Archive for the ‘Philadelphia’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 26, 2012
In 2010, about 3,500 lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) refugees were resettled in the U.S. – including about 125 in Pennsylvania – and about 1,000 LGBT asylum seekers are also entering the country.Most LGBT people who come here as refugees or seeking asylum don’t identify as LGBT, making sensitive resettlement services trickier to apply. In Philadelphia the Nationalities Service Center is resettling some of these refugees. An article in the Philadelphia Daily News explains:
…refugees classified as lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) [are being] resettled in Philadelphia by the Nationalities Service Center, the city’s largest refugee-resettlement agency…
…Until recent years, LGBT refugees in the U.S. were more likely to identify their persecution as ethnic, religious or political, said Juliane Ramic, the NSC’s director of social services.
On Dec. 6, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum directing the first-ever U.S. government strategy dedicated to combating human-rights abuses against LGBT people abroad. On the same day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke in Geneva about the need to protect LGBT people. “In many ways, they are an invisible minority,” she said. “They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed.”
The NSC in Philadelphia, along with representatives from the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, conducted training to help ensure that refugee-resettlement agencies and other service providers understand the vulnerabilities of LGBT refugees and asylees before, during and after resettlement.
Because most LGBT people who come here as refugees or seeking asylum don’t identify as LGBT, reliable statistics on their numbers are hard to come by. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does not identify or track LGBT refugees, and information on sexual orientation or gender identity rarely is reflected in refugees’ files, according to the Heartland Alliance.
In 2010, about 3,500 LGBT refugees were resettled in the U.S. – including about 125 in Pennsylvania – and about 1,000 LGBT asylum seekers entered the country, the Heartland Alliance estimates… Read more here
Posted in Heartland Alliance, LGBT refugees, Nationalities Service Center, Obama administration, Philadelphia | Tagged: gay, glbt, lesbian, lgbt, lgbti, Nationalities Service Center, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, transgendered | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 19, 2012
Last month attorney Zoe Ann Olson at Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. told us about her efforts to help refugees in Idaho whom resettlement agencies had damaged their credit ratings via reporting them to Trans-Union. Now comes word that the State Department is planning the significant changes to the refugee Travel Loan Program. Beginning in October, those refugees owing the most money will see their monthly payments capped according to a formula that the State Department has not yet finalized. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer has the details:
…In the land of the free, [refugees] are instant debtors.
Depending on the size of the family and how far the plane traveled, the bill can exceed $10,000, a sum beyond what many refugees would make in a lifetime back home.
They must begin reimbursing the federal government after five months, and pay in full within 42 months. They are warned that credit bureaus are kept apprised of their punctuality, or lack of it.
“Our goal is not to care for them in . . . perpetual victimhood,” said David Robinson, acting assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration, which oversees the program. Loans tell them “it’s not a one-way street.”
Refugee advocates, who give orientations on financial literacy even before the displaced leave the camps, agree the program teaches a critical lesson in responsible borrowing. But criticism has mounted that it also imposes too heavy a burden on families already weighed down by multiple disadvantages.
So the State Department is planning the first significant changes to the Travel Loan Program in its 32-year history. Beginning in October, those owing the most money will see their monthly payments capped according to a formula still under review.
The change will make the program “more equitable,” Robinson said. “In some cases, individually, the burden may [have been] too high.”
Of the 28 nations that take in refugees, the United States accepts the vast majority – 57,000 out of a total of about 80,000 last year, from more than 60 countries. But only the United States and Canada require repayment. Canada charges interest; America does not.
The federal government paid nearly $43 million in airfares last year, and so far has collected $1.7 million.
Data released to The Inquirer last week by the International Organization for Migration, the intergovernmental group that dispenses the travel money, show that almost half the loans since 2002 – 45 percent – were not repaid during the prescribed 42 months. About 25 percent, or one in four families, is delinquent by 180 days or more.
“We don’t want anybody to fall into [delinquency],” Robinson said, “but we know people do.”…
…The pot shrinks automatically because the 10 nongovernmental agencies that collect the loans keep 25 percent for operating costs.
The travel-loan program’s administrators say it bends over backward to work out repayment plans and never seeks liens for failure to pay. About $14 million – three percent of the total outlay since 2002 – was forgiven because of a death in the family, disability, or other hardship… Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Philadelphia, Travel Loan Program | Tagged: International Organization for Migration, IOM, refugees, State Department, Travel Loan, travel loan program | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 9, 2011
An in-depth article on the events surrounding the December 2009 attack on dozens of Asian refugee children at a south Philadelphia school, that resulted in 13 refugee children taken to the emergency room, reveals the extent that teachers, the principle, security guards and other staff were present and unresponsive as the attacks occurred. Refugee students report that the principle disappeared while walking children home just before vicious beatings took place. Teachers and cafeteria staff called the students “Yo Dragonball” or “Yo Chinese” and even mocked their accents. The School District of Philadelphia also apparently has an ongoing pattern of unresponsiveness to reports of students bullying refugee students, despite an early 2011 settlement with the Justice Department.
The article also points to relatively large number of refugees from Burma/Myanmar that the State Department resettled in a relatively short period, which the school district was not ready to accommodate. These are some of the considerations the State Department needs to make when reading glowing annual resettlement proposals from their private resettlement contractors
We should not underestimate the catastrophic long-term damage to refugees resulting from these brutalities during their formative years. The article points out that bullying can lead to a lifetime of low self-worth, suicide attempt or depression, and that doesn’t even consider the trauma, tumult and deprivation that refugee have already endured before their resettlement. Hyphen Magazine magazine published this article:
On a cold December day in 2009, just weeks before Christmas, 15-year-old Trang Dang was walking home from school with her sister and eight friends, all recent Vietnamese immigrants. Also part of their group: the principal of their school.
Dang, who is 5’9” with a medium build and a dimpled, contagious smile, asked the principal to accompany them because she and the others were terrified by the intense bullying and violence against Asian students that had taken place earlier that day at their school, South Philadelphia High School. Midway through the walk, the principal, LaGreta Brown, disappeared, Dang said. “She walked to the corner with us and then we didn’t see her anymore,” Dang said. They debated whether to stay or continue walking. “Our friends said if we stand here, we’ll get in trouble,” Dang said. So they opted to try to make it home that day on their own.
They never did.
About half a block from school, a mob of at least two dozen students started chasing them. Dang was the first to be caught. She was punched in the face, shattering her glasses. “It was a quick hit and then they ran,” she said. “After I got hit, then my mind just went blank. I was crying. It wasn’t that painful, I think, but I don’t really remember. I think because I’ve tried to forget about that day.” The entire group was cornered, and all were hit. Dang still doesn’t know for sure why the principal seemingly left the group…
…The entire day, roving gangs of high schoolers searched for and attacked Asian teenagers in a nightmarish ordeal. Most of the attacks took place on the premises of this poor school in south Philadelphia while teachers, security guards and other staff were present.
In total, at least 26 Asian immigrant students were physically assaulted in a series of violent conflicts. Thirteen Asian students ended up in the emergency room for injuries ranging from a broken nose to black eyes. One had to have surgery because he could no longer breathe through his nose…
…Some speculate that the ethnic tensions at the school can be attributed to lack of adult intervention, adults modeling bad behavior such as racially charged name calling, stereotypes and an influx of Asian students in a relatively short time period without the school or district adequately addressing the changes…
…In the last five years, there were 534 documented assaults at the school, more than any other in the district…
…In some cases, bullying can lead to thoughts of suicide, according to Eliza Noh, an Asian American studies professor at California State University, Fullerton, who has studied suicide among Asian Americans. “Some Asian American women I interviewed reported being victims of racist bullying when they were young, contributing to their low self-worth, suicide attempt or depression later in life,” Noh said. Liu pointed out bullying victims are essentially trauma victims who experience post-traumatic stress disorder similar to war veterans. He warned that young people may experience psychosomatic symptoms like feeling ill, as well as hypervigilance, heightened startled responses, depression and social withdrawal… Read more here
Posted in abuse, Burma/Myanmar, capacity, children, dangerous neighborhoods, Dept. of Justice, FBI, mental health, Philadelphia, safety, schools, State Department, teenagers | Tagged: Asian, bullying, Burmese, children, Myanmar, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, South Philadelphia High School, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 1, 2011
As if the difficulties for refugees in adjusting to a new culture weren’t hard enough – while dealing with the heavy emotional baggage that stems from loss of family, loss of home, and extended periods in refugee camps – the US refugee resettlement program continues to place many of them in crime-ridden neighborhoods where the refugees fear for their lives. Thus, exacerbating mental health conditions (I have lobbied with the State Department for change in this issue since 2001 – see a 2005 letter). Philadelphia is one of the problem resettlement sites. An article in NewsWorks has the story:
War, torture, loss of family and friends–refugees arriving in the United States often carry heavy emotional baggage. Then they endure the strains of adjusting to a new culture. Agencies working with refugees new to Philadelphia are puzzling out how to help this population cope with its burdens…
…Refugees may have experienced loss of family, loss of home, arduous flight, extended periods in refugee camps, and then all of the challenges around readjustment.
For Khin Khin, who is from Burma, the readjustment struggles began right away. She fled to the U.S. with her husband, who was persecuted in Burma for his political activities. Arriving in Philadelphia, a service agency set her family up in a temporary apartment in a very bad neighborhood. “I know that America is not heaven, but we think that we can live very safely, but my husband when we first arrived, he was robbed,” recalled Khin Khin. “He was so scared to call the police because that guy said, ‘if you call the police I will kill you’, so he is so scared.”
Khin Khin remembers hearing gunfire all the time. She felt isolated, since no other Burmese families lived nearby. She had a sick infant, who required several surgies. At times, stress, anxiety and worry were and still are overwhelming. During a recent physical, she says her doctors recommended counseling. Khin Khin says she was told to share her feelings with a therapist, but she doesn’t want to do that because she is too shy… Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, cultural adjustment, dangerous neighborhoods, Lutheran Children and Family Service (Philadelphia), mental health, Philadelphia, reform, safety, State Department | Tagged: Burma, crime, dangerous neighborhoods, mental health, Myanmar, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, State Department, U.S. Department of State | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 21, 2011
Once again a school in Philadelphia is the subject of a case involving a refugee child beaten so badly that he had to go to a hospital. A year ago 30 Asian refugee children went to the hospital after just one bullying incident. Now, a Liberian refugee father claims that his pleas to a teacher and principal about the regular beatings of his 6-year-old son brought no relief, and that a phone call and later letter to the district superintendent also got no
response. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer explains the story:
At first, Gbahtuo Comgbaye, a West African immigrant, was more puzzled than worried when his 6-year-old son started coming home from school with bruises on his chest and neck.
His concern turned to alarm on a mid-September morning as he helped his child, Menduawor, get dressed for the day. The boy tearfully asked, “If my friends beat me up, and hurt me, and wanted to kill me, would you do something about it?”
The story that emerged: Menduawor, a slight, soft-spoken boy, was being routinely beaten by three bigger first-grade classmates at Patterson School in Southwest Philadelphia. They told him, “We don’t like your name.”…
…Comgbaye described his growing horror as his son came home from school bruised and shaken day after day. He said that his pleas to the teacher and principal brought no relief and that a phone call and subsequent letter to the district superintendent got no response.
At the end of September, the boy was beaten so severely that his mother took him to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Hospital records show Menduawor was treated for chest and abdominal injuries, which physician Sarah Wood wrote were caused by blows from a person or object...Read more here
Posted in abuse, children, dangerous neighborhoods, Liberian, Philadelphia, safety, school for refugee children, schools | Tagged: accountability, bullying, human rights, Liberian, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, schools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 1, 2011
Karnamaya Mongar with her husband, Ash -- credit-AP
A reader wrote that I was an “idiot” for not posting about the barbaric conditions at an abortion clinic in Philadelphia, where a Nepali-Bhutanese refugee died in 2009. The clinic’s Dr. Kermit Gosnell has also been charged with murdering seven infants with scissors. Initially I didn’t think this was directly related to refugee resettlement, but the latest article points out the lack of action by government oversight agencies, which is also one of the main problems we have in the refugee resettlement program.
An article in the New York Times details the failure of government officials to take any action after two deaths and more than a dozen malpractice cases at the abortion clinic. The state Health Department ignored the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a Bhutanese refugee, with the department’s chief counsel, Christine Dutton, defending the agency’s actions by stating bluntly, “People die.”…
PHILADELPHIA — For years, state health officials missed some unsettling patterns at the three-story brick abortion clinic on Lancaster Avenue.
It was always open late, way past the time the pizza place next door closed at midnight. The women who emerged from it — often poor blacks and Hispanics — appeared dazed and in pain, and sometimes left in ambulances. The doctor who ran the clinic, Kermit Gosnell, had been sued at least 15 times for malpractice. Two women died while under his care.
But the dangerous practices went unnoticed, except by the women who experienced them. They were discovered entirely by accident, during a prescription drug raid by federal agents last February.
The clinic — now closed, with dead plants in its windows and old mail on its front desk — stands as a grim reminder of how degrading it was for the women who went there and how long state officials ignored their complaints.
On Wednesday, the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, indicted Dr. Gosnell on eight counts of murder in the deaths of seven infants and a Bhutanese refugee who died after a late-term abortion in 2009.
A grand jury report issued on the same day offered its own theory on why so little happened for so long.
“We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color,” the report said, “and because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion.”
Kevin Harley, a spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett, said Friday that the governor “was appalled at the inaction on the part of the Health Department and the Department of State,” the two agencies that were responsible for overseeing the clinic...
…Complaints against Dr. Gosnell date back to 1983, according to the grand jury report, but none moved state regulators to action. Some malpractice suits produced settlements that were paid by Dr. Gosnell’s insurance company, including nearly $1 million paid to the family of Semika Shaw, a 22-year-old mother of two who died from an infection in 2002 after an abortion at the clinic.
The report details a sweeping pattern of negligence, with no inspector stepping foot inside the clinic for more than 16 years. Even the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a Bhutanese refugee who died after a procedure in 2009, was ignored.
Janice Staloski, a Health Department official, declined to investigate the death, saying the department had no authority to do so, the report said. The department’s chief counsel, Christine Dutton, defended the agency’s actions to the grand jury, stating bluntly, “People die.”… Read more here
Unfortunately, that sounds like the same type of attitude we see from government refugee resettlement oversight agencies all the time.
**UPDATE** Feb. 15, 2011, Pa. governor fires workers after abortion scandal
Posted in health, Nepali Bhutanese, Philadelphia, safety | Tagged: abortion, abortion clinic on Lancaster Avenue., Bhutanese refugees, Christine Dutton, Health Department, Janice Staloski, Karnamaya Mongar, Kermit Gosnell, Nepalese refugees, Nepali-Bhutanese refugees, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, Semika Shaw | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 22, 2010
An article in WHYY News and Information gives more information about the welcome that newly arrived refugees face in Philadelphia. Some refugees have waited as long as three months just for health screening.
The Philadelphia region is seeing a new influx of political refugees from the South Asian nation of Bhutan. Like other refugees, they are entitled to eight months of medical coverage. But providing that care is a challenge.
Jefferson Family Medicine dedicates Wednesday afternoons to refugees. Nearly three years ago, when the clinic opened, many of the refugees came from Myanmar, then a few Iraqis, some Eritreans. Now, it’s the ethnic Nepalis from Bhutan. Clinic director Dr. Marc Altshuler says one of the first steps is to make sure everyone has had their shots.
Altshuler: The kids cannot go to school without vaccines, and if the kids don’t go to school the parents can’t go out and get a job.
The Nationalities Service Center, a resettlement agency, helped launch the Jefferson clinic. Now, demand for the clinic’s services has the agency looking for other providers capable of the same type of one-stop care…
…Newly arrived refugees should have an initial health screen within 30 days, but it took more than three months for Bagi Adhikari and her adult son Kamal to get in to see Dr. Packer… here
So a question becomes why continue to place more new refugees in Philadelphia if health screenings are delayed so dangerously long? It’s not like the city is a particularly safe place for the refugees’ children, here. Of course resettlement agencies such as the Nationalities Service Center isn’t going to advertise to the State Department that their area has late health screenings and dangerous schools. That will have to wait until the State Department does one of its once-in-a-decade inspections. Even then, the State Dept. will simply note the problems and suggest that the Center make some attempt to correct it. In the meantime years have passed in which refugees have gone months at a time without medical care, and have also been harassed, attacked, and assaulted on the streets and in the schools. That’s how our refugee resettlement program operates.
The refugees can have serious health problems while they sit for months without medical care. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also a common ailment.
…The ailments differ with each refugee group but latent tuberculosis, malnutrition and malaria are common. When the Adhikaris arrived last winter, both were a little underweight…
…Altshuler: We spend time asking ‘Why did they become refugees?’ cause that can help us figure out … Were they exposed? Were they beaten? But the bigger picture is, are they sometimes at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder because of what they went through? …
…Altshuler: We see significant mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder. We’ve been trying to collect a lot of data on the refugees that we’ve been seeing, and I think our rates of PTSD are probably two to three times higher than the national rate.
All are adjusting to a new city and culture; Altschuler says some also have stubborn, decades-old hurts that resurface once they’re safe…
…The Nationalities Services Center recently hosted a training session for health providers on the medical and mental health needs of refugees and asylum seekers.
It seems as though the main reason the US refugee resettlement program resettled refugees to Philadelphia is because a national volag, the USCRI, happens to have an office there – Nationalities Service Center. Is that really a “rational plan for resettlement”? That’s what the volags have to prove to the State Department each year in their annual report (see Guidelines for Participants).
Strategy for Site Selection
Headquarters should have in place a coherent strategy for selecting resettlement sites and placement of individual refugee cases. That strategy should show evidence of adaptability to new circumstances, e.g., influx of new ethnic groups, welfare or economic changes in any given location. Such strategy should also provide adequate justification for continued use of a site with poor employment outcomes.
But the USCRI essentially just recommends all the places where it already has affiliate offices as good refugee resettlement sites. Therefore, long after South Philly is no longer a rational place to resettle refugees, the State Department continues to let its contractor (USCRI) place refugees there.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Eritrean, health, Iraqi, late health screenings, mental health, Nationalities Service Center, Nepali Bhutanese, Philadelphia, PTSD, safety, State Department, USCRI | Tagged: Bhutanese refugees, Burmese refugees, Eritrean refugees, Iraqi refugees, malaria, malnutrition, Nationalities Service Center, Nepalese refugees, Philadelphia, Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, refugee health screening, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, south philly, State Department, tuberculosis, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 21, 2010
New refugee students in South Philadelphia are learning that their new school may be much more dangerous for them than the refugee camps they came from. On December 3rd students at South Philadelphia High attacked 30 Asian students, mostly refugees. The violence sent seven Asian students to hospitals, according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Many Asian students who walk into South Philadelphia High on Tuesday morning will be carrying something besides books.
In pockets and purses, they’ll tote a pamphlet called “Staying Safe.” It was given to them by community leaders who ran a special orientation aimed at teaching the students an important lesson: what to do if they’re attacked at school.
Knowing how to report harassment or assault is a skill most would prefer not to need. But it’s the reality of life at the school, where 30 Asians were attacked by groups of mostly African American students Dec. 3.
The violence sent seven Asians to hospitals and led about 50 to stage a weeklong boycott… here
A community leader told the students that she doesn’t know if changes will do anything to make them safer, in spite of the school being outfitted with extensive new security and programming.
…Last week, school administrators held new-student orientation, a day complete with cheerleaders in uniform and volleyball-team hopefuls knocking a ball around the gym.
The Asian session was a study in contrast. At FACTS charter school in Chinatown, three dozen students from Myanmar, China, Nepal, Vietnam, and elsewhere gathered to listen and talk.
“You guys are walking into the continuing story,” Nancy Nguyen, head of the local chapter of Boat People SOS, told the students. “We don’t know if the school is better. There are a lot of changes, but we don’t know if it’s better.”
The changes include security cameras and programming additions such as an Asian arts initiative and an in-school center for immigrants. A new antiharassment policy is in the works. The Justice Department, which recently informed the district it found merit to the Asian students’ civil-rights complaint, could impose more change.
At FACTS, organizers explained what harassment looks and sounds like, a raw introduction to students new to American culture and schools. Harassment, students heard, can be based on the place of your birth, the accent of your speech, or the shape of your eyes.
The instruction cut close to the bone, particularly when the leaders distributed a list of racial slurs and told the students: It’s wrong. And you need to know that slurs can escalate quickly and violently.
That’s common knowledge to children raised in America. But immigrants can be too limited in English to recognize racist language – and the danger it may portend.
Most of the students were heading into ninth grade at the school, which is 18 percent Asian and 70 percent African American. Some were hearing for the first time that Asians could be targets.
“If they come to beat us up, I’ll just go to the principal,” said Ghanashyam Gautam, 14, who emigrated from Nepal two years ago…
…The training program broke into subgroups. In one, a dozen students from Nepal squeezed around a table, all eyes focused on Nguyen, the Boat People SOS leader.
“I want to let you know what happened,” she began, telling the story of Dec. 3, ending with how Asian students stayed out of school…
…A discussion ensued in Nepalese. One boy wanted to know, if someone punches him, what should he do? Run away?
The first thing, Nguyen answered, is to get to a safe place. Write down everything that happened. And call one of the Asian leaders.
“It’s important for you guys to let us know if something happens,” Nguyen said…
…At times, the students’ moods turned somber, as if they were asking themselves: What am I getting into at the school?
Again, we see the refugee resettlement program resettling refugees into urban areas that are obviously not safe for them or their children. Their ability to stay safe in these environments is much less than the average American’s due to newness to the communities, language barriers, lack of knowledge of rules, etc. Many of these refugees are already suffering from stress-related mental illnesses such as PTSD due to the conditions that originally brought them to refugee camps. If seven students hospitalized for injuries in one day, or a 15-year-old refugee boy murdered in a St. Louis ghetto, isn’t enough to get bureaucrats to reconsider things, what would it take to change their minds?
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, dangerous neighborhoods, Dept. of Justice, mental health, Nepali Bhutanese, Philadelphia, safety, school for refugee children, schools, Vietnamese | Tagged: asian students, Asian students' civil-rights complaint, Bhutanese refugees, Boat People SOS, Burmese refugees, Nepalese refugees, Philadelphia, PTSD, refugee children, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugee students, refugees, South Philadelphia High, south philly, U.S. Justice Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 23, 2010
Villanova University students taking a social-justice documentary course have made a documentary film about the arrival to Philadelphia of a teenage Burmese refugee, Meh Sha Lin (here). The film premiered at the Ritz at the Bourse, and will soon be entered in film festivals across the country. The 30-minute film was narrated by Phylicia Rashad, best-known for her role as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show.
In one scene, he comically riffs on how in America, it seems as if anything that’s left unlocked or outside gets stolen. “I said, ‘Mom, don’t stand outside, somebody will steal you.’
He lives in a brick rowhouse with his sister and mother. Two older sisters live nearby. He’s a junior at South Philadelphia High, a troubled school where Asian students have been beaten and harassed.
Little of that seeps into the film.
Filmmaker Hezekiah Lewis III, a Villanova assistant professor, said he encouraged his students to tell a story that could create change. That may be why the students decided to cleanse the film of any of the realities of the refugee resettlement program. It’s too bad though, because if they showed the full picture of this refugee’s new life in America we may have had hope that perhaps we could do something to help change it.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, dangerous neighborhoods, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, safety, schools | Tagged: Asian, Burma/Myanmar, documentary, film, Hezekiah Lewis, Meh Sha Lin, Myanmar, PA, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, school, Villanova University | 1 Comment »
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