By Christina Feller, published in the May 2009 Munjoy Hill Observer newspaper, Portland, Maine
Ismael Beah was only 11 when he became homeless from the violence of civil war and 13 when he was abducted and forced into the life of a child soldier in Sierra Leone, West Africa. After two years of experiencing unspeakable violence and the horror of daily killing, Ismael began the long road to recovery and rehabilitation. In his celebrated, national bestseller A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ismael takes the reader through his journey from a safe and happy childhood to the evils of a time when “nature itself was afraid”.
Ismael Baeh was the 2009 Douglas M. Schair Memorial Lecture Speaker on Genocide and Human Rights at USM’s Abromson Community Education Center on April 14, 2009. He was introduced by Dr. Abraham J. Peck who leads the USM Academic Council for Religion, Genocide and Human Rights. Before the lecture began, leaders from a range of communities that have experienced genocide lit candles in remembrance of the generations that have been affected by these events.
Ismael explained how in such a short time because of a complete breakdown in society caused by the war between the government and the rebel forces, “adults could be killed by children. Adults feared the children deeply. There was no trust. Children were no longer children—they were killers.” The children did not want to kill, but were forced to kill or die themselves. Eventually, Ismael was rehabilitated through the auspices of the United Nations and came to live in New York, graduate from Oberlin College and became an advocate for what he calls the culture of forgiveness.
Ismael spoke of hope as a form of strength. “We have the capacity to lose it (our humanity) and to regain it. The war dehumanized everyone. We did it to ourselves. But I can tell you that how I felt during and afterwards, I believe you can transform into violence and then recover.” When he was in the rehabilitation center, he began to have hope again that he could have a good life and recover from the horrors he experienced. His recovery could not happen until he was able to undue all the damage that had been done to him—that took more than eight months. He entered the rehab center with a sense of indifference because he did not know what was happening. He left with a sense of hope for his future and for that of his country.
In a culture of forgiveness, Ismael noted, you must be willing to let go of revenge, be willing to restore relationships, and be willing to sit down and talk with those you once hated.
After Ismael spoke, Libby Hoffman, Director of Catalysts for Peace, spoke about their project in Sierra Leone bringing the aggrieved and the former aggressors together under the name Fambol Tok, or Family Talk, to restore healthy relationships through the process of forgiveness. She showed a short film which was heart wrenching at times when accusers and the guilty moved through the process of identifying the victims, hearing their stories, respecting their pain, bringing the guilty forward, affirming their wrongdoing, making the apology and requesting forgiveness, and, finally, the bestowing of forgiveness by the victim. In the film, the process appeared to work. In real life, Ismael showed us that it does indeed work and he is living proof that the goodness of humanity can overpower the evils of war even for children.
To buy the book A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, go to www.alongwaygone.com or www.fsgbooks.com. ISBN-13:978-0-374-53126-3.
Christina Feller is a writer and culturalist, celebrating cultures around the world through stories and photos. Her current work in progress is The Russia Crew —Memoirs from the Field, the retelling of the adventures of a group of American women in Russia during the October rebellion in Moscow in 1993.
Showing posts with label By Christina Feller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label By Christina Feller. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Africa Has Made Us Who We Are
By Christina Feller/ published in the July 2009 Munjoy Hill Observer newspaper, Portland, Maine
“You eat with your hands, you carry water on your head—that’s who we are. We cannot get away from our culture. Africa is what made us who we are. Our job is to make things better. We need to know the cultures and understand the people in their own culture. We can make things better.” So exclaimed a young woman from Burundi, during the second Immigrant Dialogue on Peace and Reconciliation held at the East End Community School on Saturday, June 13th. Parents agreed: “we know our kids have to fit in but we do not want them to lose their culture.”
The first dialogue, at the event the week prior, brought about 60 adults and 20 kids. We spoke of the horrors that people have survived to get here. We spoke about their feelings of safety and security here and how important it is that they are reunited with their families.
We were truly honored to welcome Adelaide’s four daughters who have only this past month arrived from Bujumbura, Burundi. We welcomed Robert and Solange who have come from Kigali, Rwanda only four months ago. We welcomed guests from Iraq, Indonesia, Israel, Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and many other countries.
The second event focused on elders. It was generally agreed that they are isolated in their own homes and that we need to provide more activities for them. They have great difficulty struggling to learn English, and their lives are very limited because of it. There were about 50 adults and ten children at the second event. We welcomed four guests from Lewiston-Auburn, all of whom spoke eloquently and clearly about the issues surrounding education and acculturation of Somali people.
“We have the same amenities, we do not live in the jungle,” explained one man from Congo. “I came to America because there is opportunity here. Nowhere else. This is the place. You can get a good education here and have a plan for your life. In my country, there is no plan for anyone. I wish I could go back, and maybe someday I will,” he continued, “but I am here now and I will make the best of it.”
Living With Peace has awarded Peaceful Living Awards to 14 people who have made a positive difference in the lives of immigrants in Maine: Alfred Jacob, Mohamud Barre, Gure Ali, Genet Gebrewahd, Pious Ali, Father Jim King, Pastor Mutima Peter, Ethan Strimling, Wells Staley-Mays, Rahime Youssouf, Fatuma Hussein, Zoe Miller, Kazeem Lawal, and Reza Jalali.
For more information on these awardees and the programs they run, please email Christina Feller at cfeller@maine.rr.com.
“You eat with your hands, you carry water on your head—that’s who we are. We cannot get away from our culture. Africa is what made us who we are. Our job is to make things better. We need to know the cultures and understand the people in their own culture. We can make things better.” So exclaimed a young woman from Burundi, during the second Immigrant Dialogue on Peace and Reconciliation held at the East End Community School on Saturday, June 13th. Parents agreed: “we know our kids have to fit in but we do not want them to lose their culture.”
The first dialogue, at the event the week prior, brought about 60 adults and 20 kids. We spoke of the horrors that people have survived to get here. We spoke about their feelings of safety and security here and how important it is that they are reunited with their families.
We were truly honored to welcome Adelaide’s four daughters who have only this past month arrived from Bujumbura, Burundi. We welcomed Robert and Solange who have come from Kigali, Rwanda only four months ago. We welcomed guests from Iraq, Indonesia, Israel, Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, and many other countries.
The second event focused on elders. It was generally agreed that they are isolated in their own homes and that we need to provide more activities for them. They have great difficulty struggling to learn English, and their lives are very limited because of it. There were about 50 adults and ten children at the second event. We welcomed four guests from Lewiston-Auburn, all of whom spoke eloquently and clearly about the issues surrounding education and acculturation of Somali people.
“We have the same amenities, we do not live in the jungle,” explained one man from Congo. “I came to America because there is opportunity here. Nowhere else. This is the place. You can get a good education here and have a plan for your life. In my country, there is no plan for anyone. I wish I could go back, and maybe someday I will,” he continued, “but I am here now and I will make the best of it.”
Living With Peace has awarded Peaceful Living Awards to 14 people who have made a positive difference in the lives of immigrants in Maine: Alfred Jacob, Mohamud Barre, Gure Ali, Genet Gebrewahd, Pious Ali, Father Jim King, Pastor Mutima Peter, Ethan Strimling, Wells Staley-Mays, Rahime Youssouf, Fatuma Hussein, Zoe Miller, Kazeem Lawal, and Reza Jalali.
For more information on these awardees and the programs they run, please email Christina Feller at cfeller@maine.rr.com.
May 2009--Living With Peace-a gathering of neighbors
Living With Peace-—Neighbors Easing the Way for Newcomers to the Community
History: In December, 2006, Ismael Ahmed, Somali leader in Lewiston and at that time a Cultural Skills Trainer for Catholic Charities Maine, gave the opening address at the Maine Neighborhoods: Building Strong Communities Conference, organized and presented by Munjoy Hill Resident Christina Feller, leader of the civic group the League of Maine Neighborhoods, on the topic of establishing immigrant self-help groups or mutual aid associations.
Simultaneously, Ms. Feller was working with leaders of the Banyamulenge Tribal community of Portland, to establish a nonprofit organization to support the Community’s successful acculturation to American ways. The three groups joined forces and established Living With Peace as a nonprofit corporation in Maine in March of 2007 with a mission to strengthen the capacity of immigrants to acculturate to life in Portland and Lewiston, Maine. Shortly thereafter, Living With Peace received fiscal sponsorships approvals from Catholic Charities Maine, Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC) and the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization.
We actively partner with both neighborhood-based groups, churches and other nonprofits to
1) provide emergency services, such as cell phones, heaters, clothes, special food, and transportation, to
2) provide basic care: help finding housing, getting furniture and home goods; moving; arranging for telephone service, Internet hookups: tending clients when they are sick, getting medicine , taking them to the hospital for appointments; finding clothes appropriate for Maine weather, and
3) provide acculturation training, skills building, coaching and mentoring to improve their prospects for future economic and social success in America.
LWP seeks to move beyond humanitarianism by empowering African immigrants to improve their own quality of life through dialog, instruction, and one-on-one coaching with the LWP partners.
Because LWP was founded by members of the immigrant community, we are intimately aware of the particular stresses they face and the need for targeted assistance. We will continue to offer our assistance until there is a critical mass of at least 100 trained and organized African immigrants who can mentor and train others. We are not caseworkers—we are partners.
The significance of this approach is two-fold: by coaching, mentoring, training and teaching small groups of immigrants and individuals, we build trust and mutual respect, which encourages others to approach us for help.
By offering instruction in a wide array of topics relating to life in America, we are able to lessen the feelings of being overwhelmed and bring a sense of accomplishment to them, however small. We are currently teaching English language, diction, and composition, helping prepare resumes and cover letters, and most importantly, we are offering useful techniques to acculturate to American ways and advance their plans for success. In 2007 and 2008, we worked with more than 150 African immigrants providing emergency assistance, basic care or advanced training. We intend to expand the topics of training to include developing peer-support networks, resolving conflicts, and tactics for engaging in local civic life. At the same time, we are publishing An Immigrant’s Guide to Portland, Maine which encapsulates the training and guidance into an easily-read and understandable manual for navigating life in Maine.
Members of LWP feel strongly that the most effective approach is to use local resources to bolster the newcomers’ ability to successfully meet their challenges.The purpose of the organization is to build capacity in specific immigrant communities to meet the challenges they face every day by learning coping skills and planning techniques.
Most immigrants prefer to wean off government handouts and stand on their own. Because LWP professionals and volunteers are locally based, they are focused on helping the immigrant community meet the unique challenges within the context of the Maine environment and the Maine economy.
One valuable source of local expertise and leadership is our neighborhood associations; another is our small business community, and yet another is our nonprofit community. Speakers and trainers come directly from these sources—we do not believe there is any need to seek expertise outside the state of Maine, when what we face are uniquely local challenges.
Living with Peace
Board Members
Christina Feller, founder and president, has three passions—entreprenuership, immigrants, and traveling so it is no wonder that as a nonprofit consultant, she helped establish dozens of women’s business associations in cities across Russia in the mid-nineties. As Board Chair of the International Network for Enterprise and Trade, she was instrumental in establishing more than two dozen English language business libraries across Poland, Germany and Russia in the early nineties. She graduated from Wells College, Harvard Business School, and George Mason University.
Roger Ruganzu, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His family and his tribal community fled to Rwanda because of the civil war, where he went to high school and university. He graduated from law school at the University of Kilgali in Rwanda. He came to Maine in 2006. He was married on April 11, 2009 to Solange Musgeni who came from Rwanda just two months ago and they had not seen each other for some five years.
Sergine Gakwaya went to university with both Roger and Aimee at the University of Kilgali in Rwanda. Sergine is currently enrolled in the Conflict Resolution master’s program at Brandeis University. Her thesis has recently been accepted—immigrant acculturation in Maine! She will be spending the summer in Portland working on her project.
Adelaide Manirakiza is a widow and President of the Association of Widows and Orphans of Murdered Army Personnel. She came to Portland a little more than one year ago. Her application for asylum was approved and now she is waiting for the arrival of her four daughters from Bujumbura, Burundi, where they have been living by themselves in constant fear.
Aimee Umutoni is a mother of three small children, wife, minister, full time employee of a major local firm, full time graduate student and a leader of her community of people from DRCongo. Aimee’s mother-in-law lives with her as well as two cousins so that the children are always well card for by many hands as is the African tradition! Aimee fled from DR Congo with her family after the civil war. Her college studies in Kilgali were suspended when she fled the country for the United States.
History: In December, 2006, Ismael Ahmed, Somali leader in Lewiston and at that time a Cultural Skills Trainer for Catholic Charities Maine, gave the opening address at the Maine Neighborhoods: Building Strong Communities Conference, organized and presented by Munjoy Hill Resident Christina Feller, leader of the civic group the League of Maine Neighborhoods, on the topic of establishing immigrant self-help groups or mutual aid associations.
Simultaneously, Ms. Feller was working with leaders of the Banyamulenge Tribal community of Portland, to establish a nonprofit organization to support the Community’s successful acculturation to American ways. The three groups joined forces and established Living With Peace as a nonprofit corporation in Maine in March of 2007 with a mission to strengthen the capacity of immigrants to acculturate to life in Portland and Lewiston, Maine. Shortly thereafter, Living With Peace received fiscal sponsorships approvals from Catholic Charities Maine, Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC) and the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization.
We actively partner with both neighborhood-based groups, churches and other nonprofits to
1) provide emergency services, such as cell phones, heaters, clothes, special food, and transportation, to
2) provide basic care: help finding housing, getting furniture and home goods; moving; arranging for telephone service, Internet hookups: tending clients when they are sick, getting medicine , taking them to the hospital for appointments; finding clothes appropriate for Maine weather, and
3) provide acculturation training, skills building, coaching and mentoring to improve their prospects for future economic and social success in America.
LWP seeks to move beyond humanitarianism by empowering African immigrants to improve their own quality of life through dialog, instruction, and one-on-one coaching with the LWP partners.
Because LWP was founded by members of the immigrant community, we are intimately aware of the particular stresses they face and the need for targeted assistance. We will continue to offer our assistance until there is a critical mass of at least 100 trained and organized African immigrants who can mentor and train others. We are not caseworkers—we are partners.
The significance of this approach is two-fold: by coaching, mentoring, training and teaching small groups of immigrants and individuals, we build trust and mutual respect, which encourages others to approach us for help.
By offering instruction in a wide array of topics relating to life in America, we are able to lessen the feelings of being overwhelmed and bring a sense of accomplishment to them, however small. We are currently teaching English language, diction, and composition, helping prepare resumes and cover letters, and most importantly, we are offering useful techniques to acculturate to American ways and advance their plans for success. In 2007 and 2008, we worked with more than 150 African immigrants providing emergency assistance, basic care or advanced training. We intend to expand the topics of training to include developing peer-support networks, resolving conflicts, and tactics for engaging in local civic life. At the same time, we are publishing An Immigrant’s Guide to Portland, Maine which encapsulates the training and guidance into an easily-read and understandable manual for navigating life in Maine.
Members of LWP feel strongly that the most effective approach is to use local resources to bolster the newcomers’ ability to successfully meet their challenges.The purpose of the organization is to build capacity in specific immigrant communities to meet the challenges they face every day by learning coping skills and planning techniques.
Most immigrants prefer to wean off government handouts and stand on their own. Because LWP professionals and volunteers are locally based, they are focused on helping the immigrant community meet the unique challenges within the context of the Maine environment and the Maine economy.
One valuable source of local expertise and leadership is our neighborhood associations; another is our small business community, and yet another is our nonprofit community. Speakers and trainers come directly from these sources—we do not believe there is any need to seek expertise outside the state of Maine, when what we face are uniquely local challenges.
Living with Peace
Board Members
Christina Feller, founder and president, has three passions—entreprenuership, immigrants, and traveling so it is no wonder that as a nonprofit consultant, she helped establish dozens of women’s business associations in cities across Russia in the mid-nineties. As Board Chair of the International Network for Enterprise and Trade, she was instrumental in establishing more than two dozen English language business libraries across Poland, Germany and Russia in the early nineties. She graduated from Wells College, Harvard Business School, and George Mason University.
Roger Ruganzu, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His family and his tribal community fled to Rwanda because of the civil war, where he went to high school and university. He graduated from law school at the University of Kilgali in Rwanda. He came to Maine in 2006. He was married on April 11, 2009 to Solange Musgeni who came from Rwanda just two months ago and they had not seen each other for some five years.
Sergine Gakwaya went to university with both Roger and Aimee at the University of Kilgali in Rwanda. Sergine is currently enrolled in the Conflict Resolution master’s program at Brandeis University. Her thesis has recently been accepted—immigrant acculturation in Maine! She will be spending the summer in Portland working on her project.
Adelaide Manirakiza is a widow and President of the Association of Widows and Orphans of Murdered Army Personnel. She came to Portland a little more than one year ago. Her application for asylum was approved and now she is waiting for the arrival of her four daughters from Bujumbura, Burundi, where they have been living by themselves in constant fear.
Aimee Umutoni is a mother of three small children, wife, minister, full time employee of a major local firm, full time graduate student and a leader of her community of people from DRCongo. Aimee’s mother-in-law lives with her as well as two cousins so that the children are always well card for by many hands as is the African tradition! Aimee fled from DR Congo with her family after the civil war. Her college studies in Kilgali were suspended when she fled the country for the United States.
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