Emporians, Somalians work together on acclimation
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
The Emporia Gazette
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The group, Emporia Refugee Resettlement Alliance, formed recently after a variety of representatives of agencies and governmental units attended a meeting organized by Lougene Marsh, director of the Flint Hills Community Health Center. The meeting also was attended by Lewis Kimsey, state coordinator for refugee services for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
Elizabeth Nelson, chairwoman of ERRA, said the group was organized “to deal with issues that have arisen from the arrival of Somali refugees this summer. ...”
Nelson also is coordinator for multicultural programs and services at ESU; however, the university is not a sponsor of the group.
“The Somali refugees have chosen to call Emporia ‘home,’ and it is the ERRA’s wish to help them acclimate to their new surroundings while helping Emporians adjust to the arrival of their new refugee neighbors,” Nelson said.
ERRA is made up of representatives from the health center, SRS, Flint Hills Technical College Adult Education Center, Tyson Fresh Meats, the City of Emporia, the Emporia school district, the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau, the United Way and Newman Regional Health. Two Somalians also are members of the group. Both work at Tyson and one also is a part-time student at ESU.
“We’ve got issues connected to health and safety, transportation, driver’s education, education, English language training, social services, and also development of cross-cultural awareness and understanding,” Nelson said.
The group will emphasize cross-cultural training — educating Lyon Countians to the cultural and religious traditions of the Somalis and educating Somalis to the cultural and religious traditions of Americans in general, and Lyon County, in particular.
“It’s a cross-cultural exchange,” Nelson said; “it’s not one-sided. ... I want to make sure that the Emporia community knows that there will be education on both sides.”
Nelson said that the Somali refugees primarily have come from metropolitan areas, particularly Minneapolis, Minn., and Columbus, Ohio.
“So, they’ve worked and lived in big cosmopolitan cities with bigger Somali populations,” she said. In Emporia, they have needed to adjust to the smaller number of Somalis within a smaller general population.
Many of the refugees are familiar with the “Western ways of doing things,” she said, and many are enrolled in classes at the Flint Hills Technical College.
“We would like to have educational opportunities for them in terms of cultural education,” Nelson said.
Education for the children is in the Emporia public school system, where Nelson said seven Somali students now attend classes.
“That number probably will increase because of some of the children waiting to be reunited with their families,” she said.
The Somalians who have come to Emporia have refugee status as a result of a civil war in 1991. Many of them were terrorized by militia groups in Somalia, and many of their homes have been destroyed, she said.
“Some were able to flee to the United States immediately, but most of them lived in refugee camps in neighboring Kenya,” Nelson said. “Many of them have left their country when they were very young and so do not have any real sense of ‘home.’”
In Emporia, the “Ayan Cafe is a huge part of the Somali community,” she said of a restaurant opened by Somali refugees a few months ago on East 12th Avenue. “It’s a gathering place, and a place where they can find food from home.”
A limited number of the refugees were allowed to come to the U.S. and, she said, all of them are well-documented.
“Every refugee from Somalia is known by name, point of origin, date of entry. The United States government has all of this information,” Nelson said. “The refugees have two full medical screenings, one before they leave their country of origin, one when they arrive” in the U.S.
“Everyone is fully screened and there are medical services available to the Somali refugees because of their status as refugees,” she said.
Nelson said they have been tested for tuberculosis, HIV and other transmittable diseases.
Renee Hively of the Flint Hills Community Health Center said that Somalis commonly show latent TB when they are tested.
“It’s very prevalent in their area, so the chances are, they’ve been exposed to the tuberculosis germ is high,” Hively said. “The majority do test positive.”
Those Somalians are on drug therapy.
“They’re not at the infectious stage any more where they could be spreading it,” Hively said.
Making certain that patients are taking the medication correctly is a concern, she said.
“There’s about a 5 percent chance that they could convert to an active disease at any point,” she said. “It’s the compliance to the prophylactic medication that’s a concern to us at the health center.”
Another concern is obtaining health records from Minnesota, Ohio, and other states so health officials can verify the progress in taking the medications.
“Luckily, Tyson has been doing some verbal screening ... then referring them on to the health department,” Hively said. Department staff follows up to “get them started on the regimen they’re supposed to be on and making sure they are disease-free.”
To date, there has not been an increase in the number of active TB cases reported here.
“We typically in Lyon County have one or two active cases a year, and we haven’t exceeded that norm. Now the amount of latent TB infection that we are treating, yes, that has grown enormously, but that was to be expected.”
Hively said that she was aware of one positive HIV case. The government places those cases in a community that has the resources to accommodate the disease.
“I don’t have any positive HIV cases,” she said.
People who want more information about the ERRA organization may e-mail Nelson at [email protected].
Source: The Emporia Gazette, Nov 11, 2006