arrived in this country as refugees, Ms. Gough said.

Volunteers also assist. The Burundi Initiative, as it is known, was started when the first refugees from Burundi were expected. Through the initiative, members of St. Ann Parish in Avon and St. Mary Parish in Simsbury have “adopted” Burundi families, providing friendship and fostering acculturation.

For the Karen people, who primarily are Catholic and Lutheran, a similar group was formed, this one an interdenominational collaborative among Hartford’s Cathedral of St. Joseph, Trinity Episcopal Church and Grace Lutheran Church.

Although the work of volunteers always has provided a hefty boost to MRS offerings, the partnerships with churches “have proven to just be a gift from God,” Ms. Gough said.

MRS currently collaborates with the Bridgeport-based International Institute of Connecticut Inc. to assist clients with immigration and naturalization issues, including the processing of forms for so-called “green cards” and other immigration benefits.

Ms. Gough said that at Archbishop Mansell’s initiative, her office plans an expansion of its services to immigrants after she and another employee finish training with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. (CLINIC). Established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1988, CLINIC helps to enhance and expand the delivery of legal services to indigent and low-income immigrants, principally through diocesan immigration programs.

Ms. Gough said that once trained and accredited by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, her office plans to expand the offerings it provides to immigrants, including legal services.

Besides MRS and the International Institute of Connecticut, other agencies that resettle refugees and help immigrants in Connecticut are Integrated Resettlement and Immigrant Services in New Haven, a program of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut; and Lutheran Social Services.