New York: Courage to Start Over |
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June 28th, 2007 - 04:20PM |
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L to R: Jenny Blanco Amas from Cuba; Sorie Kargbo, Sierra Leone; Alexandra Peters, Moderator and IRC Overseer, Chinh Lan Nguyen, Vietnam Photo: Eva Mogensen/The IRC From Eva Mogensen, in New York:. Six refugees who fled untenable existences in their home countries and whom the IRC has resettled in the New York area told their stories to a rapt audience at The Helmsley Hotel in honor of World Refugee Day Wednesday night, June 20 The refugee speakers came from countries as diverse as Cuba, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Vietnam. Their backgrounds and experiences getting to and making their way in the U.S. were strikingly different. One thing all had in common, however, was courage: the courage to start over from scratch and build a new life far away from everything that’s familiar. Jenny Blanco Armas, who was a doctor in Cuba, explained how difficult it was to leave her home: “I had to leave behind my parents, my family, my country and language to live in freedom with my husband and my son. You never forget your home country.” Jenny is trying hard to get accredited to practice medicine in the U.S. It hasn’t been easy. “I like being a medical assistant. Of course I am grateful for my job,” she said. “But I want a little bit more. It’s human nature – it’s ambition.” Chin Lan Nguyen knows about ambition. It motivated her to establish a restaurant in the U.S. following 16 years living in a Philippines refugee camp. “I came here and I said, ‘I’ll work and work and work and not care what I have to do so long as I work,’” Nguyen told the audience. Less than two years after arriving, Lan’s self-named, vegetarian Vietamese restaurant, Lan Café, is getting rave reviews. Several members of the IRC’s Refugee Youth Leaders in Training Program presented on their efforts to engage and strengthen their new communities. Ayoba from Liberia perhaps summed it up best: “No one wishes to be a refugee, for me that is God given. But refugees should be joyful and proud for what we have survived.” Listen to a UN Radio report on the event > Posted By: theirc | Refugees in the U.S. Permalink |
