I’ve been given the opportunity (through a school internship) to work with Burmese families that have recently come to Vancouver as refugees. These families have come here, as sanctioned by the United Nations because it is unsafe for them to return to their country due to religious, social, and political persecution they’ve experienced there. This conflict in Burma began in the 1980’s and has left many families displaced since then. Many refugees have been living in Malaysia or in refugee camps in Thailand, and some children have only known a refugee camp as home. So the transition to living in the US is an extremely different and difficult one to make, especially when they are put into our formal school systems.
Since this April, the organization I’m working with, Lutheran Community Services NW, has been assisting these (so far 15) new families here in Vancouver through their refugee resettlement program. I have been learning a lot about these families, their culture, and some of the persecution they’ve faced in their lives over the last few weeks and love working with them. This organization is also expecting many more families to arrive to Vancouver over this next year.
I’ve been praying for these families and hope that they can find more community here in Vancouver, especially during this time of transition into a new culture. They constantly have much to learn about how to live here in Vancouver and our culture and desperately need friends to begin to converse with in English as learning a new language is very hard, especially for older adults. I hope that these Burmese families might become a part of your community too, as they’ve become a part of mine.
