Page 90 - Abilene Living

Santa and his family have lived in the U.S. for only two years but they are comfortable with American life. Santa and Tara both work at Abilene Regional Medical Center. Srijana is a sophomore at Cooper High School and Sabina attends Ward Elementary. Both girls participated in the dancing events at the Harm to Home walk.

They have beneftted from the English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at Southern Hills Church of Christ. “Mike Schweikhard was my ESL teacher,” says Santa, “and he taught me how to drive.” The family now owns a car, which Tara is

also learning to drive and Srijana hopes to get her license soon after instruction from her dad.

The local IRC offce continues to expand its services. New Civics classes, provided by a grant from U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services are being offered to help prepare refugees for the citizenship test. Classes are free and are hosted by Mission Abilene.

Supplemental Services, for those who have been in Abilene no more than three years, focus on life skills such as parenting, fnancial literacy, home safety & maintenance, health & nutrition

and accessing community resources. Also, Daina Jurika-Owen has recently become an accredited representative for Immigration Services and can assistant all legal immigrants with fling immigration forms for a nominal fee. Santa and Tara acknowledge the drastic changes in their lives, but they have a positive outlook. “We are happy,” they both say about their jobs and their situation. “IRC managed everything for us. IRC is a very helpful organization.”  ALM