#dorcas international institute of rhode island

Victor Morente was born on January 17, 1990, in Zacualpa, Quiche, Guatemala. He grew up in an impoverished neighborhood, where the community suffered from lack of food and clean water. Victor remembers the people living in extreme poverty, in houses built of Adobe mud, with no cars.

Due to the civil war and genocide in Guatemala at the time, Victor’s mother fled the country and crossed over the border as an undocumented immigrant in 1994. She was forced to leave Victor behind with one of his aunts because he was too young to accompany her. At the age of six Victor finally embarked on his journey to the United States. He crossed The Rio Grande on a raft, traveled through Mexico, and walked the deserts of Texas. After finally reaching an airport in Texas he was able to take a plane to Providence, Rhode Island.

Growing up in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in the Southside of Providence with many other minorities, Victor felt welcomed. He was an excellent student, who put a lot of time and effort into his schoolwork. In high school however, Victor was told that his dream of going to college would not be possible because he was an undocumented immigrant. He became disillusioned and stopped doing his schoolwork.

Two years after graduating high school, Victor and his family finally received a phone call from their attorney who informed that they had a court date scheduled at the Boston Immigration Court based on their immigration application for asylum protection. When the court date finally came, his mother was extremely nervous, while Victor remained calm and confident.

After 16 years of waiting, Victor and his mother finally were granted legal permanent residency. He believes the struggle he went through from being an undocumented immigrant motivated him. “And that’s why I am even more driven now because for a long time they told me I shouldn’t even be here right now.” Victor was determined more than ever to pursue his dream of going to college and continue to work hard to become successful.

After making a trip back to Guatemala with his family last summer, Victor saw how Guatemalans struggled to put dinner on the table for their families and how the government was not protecting its citizens.  This only motivated Victor further, because he saw where he came from and how privileged he is today to have the opportunities that he does in United States.

“If you have initiative, it doesn’t matter where you are from, you can definitely become successful.”

Victor attended the Community College of Rhode Island part time while he was undocumented, and then transferred to Rhode Island College after his legal situation was resolved. He is currently a senior at Rhode Island College where he is majoring in Political Science and Public Administration, while also minoring in International Nongovernmental Organizations. He is a member of the National Political Science Honor Society, also serves as the President of the Programming event board on campus, and is currently interning at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s office.

He hopes to attend law school with the goal of one day becoming an immigration lawyer. Just as he received assistance throughout his journey, he hopes to be able to help other immigrants toward their path to citizenship. It was for that reason that he also interned at Dorcas International Institute this past summer in the Feinstein Center for Citizenship & Immigration.

 “I feel that if you get help from someone, it’s your duty to give even more back.”

Victor resides in Providence with his mother and brothers.  He is a strong believer in the importance of recognizing the individual contributions of Rhode Islanders from all cultures and backgrounds, and that stories like his must be shared more often.

“I was so afraid of what people used to think about me, but why not tell them? In high school they always made jokes about going to your home country, and being a wetback, and I remember those jokes. For a long time it was shameful, but now there needs to be more stories about these things.”

Written and compiled by Evita Iiskola and Andrew Hopkins

Oraine Christie was born in a very small, populated area in Kingston, Jamaica.

“Kingston, Jamaica is a very small area but it’s very populated and in that population everyone wants to achieve their goal and come out with something.”

Growing up in Jamaica he held various jobs which included working for an insurance company as well as networking for various companies such as a mobile company out of England. In Jamaica, the process is rather different in order to go to college.

“In Jamaica you have to pass certain amount of exams in order to go to college and so forth. I went to one of the elite high schools in Jamaica.”

About two years ago, Oraine was able to come to the United States on a work permit for a company that he had a connection with through work. “I first came here because my cousin in Jamaica he has a girlfriend that worked up here and the company normally takes people from my country to come up here and work for usually certain amount of seasons so on and so forth.” Coming to the United States would allow him to generate a higher income than he would in Jamaica. “I am actually going after what I want to do, so that’s a big difference in my life.”

Upon arriving to the United States, Oraine started off in the Dorchester area of Massachusetts where he had some family members. However, his main motivation was to receive his General Educational Development (GED) in order for colleges and universities in America to recognize his diploma so he enrolled in a GED class at Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island.

After graduating with his GED from Dorcas International Institute, Oraine begin his journey to Harvard. He is currently attending Harvard Extension and will soon transfer to Harvard University, his “first and only choice”. “[Harvard] is where I wanted to go.” At this point in his life, Oraine considers attending Harvard his greatest accomplishment. However, Oraine has his sights set on the future and strives to attend Oxford University for his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). He also plans to go to law school.

“I want everyone to be like ‘Oh he has an MBA from here and another one from here and then Esquire at the end of his name’….I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since I was young…I want to be able to be someone in life and I don’t want no one to be able to walk all over me. In Jamaica I would have given an arm and a leg to become a lawyer.”

The constant movement between work, school, and socializing serves as a strong hold against sleep for typical Jamaican lifestyle, and Oraine had to adjust when he first arrived.

“It is slow. Because I’m always up and about, as soon as it hits 6am I am up, that is just my natural clock. So when I’m up I try and make myself as busy as possible during the day because if I don’t I will not sleep at night.”Not used to all the down time here in America, Oraine tries very hard to be busy during the day, that way he will be able to sleep at night.

Oraine has one complaint about the weather here in New England and that is that it changes too often; “Today will be good and then tomorrow it rains, then the next day is good and then rain! The fluctuation kills me!”

Since his arrival, Oraine has not lost touch with his close friends and relatives. “We are in constant communication.” He hopes to soon visit friends who are now living in Canada and England. Oraine is also headed back to Jamaica come summertime to visit friends and family and celebrate his upcoming birthday.

Oraine does not plan to slow his pace any time soon, in fact he is just beginning. As a loving father of a five-year-old son, Oraine works to give his child the opportunity to achieve his wildest dreams.

“The other day he told me he wanted to be an artist, so I told him ‘draw’. It is America! He is the only thing that will keep him from accomplishing his dreams.”

Oraine describes a certain drive embedded in his mind upon coming to America, “…everybody only got one life to live and you can’t let someone go and take that from you”.

Written and compiled by Emily Matthews and Phil Lynch

Komlan Soe was born in Toe Town, Liberia. At the age of three, a civil war broke out forcing Komlan and his family to flee to a refugee camp in Ivory Coast, where his family survived on little rice, cornmeal and flour distributed by UNHCR. At the age of seven, he started first grade at a school established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other non-profit organizations. The school was in unfinished buildings and on under trees, where Komlan and other youngsters would sit and learn their basic Math and ABCs.

In 2002 when civil war erupted in Ivory Coast, Komlan and his family fled to another refugee camp in Ghana. While in the camp in Ghana, Komlan’s curiosity and passion for education grew stronger. Komlan took a high school entrance exam, and he came first out of 70 applicants. He later received a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, where he was able to sit, for the first time, at comfortable desks and discovered a passion in international affairs.

With his father already settled in Rhode Island, Komlan and his family migrated to Rhode Island in November 2005 as refugees sponsored by Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island.

It was a bittersweet family reunion because his two sisters and a brother remained in Ghana. His welcome into Rhode Island with a sign greeting him and his family was an experience he would never forget.

“It was… I’m finally in the United States. Yes that’s good. It was like a dream.”

As an immigrant, the transition of life in the United States was difficult. The first time Komlan saw snow, he was in disbelief. He was also not accustomed to the American sports, or the food, and did not understand why some people in his new community did not give up their seat to elders on the bus.

In 2008, Komlan began his studies at the Community College of Rhode Island after more than three years of delaying college in order to work and help his family financially. In 2010 he transferred to the University of Rhode Island (URI) where he became heavily involved in different activities while pursuing a dual degree in Political Science and Sociology. While at URI, Komlan worked as a Teaching Assistant and held down a full-time job. He graduated in May 2013; a dream he had finally achieved. “I am the first in my family to graduate from college.”

Komlan now works with the African Youth Development Initiative, which he co-founded to empower and engage African and African-American youths around issues such as violence, education, and African culture and history. He not only hopes to engage the youth in Rhode Island in the discussion of what is going on in their state, but also hopes to see more challenging education systems for those young students:

“One day you will be actively involved to bring about change. So the mobilization of young people and then challenging young people… challenging them to get involved is the most important thing I think I can take from that.”

His hope for immigrants is that they should no longer be viewed as victims, rather as survivors. As an immigrant, he saw the ways in which the civil wars affected his family and those he loves, but he says he is very glad he is in America.

“To be an American is to have a story,” says Komlan. He has spent years now getting comfortable sharing his story, and telling people about his past. Komlan believes it is important to remember where you come from, and that having pride in your roots is what makes America so great and unique. It is diverse with many different people, he says, yet everyone shares a common ideal – to make their lives better.

Komlan hopes to attend grad school at Harvard University or Columbia University to continue his passion for education. His biggest goal is to one day become a diplomat to speak, and have a voice for those who don’t. He has since been back to Ghana and Liberia and feels he is needed back in his native homeland, so he plans to help.

“An African proverb which I always refer to says, ‘You are… because we are.’ And that means everything that is done has to be done collectively. One person’s success is everyone’s success and people have to hold together”.

No matter what challenges face him, Komlan smiles and stays determined to get through it.

Written and compiled by Delia Egan and Joseph Thuillier

Passang Chauwan was born in the western half of Bhutan, but at the age of eight she moved to a refugee camp in Nepal where she remained for over 20 years, “In Nepal, we sat in a small house, and had a difficult life in camp.” In the refugee camp, she went to school because only single women were allowed to attend. “If women were married, they could not go to school; they had to stay with the children.”

After 20 years of living in the refugee camp in Nepal, Passang resettled as a refugee in the Unites States with her two daughters, husband and mother-in-law. The refugee resettlement process was not easy.

“It was different from when we left Bhutan to go to Nepal. The United States government had a process for refugees, which involved a form that took two years to get approved. Each family at the camp had different problems. The form asked why we left Bhutan to go to the United States and questions like that.”

On February 12, 2012, Passang left Nepal for the United States with her two daughters. “Yeah, we were worried about leaving our friends in the camp, but we knew we had family in the United States.” The trip from Nepal to the U.S. lasted two days and Passang was only able to bring a suitcase and a couple dresses. Through sponsorship from Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island she settled into a Nepali community in South Providence.

“I am happy to reunite with my husband’s family [who came to Providence first]. I am happy I was able to come here to Providence. Some cases you don’t get any choices where you go so they did me a favor by letting me meet up with my husband’s family. We have a nice community now.”

Passang and her husband live in Providence, Rhode Island, with their twelve and seven year old daughters. “The community is nice and the neighborhood is good.” Passang jokingly said the only part of Providence she could do without is the snow. “The only difficulty is the snow. In my country (Nepal) we don’t have snow, only the mountains do.”

Passang works at Falvey Linen Supply and is also taking English classes in the morning at Dorcas International Institute. She also works “part-time at another job.” In addition to working and taking English classes, Passang takes care of her husband, her children, and her mother-in-law. Both of her daughters are full time students and have grown accustomed to American culture. Passang hopes that they will still hold on to the traditions the Nepalese have practiced for generations.

Initially Passang was nervous if her children would fit in to American culture. She hoped that they would enjoy school and make friends. “The first day of school they were crying, but after a week they were happy.” During her first days in Rhode Island, Passang felt welcomed by other Nepali refugee families who had moved here previously. The Nepali community is tightly connected and helps support one another.

“Each weekend we go to a different house and get together and discuss and ask questions to each other what is difficult for us in the United States and we try to help everyone out in our community…If somebody passed away, then maybe we get together and discuss how much money we need to raise and donate to the family. Also, we talk about citizenship in the United States. Some have no driver’s license, no car, and that’s difficult in our community.”

Passang is very happy to be in the United States and feels blessed to be out of the refugee camp. “I was born in Bhutan, grew up in Nepal, and now I am in America today. Now I have a story like this, the refugee. I have the life.”

Although Passang is happy to be in the United States, she still said, “I miss my family all in Nepal.” Her family still in Nepal includes her mother, sister, and brother. Unfortunately Passang’s mother is constantly sick and struggles with health problems and remains in a refugee camp. “My mom is always sick; she is in a Nepali refugee camp. My sister and my brother, everybody, is in the refugee camp, but they are all in the process [of coming here].”

Passang’s dream for the future is for her daughters to continue school and attend college. She helps her daughters with their school work and also provides financially for the family. “My big mission is for my two daughters. I will work long, and hard, and pay for good knowledge if they want, I will help them. That’s why I came to the United States”

Written and compiled by Alex Napoli, Matt McDermott and Briana Di Prizio

Michel Schtakleff was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, but his parents were Bulgarian and Palestinian, He came to America not by choice, but in fear of becoming the next civilian casualty of the growing Israeli-Palestinian civil war. Prior to then, Michel enjoyed Lebanon very much, and did not want to leave.

“One other really disturbing moment for me, that I will never forget is that of New Year’s celebration from ‘75 to ‘76. Everybody who had a gun, and many people had guns, militias of all kinds, decided to shoot up in the air all at the same exact time. The sky was blood red like Armageddon. Even though they were not shooting at each other but they were shooting up in the air it was a sick form of celebration. The noise was deafening and I felt sick to my stomach. It was horrific… So after that my parents said you need to go…”

Michel actually had a choice between going to Europe or the United States because he had family already in Europe and in several states in America. He decided on California, where his brother lived. While in Lebanon, Michel attended a multicultural school and was taught English. This made his adjustment to life in California easier. Rather than struggle with the language barrier, Michel found that he struggled with the idea of identity.

“I never thought of [of my identity] before I came to California. What is my identity? Where am I from? Because I used to be with people who are similar, people who are from all over the place. We didn’t ask each other where we are from, because we are from all over the place! So it doesn’t matter. When I came to California, the first question was, “Where are you from?” And I would say ‘oh, I was born in Beirut.’ And they would say, ‘Oh so you’re Lebanese?’ ‘Yes, but I am also Bulgarian, I am also Palestinian, I am also all of these different things!’”

After spending time at California Institute of the Arts, Michel and a friend decided to open their own graphic design studio focused on graphic design for websites; for “dot-commers.” They decided to relocate and start their business in Rhode Island. However, just before they opened, the dot-com sector crashed and the bubble burst, leaving them closed permanently before they even opened. Michel, despite this obstacle, enjoyed Rhode Island thus far, and decided to stay. “I didn’t want to leave Lebanon, but I never went back. Never visited, and I don’t have the desire to.”

Michel has taught classes in the arts and English as a Second Language at various colleges and schools including, Oakwood High School, Community College of Rhode Island, Bryant University, and Roger Williams University. He currently teaches English at the International Institute of Rhode Island. He now knows how much he enjoys teaching, and plans on continuing to do so in the future. Michel also creates film documentaries on various subjects.

“There is a documentary I want to produce, that is related to “Global Soul”… [Immigration] is politicized and there is such negativity and people that come here looking for work, everything is politicized and it is not helpful, especially because we are a country of immigrants. It seems like every group that comes in after 50 years, they discriminate the next group that comes in, and on and on and on.  But now it is getting bad for the people who come here; there are a lot of unnecessary problems. I see it with my students. They are struggling and now they have to add it to their burden.”

Michel is a firm believer that in order to make things easier for immigrants coming to America in the future, the key is access.Michel believes that had he not had the language skills already honed before coming here, he would not have had the tools necessary to properly adapt. By giving immigrants access to the proper resources, together we can help make things easier for them.

Michel believes that he is truly fortunate that he was able to migrate to America without some of the common struggles that others face. He does not take for granted that he was able to follow his dream of being an artist, teacher, and filmmaker, despite being displaced from his home country.

“My greatest accomplishments…are ahead of me. The fact is that I am happy that I have been able to produce artwork that I can reach people and the fact that I have found out that I love teaching. And when you realize that you have something that you can offer and you enjoy it. That is the best thing that can happen. Teaching is a great thing because you are doing something and being useful.”

 Written and compiled by Alice Horne, Logan Bruneau, and Rachel Backner