'Survivors' enjoy respite

Picnic gathering in Albany attracts 250 refugees who seek a new, safer future

By TOM KEYSER, Staff writer
First published in print: Sunday, June 20, 2010

ALBANY -- Mu Mu was born and lived the first 21 years of her life in refugee camps in Thailand. She is 24 now, and Saturday at Washington Park she wore a smile as bright as her traditional clothes from her family's native Myanmar, formerly Burma.

She was one of more than 250 refugees attending a picnic to mark World Refugee Day, which is today. From Myanmar, Iraq, Bhutan and countries in Africa, the refugees living in the Capital Region sang and danced, ate, lounged in the shade and met other refugees. Their children played on slides and swings, kicked a soccer ball, took mighty swings at a Whiffle ball and flailed away at a pinata.

"These are the survivors," said Jill Peckenpaugh, director of the Albany office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

The refugees at the picnic, and the estimated 500 additional refugees who will be resettled in the Capital Region this year, all fled their country because of fear of persecution. They've lost relatives and friends to disease, murder and war.


With initial help from the United Nations and then the USCRI or Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic diocese of Albany, they are learning English, maintaining apartments, working or trying to find work, and navigating this new universe in the United States.

Mu Mu's family built their own house in the camps -- out of bamboo and leaves. She had never seen a real building until she came to Albany. She had gotten married in the camps and had a child. She had a second one in Albany.

She got a job at first cleaning toilets at Albany Medical Center. She worked hard, worked her way up and three weeks ago started training for a new job, drawing blood from patients.

"We don't have our own house yet or our own car yet," Mu Mu said. "But we are enjoying our life."

There are an estimated 15 million refugees in the world, and fewer than 1 percent get resettled, according to agencies that assist refugees.

"We are lucky to have these gracious, driven people living in our country. And we're especially lucky to have them in Albany," said Jolene Roosenberg, a volunteer who works with refugees "They get into your heart. They become your family."

Ali Kurady sat quietly under a tree with his family. He was a doctor in Iraq who escaped to Dubai, worked as a pediatric doctor for two years, and then was resettled in Albany. He arrived with his wife and three children three months ago.

His older brother, also a doctor, was murdered in Iraq, he said. Sometimes, he said, people were killed, especially professional people, for no apparent reason.

Kurady, who speaks passable English, is taking English classes, as are his wife and children. He plans to take the exams as soon as possible so he can work as a doctor here.

At the picnic, he said, he met refugees from other countries as well as one from Iraq. Although he was scared when he first arrived, he said, he is becoming more comfortable.

"This is more than a new home," he said. "This is the future for my children."

Making a home far from home

Refugees from Myanmar add their traditions to Albany's ethnic mix

By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
First published in print: Tuesday, March 2, 2010

ALBANY-- Steaming mugs of chai are brought out for visitors as the tangy scent of pumpkin leaves cooking in peanut oil waft from the kitchen in the back of a first-floor Grand Street flat.
Two women emerge from the upstairs apartment, shy and smiling, each with a baby propped on a hip. Small children peek out from behind a doorway.
The only sound is the creak of floorboards. There is no TV or telephone. These Karenni refugees from Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma -- can't afford them. Everyone walks barefoot on the shiny hardwood floors, a cultural choice rather than an economic one.

Three men step into the living room after shedding shoes and winter coats in an entryway. They have walked their children home from nearby Giffen Memorial Elementary School. Snow is a new concept for everyone, along with electricity and indoor plumbing. The men sit in silence on plastic lawn chairs in the living room, chewing betel leaves that stain their teeth crimson.
They speak no English and a halting translator can bridge only part of the communication chasm. They've been catapulted from an 18th-century existence into the 21st century almost overnight after arriving in Albany over the summer from a refugee camp on the Myanmar-Thailand border.


None of these Karenni families on Grand Street knew each other in the sprawling refugee camp, where more than 25,000 dispossessed Karenni stayed. They've only met each other and become friends since they came to Albany.
The two Karenni who share this Grand Street address number 12 children and four adults, but none have jobs. Without any English, employment will be difficult to find, particularly in a down economy with high unemployment.
Steah Htoo and her husband, Aung Nge, are the upwardly mobile couple. They both have jobs. He rides with other Burmese men to an auto parts factory in Bennington, Vt. His wife makes beds and cleans rooms at a local motel.
The Karenni are a tribal subgroup of the Karen people in Burma. There are about 300,000 Karenni in a rural region along the Burma-Thai border. The Karenni migrated to this area from Mongolia more than 2,000 years ago. The British recognized their sovereignty with the Karenni State, while other ethnic states in Burma were annexed in 1885.
As an indigenous ethnic minority, the Karenni people were harassed by the Burmese military junta since Burma's independence in 1948, following more than 60 years of British colonial rule. The Burmese military spent decades persecuting the Karenni people, including killings, imprisonment, burning of houses and crops, and land seizures. Tens of thousands of Karenni fled into the jungle or sought shelter in refugee camps.

This modest three-bedroom Grand Street apartment -- with mismatched, donated furnishings and no decorations except for a CDTA bus map, their transportation lifeline, taped to a wall -- is a big step up in terms of comfort.

These two families spent more than a decade cooking over open fires and languishing in crude wooden huts, routinely harassed by the refugee camp police force. They finally beat the odds and gained refugee status, and were allowed to come to the U.S.
Here, each person is given $900 by the federal government to last them for their first three months (the sum was increased from $425 a year ago).

That is supposed to cover rent, food, clothing and household supplies. After 90 days, they can qualify for public assistance, food stamps and Medicaid. If they get a job, they have to begin reimbursing the U.S. government for their airfare from Thailand. Large Karenni families might owe up to $10,000 in airfare. Many pay back their debt at a rate of about $100 a month for more than 10 years. Some live below or just at the poverty level.

"The families who have made it this far are the survivors, the strongest ones," says Jen Barkan, resource manager and volunteer coordinator for USCRI.

Taylor and her husband, Kevin, who live in East Greenbush, help the families read mail, negotiate government agencies and bring household supplies and donated clothing during weekly visits.

The Taylors brought them to see their first movie, with passes donated by owners of the Spectrum 8 Theatres in Albany. They saw "The Fantastic Mr. Fox," and the kids nearly jumped out of their seats when the animated movie began.
"It's very rewarding helping the Karenni people," Taylor says. "They've enriched our lives."
Paul Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623 or by e-mail at pgrondahl@timesunion.com.

Volunteers sought
USCRI needs volunteers and assistance with the Karenni refugee resettlement. If you're interested in helping, call the Albany field office at 459-1790.

http://uscri.refugees.org/site/PageNavigator/Albany/AlbanyHomeFeature3