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February 17, 2017

Bhutanese refugee family is reunited with relatives in Westfield

REGIONAL
By Rebecca Drake

A 14-year-old Bhutanese girl, holding her 2-year-old brother, poses with her aunt shortly after arriving in Massachusetts Feb. 16. (IObserve photos/courtesy of the Catholic Charities Agency of Springfield)

SPRINGFIELD – “Where’s my home?”

These were the first English words spoken by a 14-year-old Bhutanese girl to Catholic Charities director Kathryn Buckley-Brawner when they met in western Massachusetts on Thursday, Feb. 16.

The young girl, along with her mother and 2-year-old sibling, were reunited with extended family members in Westfield after a journey of more than 24 hours took them from Katmandu, Nepal to a stopover in the Middle East, then to JFK International Airport in New York City before their final destination in Massachusetts.

Delayed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 now-suspended executive order instituting a travel ban on refugees from a number of predominantly Muslim countries, the family had been living in a refugee camp in Nepal. They are now safe and happy to be with family members they have not seen for six years.

Bhutanese Refugees3

A Bhutanese woman (back row, fourth from right) and her two children (back row, right) are reunited with extended family members in Westfield.

Buckley-Brawner, who is executive director of the Catholic Charities Agency of the Springfield Diocese, told iObserve the agency’s major concern is the protection of the family’s privacy and dignity, but also to make them feel welcome.

“We want to make sure that the reception for them is the most welcoming, the most kind, and the most respectful that it can be,” she said. “We want to make sure they are safe and that we’re accessible to them at a time when they are really vulnerable.”

Father Bill Pomerleau, a Springfield diocesan priest who also is a case worker at the Catholic Charities Agency, noted that the newly arrived Westfield family will also have the support of “an extensive Bhutanese community” in western Massachusetts. “They are very organized,” Father Pomerleau said, and will connect the family with services such as English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

Like Buckley-Brawner, Father Pomerleau emphasized the need to maintain the privacy and dignity of the new arrivals and “to determine how traumatized they are.” For these reasons, the time and place of refugees’ arrivals, and the location of their temporary residences, are not divulged by the receiving agencies.   

“Refugees need time to want to tell their stories,” said Father Pomerleau, who has worked with refugee communities as a volunteer for more than 20 years.   

As uncertainty looms regarding the reception of future refugees in the region, Father Pomerleau was preparing to welcome an Iraqi woman and her two adult sons, who are expected to arrive in western Massachusetts this evening. Another 11 refugees have been accepted for resettlement here, he said, and although their arrival times have not been finalized, “we’re up and rolling” and ready to welcome them.

Local Catholic Charities staff members have also welcomed support from local community members willing to help settle the refugees.

“We have been extremely heartened by the reaction of the whole community in Northampton,” Father Pomerleau said, and have, in fact, obtained a grant to hire a staff member to manage the volunteers.

Among the future tasks of resettlement will be cultural orientation, for both the refugees and the receiving communities, future housing, education and employment.

Foremost among the needs of the recent arrivals to western Massachusetts are medical care, warm clothing and a hot meal for their first day in the place they will now call home.  

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