Earlier this year I was matched by Lutheran Social Services with Rebecca, a refugee from Sudan who has been in the United States for about a year and a half. Rebecca wants to improve her English so she can take courses to receive her caregiving license. The license would give her more job opportunities and increase her pay to $17 an hour from her current $15 an hour as an unlicensed care giver. She does not receive food stamps or AHCCCS. She can only get food stamps once she has a green card, which she has been waiting for since April.
While Rebecca was born in Sudan, her mother fled with her to Uganda when she was a child to escape the fighting in Sudan. Since then she has lived in a refugee camp in Uganda. She completed the 8th grade, but had to pay to attend high school, which her family could not afford. Rebecca speaks four languages: English, Swahili, Arabic, and her local native language from Sudan.
Rebecca works seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., with no days off. That is the only way she can afford to feed and care for her family. Her husband was not able to emigrate to the US, so she is here with her 5 children and 2 children from her husband’s prior marriage. The three oldest children are young adults, so they work at night, go to school, and care for the youngest in the family, four year old Gift, while Rebecca is at work.
Rebecca’s husband, mother, and brother had to leave the refugee camp in Uganda and return to Sudan when our country cut off funding for USAID, which fed the residents of the refugee camp. Sudan is not a safe place for them, but since they have a home there where they can grow a garden for food, they had no choice but to return.
Rebecca’s faith in God is an amazing thing to see. One of her daughters had a serious heart issue while in Uganda. It has since been resolved and seeing the before and after pictures of this child you would not realize they are the same person. With all that Rebecca and her family have been through her response to this is inspiring. She praises God and declares God does not forget his people! Another time at one of our tutoring sessions she was very tired. I told her I hope you can go home now and rest. She said she couldn’t because she needed to visit someone in the hospital just as Jesus wants us to do.
Please keep Rebecca and her family in your prayers, and thank you for your generosity which provided food boxes at Thanksgiving for Rebecca and her children.
Submitted by Patty Clymer