Archive for the ‘rats and roaches’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 28, 2012
If you follow this blog you might remember reading about the experience a volunteer helping refugees from Myanmar had with the Bowling Green International Center. Cindy Florez, who I spoke to and corresponded with in 2009 and 2010, met the refugees in a refugee camp when she was in Thailand and later drove to Bowling Green to welcome them when they arrived for resettlement. There, she found her friends living in filthy, rundown apartments, overrun with massive cockroach infestations – and commented about the problems on a website. Later, bringing the refugees a carload of donated items she was greeted by a hostile landlord (apparently a Burmese individual, and friend of the Institute?) who ordered her off the property, using the police to illegally remove her from the property (tenants may chose who their guests are, not landowners or police). A mystery person in the building also threw M-80 firecrackers at Florez and her female Karenni interpreter.
Now, two years after we placed a request with the State Department’s FOIA office for that public agency’s monitoring inspections reports of the private resettlement agencies for late 2008 and early 2009, the office has finally responded with a few reports. One of those reports is a March 31-April 1, 2009 inspection of the Bowling Green International Center. It turns out that the State Department monitors were able to conduct the rare once-in-5-or-10-year-inspection without discovering any of the problems that Florez documented in writing and on video (monitors did not find any infestation, even though two of the refugee cases they visited reported these). So, what went wrong?
That remains for the State Department monitors to explain, although their office has frequently repeated that they act only as a “partner” to their resettlement contractors. Even with that lack of authority in the oversight relationship I think it still remains for them to explain why they will not investigate any of the individual cases reported by members of the public and the community (instead, they selected only the usual small random sample, four refugee cases in this case, for home visits).
Part of what probably went wrong was an extensive clean-up before the monitors’ arrival, after the community member caught this resettlement contractor providing substandard services. No doubt other problems include the rarity of the monitorings and the great weight given to resettlement contractors’ own written records as “proof” of services they provided.
Finally, I notice that the report states that this refugee resettlement agency “reports a collaborative relationship with the state refugee coordinator” without mentioning that the “state” refugee coordinator is just another private refugee resettlement contractor – Catholic Charities of Louisville.
Posted in Bowling Green, Catholic Charities of Louisville Inc., housing, substandard, International Center in Bowling Green (Western Kentucky Refugee Mutual Assistance Association), Karenni, missed immunizations for refugee students, Office of Admissions, public/private partnership, rats and roaches, State Department, transportation | Tagged: Bowling Green, Catholic Charities of Louisville, International Center, karenni, monitoring, refugees, resettlement, State Department, Western Kentucky Refugee Mutual Assistance Association | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 20, 2012
Last May we read news reports in the Milwaukee media that Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan had placed Burmese refugees in an apartment building overflowing with code violations, roaches, leaking sewage, and owned and operated by a known felon involved in child-porn. A local reporter tried to get some answers from the State Department about their contractor, but answers were not forthcoming.
Now, based on a State Department monitoring report of USCRI’s International Institute of Wisconsin (IIW), it seems that agency was violating almost every State Department contract requirement. Monitors visited the usual small sample (too small?) of three refugee cases and found serious failure of the agency in providing minimal contract-requirements in all three cases. Problems ranged from lack of orientation or help of any type for a refugee family to refugees in substandard housing.
…[A] Burmese family of four lived in an apartment complex…The apartment visited had a smoke detector that did not work; the bathroom had missing ceiling tiles with pipes exposed, mold around the chalk in the bathtub, and evidence of water leakage; there were exposed wires in the hallway; paint was dirty with holes and nails on the wall…
They told monitors they did not receive any orientation from the agency. The caseworker told monitors that orientation was provided but that he had relied on the 17-year-old daughter for translation…This was not documented in the case file…
…[A] single Burmese Karen woman lived in a room in an apartment shared with a Burmese married couple…Her bedroom door did not have a doorknob or lock. She used a bookcase/dresser to block the door at night. The bathroom had a leaky ceiling. There were two broken windows in the living room and in the kitchen. She reported mice infestation in the apartment, and monitors observed mouse droppings in the kitchen pantry… Read more here
By the way, minors should never be used as interpreters.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, community/cultural orientation, Cuban, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, dangerous neighborhoods, home visits, housing, housing, substandard, International Institute of Wisconsin, language, late health screenings, Milwaukee, pocket-money, rats and roaches, State Department, teenagers | Tagged: Milwaukee, refugees, resettlement, substandard housing, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 1, 2011
One of the reporters for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Mark Johnson, asked some pointed questions regarding the refugee scandal in Milwaukee on a recent State Department PRM conference call briefing regarding the domestic end of the US refugee resettlement program. The transcript is at NexisLexis News.
Barbara Day, Domestic Resettlement Chief, Office of Admissions, PRM, State Department, and Ronald Munia, Director of the Division of Community Development, Office of Refugee Resettlement, (ORR), US Dept. of HHS participated in the call.
Q: Thanks very much for holding this conference and for taking — for taking questions. I wanted to ask a question about responsibility. One of the things I’m unclear on is where the buck stops when things go wrong in terms of agencies that bring refugees here and are supposed to be helping them resettle. If they don’t — if they leave them in difficult, bad situations, who makes sure that those agencies are, you know, sort of correcting their procedures?
I mean, does anybody police them?
MS. DAY: Hi, this is Barbara from the State Department. That’s a really great question and one that is a challenge in a lot of communities to answer….
…OPERATOR: Thank you. And our next question comes from Mark Johnson from the Milwaukee Journal. Your line is open.
Q: Hi. Thanks. I just wanted to follow up and maybe be a little bit more specific here. Our paper recently did an article on dozens of refugees who ended up in some really filthy cockroach- infested apartments. And it turns out that there weren’t background checks done on landlords as a matter of policy.
And I wondered: Is that something that’s left up to individual agencies to determine, or are there any federal guidelines that say, you know, when it comes to actually settling refugees, you know, you must perform some sort of, you know, due diligence?
MS. DAY: This is Barbara, (the State Department ?). So in terms of initial placement into housing, we have a list of guidelines that were generated in FY 2002, so they’ve been in place now for almost 10 years. And the definitions of — we have words like “decent,” “safe,” “sanitary,” “affordable.”…
…Q: Did either of you want to answer how often you’ve actually been in the position of recommending corrective action or suspending an agency for not living up to your standards?
MS. DAY: Sure, I’ll talk about that… Read more here
By the way, that question is never answered.
Posted in economic self-sufficiency, housing, substandard, Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Milwaukee, neglect, Office of Admissions, PRM, rats and roaches, secondary migration, refugee, State Department | Tagged: PRM, ORR, State Department, refugee, resettlement, Office of Refugee Resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, Population Refugees and Migration, human rights, monitoring, Office of Admissions, substandard housing, Milwaukee, government contract, Conference Call Briefing, Barabra Day, Ron Munia, Mark Johnson, RONALD MUNIA, DIVISION OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 24, 2011
Don’t think the deplorable conditions under which Australian refugee resettlement contractors are resettling refugees in Newcastle are any different from what keeps happening over here on the other side of the big pond. In Milwaukee journalists just busted Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan for placing Burmese refugees in an apartment building overflowing with code violations, roaches, and leaking sewage, and run by a known child-porn felon. He has been convicted of tax offenses, has a history of serious building-code violations, and is being sued by the city in four different lawsuits – yet Lutheran Social Services claims they have the best interests of the refugees at heart — for sure. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tells more:
Dozens of Burmese refugees who fled persecution in their homeland have landed in recent years in cockroach-infested Milwaukee apartments, some thick with the smell of leaking sewage and almost all unprotected by working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors.
Many of the refugees were placed in the squalid conditions by Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, which acknowledges it never conducted a background check on the complex’s owner, Daniel Bruckner, a Fox Point lawyer.
State and city records reviewed by the Journal Sentinel show Bruckner faces hundreds of city building code violations and four city lawsuits, owes nearly a half-million dollars in delinquent property taxes and has seven felony convictions for importing child pornography.
Lutheran Social Services was unaware of Bruckner’s code violations and legal troubles, said Natascha Malkemes, a spokeswoman for the agency.
“We should know these things,” she conceded, adding,”We have our clients’ best interests at heart for sure.”
On Friday, the agency - which is paid federal dollars to settle refugees - released a statement saying, “The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has recently made our organization aware of litigation against and a criminal record of a landlord we have worked with in the past. Because of this development, Lutheran Social Services will immediately begin looking into ways to put procedures in place to apply background check standards on all of the landlords we work with.”
In addition, the agency pledged to contact the refugees who rent from Bruckner and assist any who wish to move.
Bruckner placed the blame for most of his 443 building-code infractions at Wilson Park Garden Apartments on his tenants, especially the Burmese refugees…
…The U.S. State Department’s standard agreement with social services agencies says refugees should have “decent, safe and sanitary housing” with working smoke detectors, adequate heat and electrical fixtures, and should be “free of rodent and insect infestation” with “no detectable dangerous or unsanitary odors.”
But in interview after interview, refugees living in the apartments on S. 20th St. said they had tried for months without success to get Bruckner to fix failings in these areas…
…The cockroach problems had persisted for months, according to residents, and were evident in numerous visits by reporters to the complex.
At night, bugs came out and bit her children, explained Paw Shee during an interview two weeks ago. Shee, a 36-year-old, lives at the apartment complex with her husband, three children and an army of roaches. Sometimes the bugs crawled over her face, Shee said,
speaking through an interpreter.
When workers finally fumigated apartments on May 5, they did so while adults and young children were inside, according to the residents. Missy Henriksen, a spokeswoman for the National Pest Management Association, said manufacturers usually recommend that a spray be dry before people re-enter a room.
One floor above, Moo Nge, his wife and their five children had one of the few carbon monoxide detectors in the apartments that reporters visited. The detector was installed only after Moo Nge was rushed to the hospital in September with carbon monoxide poisoning, which family members said happened when he was cooking. The hospitalization forced him to miss work, and he lost his temp job.
On the top floor of the same building lives a woman named Mu Mu, 43, her three children and three other family members. Their refrigerator is broken. So is one of the toilets, and there is a gaping hole behind the bathtub faucet.
“We tried to call, but he did not come,” Mu Mu said when asked about the landlord…
…Malkemes acknowledged that her agency had no idea that Bruckner is a convicted felon with a history of serious building-code violations who is being sued by the city in four different lawsuits. She agreed that these issues could affect the safety of the refugees.
When asked about the cockroach infestation at the apartments, Malkemes said by email: “New arrivals come from refugee camps where they had no electricity or running water, and sometimes are not accustomed to general upkeep or how to properly store food. In these camps, refugees are often exposed to insects and this is their everyday (life).”
Non-refugees agree
Although Bruckner and his building manager blamed refugees for the cockroach problem, other tenants who are not refugees also described having infestation problems at Wilson Park Garden Apartments. Moreover, these tenants provided accounts that mirrored other hardships cited by the refugees.
Families described arriving in winter to apartments without heat, going days without working refrigerators and weeks or months without working stoves. The problems the families described are consistent with those cited in inspectors’ reports.
Despite these conditions, the non-refugee tenants were paying as much as $845 a month in rent…Read more here
Let’s see, what could be LIRS’ excuse this time? No doubt it will be the same tired old excuses – their affiliate (subcontractor) didn’t
“know” about the apartments or the slumlord running the place. (Why not? Aren’t they paid to know?) Or, Lutheran Social Services has been growing. Gee, isn’t that the point of having LIRS and its vast experience on hand to advise and oversee its affiliate? And why didn’t the State Department know about this mess? Oh I forgot, LIRS and the other volags are “partners” and are supposed to “self-monitor” their affiliates. Yet once again that method proves disastrous. In the meantime the State Dept. monitors most likely haven’t inspected for years. These refugees would have continued to suffer in these deplorable conditions had journalists not intervened.
Lutheran Social Services claims it “will immediately begin looking into ways to put procedures in place to apply background check standards on all of the landlords we work with”? Yet LIRS has been
resettling refugees for decades and the State Department and
journalists have continually caught them placing refugees into
deplorable slum apartments. Why aren’t background checks the norm at every LIRS affiliate?
Will we see the State Department’s Office of Admissions conduct a timely Australian-style investigation – with an investigation report made immediately available to the public? Don’t count on it. Our national refugee resettlement program seems to be run secretively with the sole purpose of shielding the private refugee resettlement contractor partners and their government oversight friends from any real accountability.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Cooperative Agreement, faith-based, home visits, housing, housing, substandard, Karen, LIRS, Lutheran, Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Milwaukee, openess and transparency in government, rats and roaches, State Department, Wisconsin | Tagged: LIRS, State Department, refugee, Lutheran social services, resettlement, Burma/Myanmar, Myanmar, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, Cooperative Agreement, refugee resettlement agencies, human rights, Karen, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Office of Admissions, substandard housing, slumlord, Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, pedaphile, tax evasion, government contract, porn felon, Wilson Park Garden Apartments | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 16, 2011
It looks as if the Catholic Diocese of Arlington switched from one type of disorganization to another from 2008 to 2010. A new State Department inspection report from 2008 indicates that the agency was placing refugee clients in Fredericksburg in housing with roach infestations, leaking windows and ceilings, and even demanded that a refugee sign an apartment lease without explaining it to her. She refused to sign it. A Burundian refugee father said that he appealed to the agency for six months to help him find a job but only worked about three days cleaning up shops.
Yet, two years later in 2010 local churches and volunteers were observing some very different forms of refugee neglect. Now, the agency was placing refugees in apartments without food or furniture and not giving refugees help with transportation. What is the rhyme and reason to these fluctuations?
If we assume that the State Department inspections — usually as rare as once in ten years — are at all effective, then what does it mean if noting one set of problems, and hopefully addressing them, simply leads to a sprouting of different problems?
One thing I know is that the State Department has no penalties for resettlement agencies’ failure to abide by even the minimum requirements of the government contracts. Could it be that the resettlement agency personnel sulk and pout over any criticism, and then temporarily fix the problems and then slack off on other minimum requirements? The reigning philosophy at many resettlement agencies seems to be that all problems are caused by 1) insufficient government funding (don’t raise the issue of the private funding they are supposed to raise to augment the public funding), 2) they don’t like having to do documentation of the services they claim to give refugees (who does like doing intensive paperwork?), 3) refugees are just so needy, and 4) hey, we just set up a new satellite office, so things won’t run well for a few years (what? refugees won’t even get food and a few used furnishings? why not?).
Whatever is happening, this case shows the limited effectiveness of current oversight in which 1) there are no penalties for failure to abide by contract obligations, 2) inspections are pre-announced, and 3) inspections are so rare that new problems can emerge in as a little as a few months or a year or two and the government inspectors won’t know until they come back ten years later.
It looks like we’re sorely overdue for a revamping of these inspections.
Posted in State Department, Burundian, faith-based, volunteers, employment services, Catholic, fredericksburg, Catholic Diocese of Arlington, churches, food, beds, transportation, community/cultural orientation, housing, substandard, fractious relationships with volunteers, furnishings, lack of, language interpretation/translation, lack of, Iranian, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, rats and roaches | Tagged: Burundian refugees, Catholic Diocese of Arlington, fredericksburg, inspection, Iranian refugees, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department, U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 4, 2011
A refugee client of Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, an affiliate of CWS and EMM, wrote to us today about deficient services at the agency. The refugee reported the following problems:
Here is a 2001 inspection report for Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston (the most recently available inspection report, which means they have not been inspected in quite some time).
Posted in Texas, faith-based, Christian, churches, beds, transportation, community/cultural orientation, housing, substandard, Houston, insufficient assistance with daily tasks, furnishings, lack of, employment/jobs for refugees, late health screenings, housing, rats and roaches, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston | Tagged: Ali Al Sudani, Church World Service, CWS, Elliot Gershenson, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, houston, Interfaith Ministries, refugees, resettlement | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 3, 2011
There is a new State Department monitoring report that we acquired via a FOIA that documents neglect of refugees. The State Department cited the Houston-based refugee resettlement agency, Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, an ECDC affiliate, for “partial-compliance” with their State Department refugee resettlement contract. Findings include:
- The Alliance had placed all three refugee families visited at home by monitors in housing with problems, including serious mold, roach infestation, and a serious plumbing problem that forced an Iraqi refugee family to move.
- A Burundian refugee woman did not know how to use either the stove or a thermostat in her apartment.
- The Burundian family’s second bedroom had no furniture, so the couple’s infant and 2-year-old toddler had to sleep in the parent’s room.
- The Burundian refugee family and a Burmese refugee family reported that the Alliance failed to give them required living-room furnishings, so the families had to garbage-pick sofas and chairs from dumpsters.
- The Alliance did not give refugees pocket-money, as required.
- The Burundian refugee family — with the infant and toddler — reported that the Alliance did not give them food or supplies for their infant upon their arrival as required, and that the Alliance did not use child safety seats when transporting the family to appointments.
- The Burmese refugee family reported that the Alliance did not have interpretation at the airport upon their arrival or during orientation. The Alliance finally hired someone who spoke their Karen dialect over four months after their arrival.
- Orientation to health care services in the area appeared to be incomplete, as both the Burundian and Burmese families expressed anxiety over their children’s medical needs and uncertainty about how to handle emergencies.
- The Burundian and Burmese families expressed anxiety over their prospects for self-sufficiency.
- The Alliance did not provide any structured training plan to new employees, as required.
- Refugee client case note logs contained minimal information, and often failed to record home visits. Monitors were often unable to verify that the Alliance provided refugee clients with the minimum-required services of the State Department refugee contracts (see contract documents – the Cooperative Agreement and Operational Guidance).
- Monitors noted Insect infestation in one or more refugee apartments.
- Monitors noted that the Alliance did not give some refugee(s) a ready-to eat meal upon arrival after long intercontinental flights, as required.
Then there are these comments about the Alliance from 2010. Note that three years after this State Department monitoring the Alliance is still putting refugees in substandard housing, etc.
So, in other words, the State Department noticed all these problems and three years later many of the problems have not ceased. What does that tell us about the effectiveness of the State Department monitoring trips? The State Department does not use any penalties for resettlement agencies’ they find in “non-compliance” or “partial-compliance” with the so-called minimum requirements of the State Department refugee contracts. Resettlement agencies don’t have to give back any of the government contract money they received for agreeing to provide minimum services and then not providing them.
Posted in Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, beds, Burma/Myanmar, Burundian, children, Cooperative Agreement, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, ECDC, food, furnishings, lack of, health, home visits, housing, housing, substandard, Houston, Iraqi, Karen, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of, meeting refugees at the airport, Operational Guidance, pocket-money, rats and roaches, State Department, Texas, transportation | Tagged: Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Burmese refugees, Burundian refugees, ECDC, Ethiopian Community Development Council, houston, human rights, Iraqi refugees, Karen refugees, Kassahun Bisrat, refugee neglect, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 27, 2011
The State Department finally released another inspection report of YMCA International Services, a Houston USCRI affiliate, three years after we submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. I blogged about this case last June.
This report is from January 2008 and reports that YMCA International Services was “non-complaint” with most of the terms of its government refugee contract. That’s a nice way to say “contractual fraud” and “neglect and abuse of refugees”.
Here are some of the highlights of the report:
- All refugee homes inspected had significant roach and/or mice infestation.
- Refugees and YMCA expressed concern about safety of refugee apartment complexes. Refugee families at the Glendale Park Apartments complex reported that people were harassing them on their way to the supermarket and their children were getting into fights on the bus (being attacked?).
- YMCA did not give refugees ready-to-eat food upon arrival.
- Records were in complete disarray.
- Home visits to refugees were almost never documented.
- A Cuban refugee couple only had a bed with one small, thin blanket, a plastic folding table, and two folding chairs. The bed was extremely uncomfortable, if not unsafe, with protruding mattress springs. The family waited over 45 minutes at the airport for the YMCA case worker to arrive, who did not speak their language. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation using hand signals. The couple did not feel safe in the apartment complex. They had heard of local robberies and the police had come to their door warning them to.use caution in the parking lot. YMCA took 3½ months to give the family community and cultural orientation.
- Upon arrival YMCA gave an Iraqi refugee couple with a small child only one bed (no bed for the child) with one small, thin blanket, a plastic folding table, and two folding chairs. The bed was extremely uncomfortable, if not unsafe, with protruding mattress springs. The YMCA employee who picked them up at the airport did not speak their language. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation in English. The couple did not feel safe in the apartment complex as they had heard of local robberies and the police had come to their door warning them to
use caution in the parking lot. YMCA took 3½ months to give the family community and cultural orientation. There was no ready-to-eat food upon arrival. The family used money they brought from Iraq to buy food until they received their food stamps. Neighbors told them the apartment complex was “risky” and they wanted to move. The family received an electrical bill that began one month before they arrived, but YMCA told them they must pay it. No one from YMCA visited the family until three months after their arrival, and YMCA did not give them a community orientation so they did not even know how to use the bus system.
- YMCA placed a Burmese refugee family that arrived in December in an apartment that had a large hole in a ground-floor bedroom window, and the management still had not repaired it two weeks later. The bed YMCA gave them was so uncomfortable that they slept on the floor. No one from YMCA spoke their language at the airport. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation in English and hand signals. It was two months before someone from YMCA visited them at home.
- YMCA placed a Burundian refugee couple in an apartment complex surrounded by barbed wire. The only furniture upon arrival was four plastic folding chairs and five beds. For their first two months the family ate their meals on the floor. They pulled couches from the trash. No one from YMCA spoke their language at the airport. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation using hand signals. The family needed clothes but YMCA did not offer to help them.
- YMCA caseworkers were enthusiastic! Yipeeee!
- The State Department monitors had to order YMCA to check all fiscal year 2007 refugee cases and compensate refugees for all missing money.
- YMCA fired the Refugee Program Director, Gabriel Gebray, yet allowed the agency’s Executive Director, Jeff Watkins, to keep his job. He apparently got off scott-free.
Here is a question: if an Executive Director of an organization claimed he had no idea how his refugee clients were being neglected, what does that tell you about his performance? Don’t Executive Directors ever look at the records or talk to refugee clients?
I know ignorance is bliss but is it an excuse to not be accountable?
Posted in beds, Burma/Myanmar, Burundian, clothes, community/cultural orientation, Cuban, dangerous neighborhoods, food, furnishings, lack of, home visits, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, substandard, Houston, Iraqi, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of, meeting refugees at the airport, rats and roaches, safety, State Department, USCRI, YMCA International Services | Tagged: Gabriel Gebray, houston, Jeff Watkins, refugee neglect, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI, YMCA International Services | 3 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 21, 2010
In the black and white thinking of refugee officials even a rat biting a baby can’t be as bad as the circumstances from which refugees have escaped. Would you rather have the refugee family die back in a refugee camp? An article in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette tells how a rat bit a Burmese refugee baby in an apartment. If only the refugees had complained about the rats, but its an acclimation problem you see. But isn’t that why we have refugee resettlement agencies to help refugees with these tasks?
…A report that a toddler had been bitten by a mouse or rat would cause most Americans fear and outrage.
When Dr. Charles Coats – who treated 19-month-old Sage Dar for the bite – learned what had caused it, he was incensed.
“You just don’t hear about rats or mice in the United States attacking babies,” Coats said. “You should never have to worry about your baby being bitten in your own home.”…
…Be Ki, Sage Dar’s mother, lives in Autumn Woods Apartments on the city’s far southeast side with her three children, while her husband works in Illinois. She speaks no English.
…She said that as the complex’s clientele became largely Burmese three years ago, it has been an educational experience for everyone. Recent immigrants have had to learn how to make their way in a bewildering new society, and management has had to learn about which issues it needs to watch because of tenants’ lack of familiarity. For example, plumbing that you cannot pour cooking grease into…
…“You don’t want to take their culture away from (immigrants), but we do try to help acclimate them,” she said. “There’s a lot behind the scenes we try to do. We’re like social workers and landlords here.”…
…Washington said it’s important to remember that issues that arise are not a “Burmese problem,” but simply an acclimation problem. Anyone would have difficulty fitting in to a new culture, and everyone involved needs to learn as they go. Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, children, cultural adjustment, Fort Wayne, housing, housing, substandard, rats and roaches, safety | Tagged: Burmese refugees, fort wayne, rat bites baby, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
