Refugee Economic Independence Project

- by Jon Devin

Imagine that today is your first day in the United States. You got off a plane with your seven children, the clothes on your back, no money, and no knowledge of the English language whatsoever. According to Ruth Lomo, founder of the Refugee Economic Independence Project (REIP), you would still have a very long road ahead of you while seeking basic needs and acclimation to life in a new country. So she and her small band of REIP volunteers are working to turn disaster into the American Dream.

REIP (pronounced “reap”) is a program of the United Methodist Neighborhood Centers, whose offices occupy a crowded building at the corner of Walnut Grove and Tillman. Lomo, a native of Sudan, says she could have used REIP’s help when she first moved with her children to the United States.

She wants people to understand the circumstances under which refugees in her program come to the United States. Immigration has become a hot topic in recent months, sparking controversial legislation aimed at those entering the country. But Lomo’s families enter legally, not by running across a border or being smuggled in the back of a truck. Through a lengthy and complex transitional process, families from Africa and sometimes the Middle East can get assistance for legally entering the United States.

Lomo explains that refugees usually flee their native countries during the violent, political fallout of such conflicts as the tribal massacres in Rwanda, or the ethnic-cleansing campaigns in Darfur. They settle into relative limbo in overcrowded refugee camps in more peaceful nations while case workers from the United Nations try and search for solutions. If the refugees can be safely returned to their native country, that is preferred, but for most that is not an option.

After a period 5 to 7 years, if the refugees have not been able to return home, they may be screened to apply for asylum in the embassies of wealthier nations like the United States, Canada, and Austrailia. They meet with lawyers who either accept them or deny them, in which case they must start again with another embassy. If accepted, these lawyers choose the cities which become the refugees’ final destinations.

Next, Catholic Charities and other nonprofit groups provide a travel loan and startup money for housing in the United States and case managers begin helping the refugees find jobs. It is intended that a refugee family would begin to pay back their travel expenses, in the neighborhood of $8,000 to $10,000, after 6 months to a year.

Glancing over her shoulder at a room full of young children, Lomo says it is never that simple.

A former refugee herself, Lomo says she was one of the lucky ones because she had been to school before and actually knew a little English when she arrived in Memphis in 2001. She had spent 6 years in a refugee camp in Kenya previously.

First, she explains, refugees must learn the language, and that comes with challenges at any age. Adults are not likely to be hired into high-paying jobs with no English skills, so they generally end up in labor jobs making minimum wages.

School-age children are assigned to grade levels according to their ages, not by their abilities, so in many cases, youths who cannot read find themselves in literature and algebra classes.

“So many of these children were born in the refugee camps,” Lomo says. “They have never been in a class before, and at home, the parents cannot help them.”

While some public schools offer English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, others do not. Lomo has had to do her share of translating for refugee families who speak Swahili, her native language.

“Thank God the children seem to learn very fast, but still they struggle,” she said.

Even when ESL classes are readily available for the adults though, childcare is usually not. Lomo says that REIP does offer childcare and transportation, another major challenge, so that parents can study English.

Cam Echols, REIP’s program director, says that they need more volunteers to teach English. Echols, a graduate of Rhodes College, has been instrumental in lining up groups of students from her alma mater to teach, as well as youth groups from Second Presbyterian Church. Right now, college students provide the bulk of their teaching support.

Lomo wants to broaden their use of volunteers by finding volunteer coordinators, and asking teachers to commit to regular shifts. And of course, the more volunteers they have, the more refugees they can serve. She and Echols hope that people will find it in their hearts to give refugees a chance to make it on their own.

“Bring it back to yourself,” says Lomo. “If you show up in China with your children, what will you do? This is how it is.”

For her clients, it’s a daunting challenge, but you’ve got to start somewhere. If you would like to help out, call Cam Echols at (901) 258-9758.