In Search of Safety

by Susan Kuklin

  All the participants read their sections of In Search of Safety for accuracy and authenticity. In addition, I am indebted to my tough, enthusiastic friends who read or offered useful counsel throughout this undertaking: law professors Bailey Kuklin, Maryellen Fullerton, and Stacy Caplow; and writers Robie Harris, Elizabeth Levy, Thea Lurie, Deborah Heiligman, Fatima Shaik and Paul O Zelinsky.

  Please indulge me a few more lines to thank the people who brought In Search of Safety to life. Thank you, my dear agent, Brianne Johnson, at Writers House. Thank you to all at Candlewick Press for being bold, ethical, and compassionate. You give the world such notable books, and I am honored to publish with you. Hilary Van Dusen, my wise, thoughtful editor, brings a sharp eye, exquisite insight, and an empathetic heart to every page, every sentence, every word. In addition, my deepest thanks and appreciation to the best team an author could wish for: Sherry Fatla (art director), Hayley Parker (designer), Pam Consolazio (jacket designer), Pamela Marshall and Hannah Mahoney (copyeditors), Sarah Chaffee Paris and Martha Dwyer (proofreaders), and Phoebe Kosman (publicist).

  I have spent most of my adult life as a photojournalist and a nonfiction writer. These combined professions have enabled me to know people from many different cultures and walks of life. I would never have had such privileged experiences without my partner, my love, my husband, Bailey Kuklin.

  Last, thank you to the generous volunteers and openhearted citizens of Nebraska.

  Every October, the president of the United States determines how many refugees will be allowed into the country for the year. Nine federally funded resettlement organizations (see page 215) distribute these refugees across the country to their nongovernmental affiliates. Lutheran Family Services (LFS) of Nebraska works with two of the nine organizations: Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and Church World Service.

  Since 1892, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska has assisted children and families in need. One of the many services LFS provides is to act as advocates for the immigrant community. They have resettled more refugees per capita than organizations in any other state. In fact, LFS is considered one of the most successful resettlement programs in the country, and other groups have modeled their programs after it.

  The folks who work for and volunteer at LFS believe that welcoming people at dire risk to a new, safe place is an American value. The director of advancement, Lacey Studnicka, says, “People of faith are called to this job and so are ordinary citizens who just want to help. Corporate groups, book clubs, Girl Scout troops, high school classes, students from local universities, and friends and families of other volunteers step up to act as mentors to a newly arrived person.

  “When a refugee family walks off the airplane, they are taken to a home that’s fully functional. Volunteers help us gather furniture. They decorate. Groceries are in the fridge, clothes are in the closet, toys are on the shelves. Some items are required by law. For example, every family must have their own beds, a couch, and kitchen table and chairs. We ask our volunteers to gather both mandatory and culturally appropriate items. Volunteers are given an ethnically suitable grocery list so that they can buy the kinds of food the refugees are familiar with and may eat. Hygiene products, towels, and diapers that the family might need straightaway are in the bathroom. Will the refugees use everything right away? Maybe not. But we have everything in place before they arrive.”

  Volunteers greet the new arrivals at the airport. The arriving person or family has literally a “welcome wagon” of people. Lacey says, “People bring balloons and signs. We provide people who have been traveling maybe twenty-four, thirty-six hours, scared out of their minds, and not sure what the heck is going on, with a group of new friends who know their names and who carry signs of welcome. Some volunteers have asked us, ‘Isn’t it a little overwhelming to have so many people at the airport?’ But the feedback that we’ve received from our refugee families is that it feels so awfully good to know that they are home, they are in a safe place, and that they are not alone.”

  One volunteer acts as a mentor to each newly arrived refugee family. Refugees need to know how to maneuver in a completely unfamiliar home and city. Some refugees have little education or are unskilled, and unaware of modern utilities. Their kids need to be placed in school. Doctor and dentist appointments must be set up. They need answers to lots of questions: How can one travel around town? Where’s the nearest grocery store? Is there a church or mosque nearby? They need to apply for Social Security cards, green cards, and driver’s licenses. Banking and credit cards have to be (sometimes) explained and also acquired. More. So much more. English-speaking volunteers teach English and other practical classes at an LFS office or do one-on-one tutoring at the refugee’s home. There is also a “career and connections” mentoring program. War does not discriminate. A refugee can be a doctor (like Dieudonné’s sister and brother-in-law), a lawyer, an engineer, or even a diplomat. At first, both skilled and unskilled refugees typically work as unskilled laborers or in stores like Walmart. Lacey says, “Even highly skilled refugees often work in meatpacking plants while they learn English. Once they are speaking English, we try to help find an upgrade. The career-mentoring program teams the refugee up with someone in their profession who then helps them find a path back to their careers.”

  LFS has its own legal services department. An immigration attorney and staff process green cards, family reunification forms, and applications for citizenship.

  All federally funded refugee programs in the United States have specific requirements; all across the country, they are funded the exact same amount. As of this writing, the government gives refugees $925 per person as a one-time resettlement payment. That cash is used to pay for rent, utilities, food, and other expenses. The U.S. government expects the refugee to be self-sufficient within ninety days of arrival. Because this is not nearly enough time or money for a person or family to land on their feet, LFS has had to find ways to expand its services.

  Lutheran Family Services developed a program called the International Center of the Heartland (ICH). Lacey says that because it is “privately funded, we don’t have any financial restrictions. This allows us to provide ongoing case management and resources for refugees beyond the ninety days and for as long as they need help. We served five thousand people last year. Instead of telling a family that we are out of funding for them after ninety days, we can give them a new case manager through the International Center.

  “Refugees who were resettled by another agency in Nebraska can also receive this service. A refugee who was resettled in another state and chooses to move to Nebraska can also receive our services. Victims of international human trafficking, a sex or labor slave, can receive our ongoing services. Our door is open to all persons seeking asylum. It’s exciting to be able to do this for the community. Through the International Center, we have a robust interpreter program. There are interpreters working in twenty-six languages and dialects. If a dentist, a doctor, or another social service agency needs an interpreter for their clients, they can access one through our agency.”

  Lacey is a legend among the refugee communities in Nebraska. Her enormous smile is often the first thing a refugee sees when stepping off the plane. Originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, Lacey spent a year after college in India. That trip opened her heart and expanded her mind. “When I came back,” she says, “I took part in AmeriCorps, which is like the Peace Corps, working with refugees who were living in Lincoln. Once you start working with refugees, you fall in love. And then I doubly fell in love — with the man who became my husband, who’s from Tajikistan. He was getting his MBA in Omaha. Fifteen years ago, we married, and I moved to Omaha. I found a job with Lutheran Family Services because I wanted to work with refugees and at the time they were the only organization doing that. Since then, I’ve worn many hats here. This job is special because we now have so many wonderful partners in the community who have come forward to help the refugee community.”

  There is not
much public pushback in Omaha. Lacey says, “I truly believe that once you meet refugees and build a connection, your heart wraps around them.” Lacey and Jennifer Gentle, the coordinator of volunteers, do community presentations throughout the year. Last year they gave more than two hundred addresses in churches, synagogues, mosques, and Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, among other places. Lacey says, “We’ve developed a small speaker’s bureau of refugee folks who come with us when we do community presentations. It’s the stories of the refugees that change hearts and minds. Their voices are most important. People need to hear them.

  “I’ve done this work for a long time, and really, before the Syrian crisis, people didn’t know that refugees were even here. With what was happening in Syria and with images of people coming off the boats into Europe, our community’s hearts were breaking. Nebraskans would call and say, ‘How can we help?’ We’ve had volunteer families say, ‘We’re not going to give Christmas presents this year. Instead, we’re going to sponsor a family so that our kids can go to the airport and be a part of something bigger than themselves.’” For more information about Lutheran Family Services, visit https://www.lfsneb.org/.

  In 2014, when ISIS started committing genocide against the Yazidi people, several thousand survivors came to the United States. Approximately three thousand Yazidis have settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. In time, the Yazidi community built a nonprofit center, the Yazda Cultural Center. It provides a place where Yazidi refugees can study English and learn what is expected of them in the United States. Jolene McCulley, the program manager, describes some of what the center does: “There are classes and group discussions to explain how the government works. We teach the legal system. We teach about the employment systems. We try to cover all the bases to help the newly arrived refugee understand how to live in America. The center’s first goals are to help the community feel safe and hopeful and to keep their culture alive. It is only after that that we can help them learn English, learn how to apply for jobs, learn to live in an integrated community.

  The center has begun a project to collect evidence of crimes against the Yazidi people before they came to the States. The researchers seek information on missing persons, such as Shireen’s missing family members. They identify mass graves and the destruction of religious sites. There’s a women’s center to provide formerly captive and abused ISIS survivors with counseling, support, and medical attention. The cultural center also works with children and adults to “promote and protect” the Yazidi language, culture, and traditions.

  Yazda has become a huge, worldwide humanitarian agency, with additional centers in Canada, Germany, Iraq, Australia, and Great Britain. In 2018, Nadia Murad, a Yazda member and a survivor of ISIS atrocities, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her effort to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Her lawyer, Amal Clooney, is the legal counsel for Yazda. They, along with other members of the Yazidi community, are working to hold ISIS accountable for their crimes against humanity.

  Yazda’s main U.S. branches are in Lincoln and Houston. To learn more about this organization, visit https://www.yazda.org.

  Page numbers refer to the hardcover edition.

  CHAPTER 1: THE FIRST DAY OF MY LIFE

  p. 8: “two fatwas against his life are still in effect”: Although Fraidoon’s fatwas were in fact death sentences, the definition of the word fatwa is far broader, referring to any legal opinion or decree handed down by an Islamic religious leader.

  According to the Islamic Supreme Council of America, “In recent years, the term ‘fatwā’ has been widely used throughout the media, usually to indicate that a death sentence has been dealt to someone or some group of people. The limited use of this term has resulted in a limited understanding of its meaning.” (“What Is a Fatwa?” Islamic Supreme Council of America, accessed December 4, 2018, http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/understanding-islam/legal-rulings/44-what-is-a-fatwa.html.)

  CHAPTER 2: FRAIDOON

  p. 17: “The Mujahideen did not like the fact that my father joined . . .”: The word mujahideen can refer to any force of Muslim warriors. The term came to be widely known in the West in reference to guerrilla fighters opposing the Soviet-backed Afghan government during the Soviet-Afghan War, from 1979 to 1989. By joining the Afghan National Army, Fraidoon’s father was siding with the government, against the Mujahideen.

  p. 18: “They called themselves Taliban”: The Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Afghanistan in 1989, and in 1992, the Soviet-backed president was overthrown. Many areas were controlled by the Mujahideen, but the various groups weren’t able to form a unified government. Into this vacuum came the Taliban, a brutal and strictly fundamentalist fighting force. See Pierre Tristam, “History of the Taliban: Who They Are, What They Want,” Thought.Co, January 24, 2018, https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-taliban-who-they-are-what-they-want-2352797.

  p. 18: “what we call a madrasa”: The word madrasa refers to any type of educational institution, but in the West, the term is often used to refer to traditional Islamic schools.

  p. 19: “sent them to fight jihad”: The word jihad means a personal struggle or effort in devotion to Islam. It is often translated to mean a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as part of one’s religious duty.

  p. 19: “Their music was even in a different language, Pashto”: Pashto is an Indo-European language spoken in Afghanistan, Eastern Iran, and Pakistan.

  p. 20: “The enemy was the Northern Alliance, one of the Mujahideen parties”: The Afghan Northern Alliance was formed by President Burhanuddin Rabbani and former defense minister Ahmad Shah Massoud. It was an armed military organization formed to fight the Taliban. The Alliance received support from Iran, Russia, Turkey, India, and Tajikistan. The Taliban were backed by Al-Qaeda.

  CHAPTER 3: FRED

  p. 28: “we landed inside a PRT [Provincial Reconstruction Team] run by U.S. military forces”: According to the Afghanistan Provincial Reconstruction Team Handbook, PRTs “find their origin in coalition humanitarian liaison cells established by U.S. military forces in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) [the U.S. government’s official name for the Global War on Terrorism] in early 2002. A dozen Army civil affairs (CA) soldiers staffed these small outposts, dubbed ‘Chiclets,’ with the task to assess humanitarian needs, implement small-scale reconstruction projects, and establish relations with the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and nongovernmental organizations already in the field.” (United States Department of Defense/Defense Technical Information Center, Afghanistan Provincial Reconstruction Team Handbook, February 2011, p. 3, https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a550604.pdf.)

  CHAPTER 4: WHO WOULD MARRY SOMEONE WITH A FATWA ON HIS HEAD?

  p. 40: “They were speaking Pashai, a different language . . .”: Pashai (or Pashayi) is a group of languages spoken by the Pashai people in the northeast corner of Afghanistan.

  p. 41: “I was back in Laghman Province, working as a linguist for the army and for the MEP company, Mission Essential Personnel”: Mission Essential Personnel is a government contractor serving intelligence and military clients. It is a leading provider of translators and interpreters.

  CHAPTER 5: COMING TO AMERICA, THE HARD WAY

  p. 48: “SIV, Special Immigrant Visa”: SIVs are granted to interpreters and others who have worked with the U.S. military in support of missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fraidoon’s lawyer, Sari Long, provides additional information: “There is the SIV program for Iraqi and Afghan translators that is limited to fifty principal applicants per year. Since 2009, with the passage of the Afghan Allies Act, an additional SIV program was enacted for Afghans who were employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government. Initially, 7,500 visas were available for principal applicants over five years. Congress has authorized extensions over the years providing more visas. Since December 19, 2014, 14,500 visas have been allocated.

  “At the time when Fred applied,” she continues, “the requirement for the SIV program for Afghans was twelve
months of faithful and valuable service to the U.S. government. For applicants after October 1, 2015, they must show two years of faithful and valuable service.”

  (See also: U.S. Department of State/Bureau of Consular Affairs, “Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqis Who Were Employed by/on Behalf of the U.S. Government,” Travel.State.Gov, accessed December 4, 2018, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/special-immg-visas-iraqis-employed-us-gov.html.)

  CHAPTER 7: FLIP-FLOPS, RICE, SOCCER

  p. 67: “The Karens (pronounced KAH-renz), the second-largest ethnic group in Myanmar . . .”: It is believed that the Karen people originated in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia or in Tibet. They speak Pwo and Sgaw, two languages that are part of the Tibeto-Burman family. The Karens are governed by chiefs or princes, and they practice several religions: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.

  p. 69: “they moved about fifty thousand of us deeper into Thailand, into one large camp called Mae La”: For additional information about and photographs of this camp, see “Mae La,” The Border Consortium website, accessed December 4, 2018, http://www.theborderconsortium.org/where-we-work/camps-in-thailand/mae-la, and “Gallery of Mae La Refugee Camp,” Burma Link website, accessed December 4, 2018, https://www.burmalink.org/gallery-mae-la-refugee-camp/.