Yesterday, in addition to visiting the Vatican, I volunteered at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center as a part of a service learning component for my class on global migration. A group of students and I started the morning by passing out tea and bread to these refugees, many of which came from counties like Afghanistan and Iran near the Middle East. We also spent time in a classroom teaching these refugees basic skills. In addition to teaching the English language, I taught refugees their multiplication tables and computer proficiency. I was also able to interview Aweiz Isa, a refugee from Somalia, to learn about his personal accounts on migration.
Aweiz was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. He recently came to Italy in 2009 as a refugee result of the ongoing civil war in his native country (Somalia's government declared a state of emergency in June of 2009, resulting in military intervention from neighboring countries). He first hand witnessed the gunpoint murder of his best friends during a raid in his local clinic. Having served formerly has as a nurse, he is now unemployed in Italy. He hopes to return to Somalia once the government stabilizes. Aweiz’s personal story is an all-too-common struggle that continues to torment the lives of the refugees in the center.
Aweiz was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. He recently came to Italy in 2009 as a refugee result of the ongoing civil war in his native country (Somalia's government declared a state of emergency in June of 2009, resulting in military intervention from neighboring countries). He first hand witnessed the gunpoint murder of his best friends during a raid in his local clinic. Having served formerly has as a nurse, he is now unemployed in Italy. He hopes to return to Somalia once the government stabilizes. Aweiz’s personal story is an all-too-common struggle that continues to torment the lives of the refugees in the center.
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| UW Honors students teach basic English skills to Afghan refugees. |
Wow. very interesting sounds like fun. =] And do you mean "Having served formerly "as" a nurse"? 2nd paragraph, 4th sent. haha. are you gettin enough sleep Mister??
ReplyDeleteWow.. that's a crazy story.. it always makes me wonder about how i can have anything to complain about my life when there are so many people who are soo much worse off than me.
ReplyDeletesounds like that guy had a very hard time to get over his best friends death and he die right in front of him don't how i would deal with something like that.....
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