.

.

.

June 16, 2010

Mr. Eskinder Negash, Director                                                                                              Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)                                                                                  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services   

Re: ORR State letter #10-09

Sir,

Since I doubt that you’ll answer my correspondence I chose to ask you a couple of questions in open format to be published in a web site for you and other stakeholders.

1) Let me correct you regarding the refugee population that are survivors of torture, challenged, and/or victims of sexual assault. Out of the total US refugee admissions numbers it is a low percentage of the total that make up this category. An adequate service is important for this vulnerable group of people and I know in my heart sincerely as a person who faced the same horror of trauma some 36 years ago, the importance of good service for this group of refugees. When you write that the numbers are “many” it is my opinion that you are looking for sympathy to ask Congress for more money, which these sufferers may not see the services or a dime intended to go to their treatment. Whether you believe it or not I have worked with traumatized people, although in less number per year for the last 20 years while ORR and SAMSHA  (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) are channeling funds to large organizations, mainly for CEO and key staff salaries.

2) You have asked for a re-igniting of the enthusiasm of refugee resettlement service providers and the public, and the establishment of good will. The American spirit is generous and giving. In order to re-ignite our faith in ORR do the RIGHT THING! a) Although your general funding is less than many federal agencies, do not give grants 99.99% of the time for the same agencies in the name of responsible proposals. Examine the number of clients served and whether those projects are ever implemented. Include acceptable CEO proposal pay relative to the economic conditions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               b) Although it is difficult to be independent for you, do not cover the million lies of outside proposal reviewers. There are pitfalls in refugee service if outside evaluators are allowed. One person can hire an expert and can win millions. You also have to have on-site evaluations and visits for the benefit of refugees.  c) Stop VOLAG rip-off funds for capacity building and healthy marriage which are just for sophisticated enrichment. d) Call for a genuine reform, which will teach American values to refugees by example.  e) Work for a law that gives severe penalties for agencies who abuse refugees and enrich themselves.

3) Newly Arriving Refugees: Let us say you place refugees, find a house and a job. What are you going to do after the first 8 months and the first year? Since social adjustment is an ongoing process it is inevitable that they come to organizations such as ours, AMAAM (African Mutual Assistance Association of Missouri), which has now become a volunteer agency – 8 volunteers plus two of our staff making only $400 per month each.

4) What prevents you from acknowledging the contribution of refugee/immigrant anchor communities and existing non-ORR funded refugee infrastructures? Many refugees, when resettlement does not work for them, go to their ethnic shops, restaurants and clubs. There they get the knowledge of survival and skills equal to a thousand encyclopedias. These are not brochures of translated materials and endless job fairs or orientations which you fund via your affiliates for millions of dollars. These are practical and down to earth sets of knowledge that are transmitted free. You have not mentioned the issue of anchor community coordination. If you had done that I would have been very happy.

5) The reform of ORR has to be done in a mufti-pronged approach. It also must be done in a transparent method. It has to balance refugee service cost with reasonable CEO pay. The voluntary agencies and the State Department must be partners to improve human rights all over the world. The interests of voluntary agencies and the State Department must focus on stopping conflicts and displacements so that durable solutions are found for refugees, especially in Africa. Resettlement and migration should also look at the issue of brain drain. The less educated people a poor country has the more exposure it has to extremism. Such a case may not be true all the time but brain drain is related to the national security of the US. This does not mean that learned people should be left alone to be persecuted, but there has to be coordination between refugee resettlement and the danger of further brain drain from vulnerable countries.

Sir, I will continue to advocate for the most vulnerable. That is my vocation without fear or favor. I called your office and emailed you personally to work with you. I cannot write untrue things in this letter which I cannot defend. I cannot tell you how sad I had been each time your office rejected my application to help refugees who are in our area more than one year and refugees who are secondary migrants. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when ORR and ECDC created conflicting MAAs in St. Louis in 2000. Stop some VOLAGS using unsuspecting new arrivals to scheme funds. That is un-American and it is gambling on compassion. The more I saw and examined ORR’s inner workings and policies I realized it is inevitable that Congress is going to examine most of ORR policies and reform it. Before that I ask you for your reflection on changing the old ways of doing things. You might have been in refugee camp before you came to the US, I am guessing, therefore my strong advice to you is to travel the US and listen to as many different opinions as you can. Be independent of the established voluntary agencies and hear the real complaints of refugees. Every voluntary agency is established for a good cause, yet as the money pot increased many people diverted their path chasing the grant trail. Come also visit us in St. Louis, and if I do not have much as an unemployed volunteer director, I still have enough change to treat you at Burger King.

Refugees are the best capacity builders. They can feed seven people for five dollars. They contribute for the cost of funerals. They come together in time of weddings and holidays. They only need a little local free help to organize. Asking refugees to help is like asking help from the American people during the time of local disasters. They do not need a 1 million dollar grant for building the capacity of their communities.

By the way, get rid of that healthy marriage and capacity building contract. You cannot make marriage among refugees by counseling through modern psychology only. There are many factors among newcomers. Do you know there is a high percentage of wife killing and violence against women among the North African refugee population?

Sir, you have to listen to your critics. Of course you are new to the post, but ORR has a strong tradition, via your predecessors, of suppressing ideas with a BIG FOOT. It punishes and rewards grantees based on compliance. Let me give you an example. Many years ago I was nominated to advise ORR. Your agency picked three people, among them was Nikki Tesfai, who defrauded your agency and other state agencies in California. The organization she founded and ran was an ECDC affiliate that was heavily promoted by ORR bureaucrats. ORR had funded her for years through ECDC. ORR never posted a public apology or its own investigation. She was among ORR’s favorite people who wrote expert proposals and defrauded tax payers’ money. You can see her story by Google search. I have attached two articles with this comment. ORR has a lot of explaining to do regarding Nikki as we celebrate the Refugee Act of 1980. When ORR was promoting and funding Nikki through the Africa refugee network of ECDC I was struggling to keep up with the salaries of just four people. You must find a better way of judging proposals and addressing funding disparities. When I ask why do the same people always win ORR grants I think of elections in dictatorial regimes like Zimbabwe and Iraq from where refugees flee.

Thank you for reading this comment.

Gedlu Metaferia                                                                                                   AMAAM                                                                                                                               (314) 732-3350

Is the Saint of South LA for real?, LA Weekly 

Refugee agency founder held, Los Angeles Times