St Mary's Refugee Update

From Rena Counsellor

St. Mary’s refugee committee began in 2015 in response to the global refugee crisis.  We joined with 4 other churches on the main line and raised $30,000 and had 100 volunteers initially.  Our goal was to resettle refugees, one family at a time, in partnership with Nationalities Services Center in Philadelphia. NSC received refugee cases that had been vetted by the US State Department and matched them with sponsoring churches.

 In November 2016, we received our first family of 4 from the Congo and rented them an apartment in Wayne.  In addition to housing, volunteers provided assistance with employment, education, health care, transportation, acclimation, ESL and temporary financial support.

That first family consisted of Ernest, Denise, their 5 year old daughter Faith and teenage orphan named Samuel.  Ernest, Denise and Samuel had all witnessed their families be gunned down by warring militias.  The update:  Ernest and Denise moved to Washington state where they had friends and where minimum wage is much higher.  Ernest now works as a chef for the employee dining room at Facebook and Denise is finishing up her cosmetology license.  She works part-time in a salon.  The family now has 3 children, ages 13, 7 and 3 and is completely self sufficient.  Denise now has U.S. citizenship, as do the children.  Ernest has a green card and is still waiting for citizenship which he is told will be in December.

Samuel, who had stayed with Father Joseph when Ernest and Denise moved to Washington so that he could graduate from Radnor High School, moved to Michigan to be with friends when Joseph and Sharon Smith moved to South Carolina.  He had an online business at the time I last heard from him.  He had received his green card and then lost it when his wallet was stolen while living with the Smiths.  I was unable to get in contact with him and have no further update at this time on him or his status.

Arman Nawin, our second refugee arrived at age 19 from Afghanistan after escaping from being kidnapped and held by the Taliban.   He lived with a committee member, graduated from Radnor High School, and put himself through a CDL tractor trailer course following graduation and received his license to be a tractor trailer driver.  He is now 26  and owns 3 and a half trucks, and employs 2 Somalian immigrants full-time.  Arman lives near Memphis in Cordova, Tennessee where he volunteers at a local refugee resettlement agency and recently got married.  Arman is putting his wife through college where she’s studying business administration.  Within two years, Arman plans to be able to run his company without having to drive, so he can be home with his family, and plans to then get a college degree.

Aissata, our 3rd refugee, came here from Guinea on a visitor’s visa with her 2 year old daughter and pregnant with her second daughter.  Aissata was forced by her family to marry a much older man.  She was also the victim of female mutilation as a 5 year old child and fled Guinea when she learned that plans were being made by elders in the community to do the same to her daughter.  She applied for asylum in the U.S. and was supported by our committee in partnership with the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church’s refugee committee for 9 months until she was legally permitted to work.  She worked at an Ardmore daycare for several years and eventually won her asylum case.  She now has her green card and must wait 4 more years to be eligible to apply for US citizenship.   She completed a course through Delaware County College last summer and received her medical assistant certificate.  Six months ago she moved to Washington DC where a friend offered her free housing.  She works part-time as an assistant to the nurse at her children’s elementary school while simultaneously being enrolled at a community college to become a registered nurse.

Limber, our 4th refugee, came to the U.S. as an undocumented minor from Honduras after being abandoned by his parents and threatened by local gangs.  After being detained at the U.S. – Mexican border he was released by immigration to a brother already living in the U.S.  He has a special juvenile visa and is still awaiting a green card.  He lived with a committee member while attending Radnor High School, which he graduated.  He now supports himself by working for a local arborist and has an apartment in Lansdowne.  He has been self-sufficient since graduating high school in 2021.

Fitrat was our last refugee.  He and his sister Marwa and her two young children arrived from Afghanistan in 2021 by way of the large U.S. airlift of refugees from Afghanistan.  Fitrat was 18 and attended 1 year at Radnor High School where he graduated in 2022 and went to work for the Radnor Hotel for 1 year.  He subsequently moved to Alexandria, Virginia where he had friends from Afghanistan and works as a restaurant manager.  He was granted asylum and is in the process of applying for his green card.  Three weeks ago he married his girlfriend.  She is a Moroccan immigrant who is a manager at Walmart.

Marwa, his older sister, was married before arriving in the U.S.  Her husband had arranged for her to move to Sacramento, CA with her children (a 4th is now on the way).  He recently passed away in a drowning accident in the American River where the family was picnicking.  He had jumped in to save his 5 year old son who was being washed downstream.  Their son was saved by another onlooker, but Marwa’s husband died.  I am unclear about her and her children’s current immigration status. Marwa works part-time at a grocery store and is experiencing extreme financial hardship since the death of her husband.