I know I should not hold my breath but I can’t help it.  The father in our Karenni refugee family started a new job last week!  He completed a 40 hour week; 4 ten-hour days Monday through Thursday.  So far so good!  I think I can let my breath out.

His job is a temp-to-hire position at a company that makes corporate promotional t-shirts and other clothing.  He does general cleaning and shop floor support.

He LOVES it! When I pick him up after work he is practically glowing.

The problem we are working on right now is transportation.  Although it is fortunate that the company is located only ten minutes from his home, it is not on a bus line.  On top of that, he must start work at 6 am.

I did not have a single person volunteer to drive him to work at that early hour.  Go figure!  Thankfully, the W-2 program has arranged for a taxi cab to take him to work temporarily – for one month.  This will give us time to work out a plan.  Currently, four volunteers pick him up from work at 4:30 pm, each taking a different day of the week.  This is working beautifully.

We are busy checking into a possible carpool situation.  He also likes to ride his bicycle and I know he will do that once he is comfortable with the route and the weather cooperates.  This is a heavy traffic area so outfitting him with a helmet and reflective gear is a must.  When we told him about our worries of him biking to work, he laughed it off.  He used to drive a motorized scooter in an overcrowded city in Thailand, weaving in and out of traffic with little concern of his personal safety.  He told us we worry too much.  We told him we like him too much and are prone to worry.  We are not backing down on the helmet!

Our group is so relieved that the demands of the W-2 job search are over!  As a team, we put in 146 hours of time in 6 weeks for serious job search.  Out of this effort came 3 interviews (one by phone, two in person with an interpreter) and 2 calls from companies interested in learning more but discovering the English language barrier too great for the job requirement.  Although nothing we did directly landed him a job, we did learn some valuable things for the future.

For example, the people that arranged the interviews, and the ones that called to find out more, all commented on how much they liked his cover letter…

I wrote a cover letter explaining his refugee status, refugee info in general, and our commitment in supporting him through the job process as well as being resource for providing interpreters and being the liaison between employer and employee.  I also included a phonetic spelling/pronunciation of his name.  This resulted in a lot of positive feedback on the letter, but most of all they appreciated how to say his name when they called! 

We had never had the foresight to send out a cover letter of that kind before.  We used to focus solely on skills, and work ethic but nothing on the situation and support behind him/her.  It certainly helped with the online applications and made him stand out among the other candidates.

In the end, however, it was not the 146 hours we provided for the W-2 program, but rather the staffing company that put him into the first job that lasted only one day back in January placed him in his current position.

It does not matter how he got this job, we’re just super happy he has one.  And so is he!

If you’ve read along with our journey, a resettlement case study that I began on July 20, 2009, you know we started with two Karenni families from Burma.

This resettlement project has been a greater challenge for us than most.  With two families, who did often not get along with each other, and therefore quicker burnout of our team, the last couple months have been a greater stuggle than usual.

However, today I am happy to report that in this past week, for the family that has remained in our care in Waukesha, the father has secured employment!  This coming Monday he will go through training for his job.  Then on Friday he’ll begin work, which is a 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. shift three days per week.

Having a job is of crucial importance to self-sufficiency.  Obviously, we want the refugees to pay for their own existence, and contribute to our society, not be a burden upon society. 

Perhaps a little less obvious is the self-esteem gained by the employed, as he is able to contribute to the welfare of his own family.  We have found that more than anything else, the men of the families want jobs.  They don’t want to sit around and have people take care of them.  They want to be the providers for their families.

Once employment is secured, their relationships in their families improve.  Their perspective on society improves.  And, our relationship with the refugee family can start to diminish.

It is at the point of employment that we can first consider that our project may be coming to an end.  Sure, we’ll still have to help out with little things from time to time, but the biggies are behind us.  Housing, medical needs, schooling, shopping, language training, and more, have been handled.  It’s just the job that remains.  And now, for this family, the job is in place!

The family arrived July 21.  The hire date was January 13 and the job will begin January 22.  Six months?  Yes, I think we can call it a success!

(Check back within the next few days.  I’ll post a summary of our time and expenses on this project.)

While unpacking linens that were donated for the family, some napkins were uncovered in the box.  The women in the family were very excited, certainly more excited than we would expect, to see the decorative cloth dinner napkins.  Has it been so long since they’ve had a fine napkin to set on their lap or to wipe their hands?

They quickly started looking for the nicest ones.  Each woman selected her favorite and promptly put her choice on her head.  They also found one for the head of the youngest child.  Oh, now we get the cultural lesson.  The cloth napkins were just the right size for headcovering and much more glamorous than what had been available in a refugee camp.

One of the children had their first medical appointment today.  I won’t go into details because medical information must be kept private.  Let’s just say that it was a difficult process.  The clinic has access to a language line and was able to get a Burmese interpreter.  The mom speaks the Karenni language, not much Burmese.  In the future we’ll have to have the father along to speak to the language line.

After that the entire family went to the public health department for their required TB tests.

And then, a miracle happened.  The telephone was installed today.  I call this a miracle because getting telephone service is often a problem.  What helped simplify the telephone application process this year was that we had a social security number by the time the family moved into the house.  That meant that we didn’t have to jump through some of the usual hoops.

By the end of the day they the telephone number was assigned and the telephone line was working.  This is a great step forward.  It means that if there are any serious issues we can get them on the phone with an interpreter to help move communication forward.  Things are moving forward nicely.

We picked up a copy of the house lease today with the hopes that the family will sign it tomorrow.  Then we can begin to firm up move in plans.

One member of our refugee resettlement team has worked with Burmese refugees for nine years.  She got started at a different church before joining our church and our resettlement team.  Where many of us on the team have worked with refugees from several different countries, she has worked just within the various Burmese communities.  This has helped her tie in quite closely and have several solid relationships.

Here’s some information she put together for our team (thanks Jo) which I have paraphrased:

Nine years ago our community welcomed Burmans from Burma, two years ago we welcomed Karen people from Burma, now we welcome Karenni people from Burma.  These are different ethnic groups with largely the same problems, all related to the repressive military government in Burma.

Examples of the problems include:  religious persecution, human rights abuses, burned out villages, theft of food, and forced labor, among others.

Our newest refugee family is from the Karenni tribe.  Karenni are a break off of the Karen ethnic group.  This break happened many generations, centuries ago.  Since that time they settled in an area of northeastern Burma and have developed their own language.  The Karenni refugees are generally from a refugee camp in northern Thailand.

Tomorrow we will receive two Karenni families from Burma who have been living in a refugee camp in Thailand.  Lutheran Social Services (LSS) has a large number of families arriving over the next few weeks and requested our help.  We have never helped resettle two families simultaneously.  We have never received a family biography just one day before their arrival.

What we do know is that every resettlement experience is different from every other one.  Yet there are certain principles that hold true each time.  We are an experienced team and it looks like we’ll have 12-15 team members to help pull this off.  That’s a good number to help share the load.

I will attempt to capture the major accomplishments and related stories on this blog so that you can see how it works through our example.  At the same time I will be making final edits to my refugee resettlement how-to guide.  Be sure to come back regularly to see our progress.  Also get your name on my mailing list so I can let you know when the book becomes available.