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Hawo Mhando, helping other Somali Bantu in Virginia
Hawo Mhando
Photo: Ed Haurand
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Hawo Mhando had never seen a gas stove or a flush toilet, let alone a computer, before she arrived in Richmond, Va., in September 2004.
Now she uses a computer in her work as a restaurant cashier, has her driver's license and a car, and, as a part-time caseworker with the Virginia Council of Churches (VCC) Refugee Resettlement Program, is helping other Somali Bantu adjust to life in the United States.
Mhando, 29, was 14 when she fled Somalia. "Refugee life is too hard," she said, recalling the bandit attacks, the meager rations of dried corn and beans, and the scarcity of firewood for cooking during her 14 years in Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya.
She made the most of those difficult days, learning to speak, read, and write English and getting jobs in the camps, first as a food distribution clerk and later as a teacher. She also got married and bore a son, now 8, and a daughter, now 2. Mhando was head teacher of a preschool in Kakuma camp when her flight to America was posted.
"We suffered many years," she said. "Now we are in a good life. I really appreciate the American government for bringing us here."
Mhando recalls how her ears hurt on the flight from Nairobi to New York City in 2004, and how alone she and her husband felt as their connecting flight approached Richmond. "Fortunately, when we got to the airport, our caseworker was waiting for us from the VCC," she said. "A Somali, he introduced himself and said, 'I came to take you home.'"
"He took us to the apartment, where everything was ready for us -- furniture, food. When I saw the bathroom I was surprised and so happy. It was so clean that even I didn't believe it was a bathroom!"
The VCC Refugee Resettlement Program helped the family settle in, and after five months both Mhando and her husband began working.
"I found a job in a Chick-fil-A restaurant, and that's where I am still working," she said. "I started as a cook. After that they started training me. Now I am working as a cashier. I like my job."
VCC employs Mhando
Meanwhile, the VCC was feeling the need for some extra help with its Somali Bantu caseload.
"Almost all Somali Bantu are uneducated," Mhando said. "They didn't know English, and it was so hard for them. Our people were getting letters about appointments with social services, but couldn't read the letters and were missing the appointments. As a result, they were being cut from Food Stamps and other assistance. That's why Richard Cline (Director of the VCC Refugee Resettlement Program) decided to hire me, so I can help my people."
Mhando is responsible for 12 families, all of whom live in the same apartment complex as she and her family. She meets with each family daily to make sure their children have gone to school and to go through the day's mail and any notices their children have brought home from school.
"If it's an appointment, I record it and report it to the office. Now nobody can miss an appointment. Also, if a child is sick, I'll call the doctor and make an appointment for them," she said. Often, she drives people to appointments before her shift at Chick-fil-A begins at 10 a.m.
Mhando also schedules van service to and from work for workers without cars. And she offers counsel on everything from household management, cooking new foods, and child-rearing to personal hygiene and the importance of following the resettlement agency's advice.
What are Mhando's own hopes for the future? "I pray to God to give me long life because I have two kids. I want to work hard, save money, and try to buy a house here because, when you rent, the money's gone at the end of the month. And I am eager to continue my education."
She concluded, "I'm just a hard-working person, trying my best."
Read more about Somali Bantu resettlement.
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