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A cosponsor's story: St. Paul's UMC in Louisville, Kentucky
Pamela Greenwell with Abdie in 2003.
Photo: St. Paul's United Methodist Church
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For Pamela Greenwell, helping a Somali Bantu family resettle in Louisville, Ky., has been an experience full of surprises.
Greenwell coordinated the St. Paul's United Methodist Church committee that helped Hussein Issack and his wife, Safia Mustaf, resettle in Louisville through Kentucky Refugee Ministries.
CWS finds that refugees with congregational cosponsors adjust most quickly, and encourages its local resettlement affiliates to enlist them whenever possible.
Cosponsors typically help find and furnish housing for arriving refugees, meet them at the airport, enroll the children in school, and help adults sign up for public benefits and look for work. They go with them to medical appointments, talk with them about financial literacy and budgeting, and help them learn their way around their new communities.
St. Paul's did all this, and more. The committee included "point people" for medical and dental needs, furniture, finances and other life skills, adult clothing, and "children's things," including clothing, toys, and books.
"I know a lot of people at the church," Greenwell said. "They want to help if you give them a specific task. I'd walk around to six or eight Sunday school classes and ask, "Who wants to do this?'"
The church found and furnished an apartment, and paid the rent for the first four months. Congregants collected so many household goods that there were enough left over for two other refugee families. A church "circle" got all the toiletries; a Sunday school class got cleaning products.
"I am painfully organized by nature, and I thought we were prepared for any challenge," Greenwell said. "We were -- except for a baby."
Hussein and Safia arrived in September 2003, "the parents of two and three-quarters children," as Greenwell put it. "Safia said she was seven months pregnant, but the baby was born two weeks later."
Greenwell got Safia to an obstetrician within two days of arrival, and her "children's things" point person found a crib and other baby supplies in time for the birth.
That was just the beginning. Enrolling the family for Medicaid and Food Stamps and then keeping up with the related correspondence proved to be quite an eye opener for Greenwell. "I remember calling a social worker one day and saying, "I am a lawyer and this document is incomprehensible to me!'
"Hussein arrived speaking English, which was a gift," she continued. The Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper did a 10-page spread on the Somali Bantu, through which Hussein got a job in a factory that builds large truck trailers.
Greenwell's "life skills" point person showed Hussein how to open a U.S. bank account, and now Hussein helps newly arriving refugees set up their accounts.
January through June 2004, church volunteers took Safia to a "Family Literacy Program" four days a week, then taught her how to get there on her own by bus, but she chose not to continue. Greenwell said, "I had to let go of my hope that she would learn English right away."
St. Paul's enrolled the oldest child, Abdie, in Head Start. "Now six and in kindergarten, he's bright, bright, bright. His teacher talks about how well he's doing. And he's got musical ability," Greenwell said. The second child, Fatuma, now four and in Head Start, was having seizures, which her doctor was able to bring under control only six months ago."
Every Monday night to this day, Abdie and Fatuma have supper with Greenwell and her husband, Mike Rodgers. "We require that they speak only English in our house," she said. "We do flash cards and look through their backpacks. Their teachers know we've got them every Monday, so they send school paperwork home with them on Mondays. We adore these children."
Reflecting on what proved to be "a massive commitment of time," Greenwell quickly added, "It's true what people say. You get way more out of it than you put in."
Read more about Somali Bantu resettlement.
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