Page 89 - Abilene Living

only been here a short time but he and his family are well adjusted to American life. It’s not easy to make such a drastic change.”

During the eighteen years Santa and his family lived as refugees in Nepal he became a teacher of health and environment to students up to grade ten. While there he married Tara, who worked as a seamstress. Their two daughters Srizana, now sixteen, and Sabina, now twelve, were born there. Talks went on between the Bhutanese government and the Nepalese, “but our problem was not solved,” Santa says. “Several countries like the United States of America, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada and New Zealand were willing to take refugees who were in the camps. I was the frst person to choose America. I chose America because I heard in the paper that it is a big country where work is available, different kinds of work, and there is freedom. “

Santa says of Dr. Bob Lockhart, an IRC volunteer, he says, “He is not like a volunteer. He is like my parents. Last year, he took me everywhere, to the grocery store, to the health department. He even took Tara to work on Sundays.” The local offce of IRC is one of twenty-two offces across the nation, headquartered in New York City. In 1933, Albert Einstein suggested the initiation of an American branch of the European-based International Relief Association (IRA) to assist Germans suffering under Hitler. The organization works today in over forty countries to provide needed medical care, clean water, and other valuable assistance in addition to helping refugees fnd long-term solutions to their loss of home. The President, in conjunction with Congress, determines how many refugees can enter the United States each year. For 2011 that cap is 80,000. That number is broken down into various totals per geographic area. An additional 3,000

refugees can be added to the cap of a particular area if needed and unused admissions can also be transferred to other areas. Kathy Clark Frayje came to Abilene by way of Australia, where she underwent a Masters of International Relations through a Rotary World Peace Fellowship at the University of Queensland. Prior to coming, she worked with the Red Cross, both in America and in Sweden. She is closer to her origins now, though, having been born in Oklahoma City. She leads the local IRC staff of thirteen and a cadre of around ffty volunteers.

“The Abilene community is very supportive,” Kathy says. “That is vital in helping refugees overcome the hurdles of adjusting to a new culture.”