'We’ve become like a family': innovative groups help refugees settle in US cities

Like many ambitious teenagers, Sabzina Muhibzada is busy getting good grades in her classes, holding leadership positions in clubs and completing internships. But it was just five years ago that the 18-year-old had only ever had home schooling.

At the time that was her only option, as conflict raged outside near the contentious border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where she lived.

Since then Muhibzada has transitioned from a young refugee waiting to travel to the US to a college-bound teenager at a high school in Cleveland, Ohio.

Helping her on that journey has been a not-for-profit, Refugee Response, which creates programs to address the needs of the 2,500 refugees who have settled in the city since 2008, and is one of 25 organizations the Guardian is highlighting in its City Champions project.

Nationally, Donald Trump’s administration has cut the refugee program to admit the fewest number of people in its nearly 40-year history, with a ceiling of 18,000 people announced for the coming year. Refugee officers, resettlement groups and advocates say the government has effectively stopped the program and, in October, not a single refugee was resettled in the US.

But, while the administration’s drastic cuts to the refugee program have caused dozens of resettlement offices to close down, because Refugee Response is not directly tied to the government’s resettlement program, it has doubled in size in the past two years.

“I think it’s a testament to the work our teams do and the need for it in the community,” said Patrick Kearns, Refugee Response’s executive director.

Cleveland has historically welcomed refugees and as the federal government has shrunk the resettlement program, the mayor, Frank Jackson, has repeatedly affirmed the city’s support for these immigrants.

“Cleveland is a city that is open and welcoming to all people and families, no matter from how near or far they come,” Jackson said last year. “It is important, now more than ever, that we stand in solidarity with those who come to Cleveland seeking a better life in our city as refugees.”

Many cities across the US face significant challenges – places like Baltimore, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are among them. And much has been written about how these former economic powerhouses have struggled over the last few decades.

But this week in the first installment of our City Champions series, we want to highlight the remarkable people and groups working on inspiring projects that show the resilience of those wanting to improve the lives of people in one of those cities: Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland has many challenges - inequality, structural racism, infant mortality, shamefully untreated lead poisoning - but it also has a network of people creating innovative projects that are addressing these challenges with significant success.

Collaborating with the local newspaper - The Plain Dealer - and the local PBS and NPR stations, run by ideastream, we canvassed residents for their suggestions for who to recognize and received hundreds of replies.

We then created an advisory panel of mostly local public figures who helped select the final 25 champions, whose stories we will be telling this week.

As part of this project we have also worked with the art collective For Freedoms to create a public art expression for this project. Working with For Freedoms and local artists, we commissioned artwork for six billboards that help tell the stories of the city and the challenges the champions are addressing.

–John Mulholland, editor in chief, Guardian US

Refugee Response’s services include in-home tutoring, work on one of the largest urban farms in the country and a program for high school students such as Muhibzada. “We’re all about not just providing one-time aid, or a one-time donation or a gift, but seeing through on a path that is going to be transformative,” Kearns said.

The program Muhibzada is in, Teen Response, came about to address the gap in what a school system can provide to refugee students who may have been exposed to unique traumatic situations, inconsistent education and other obstacles specific to people fleeing conflict zones.

In addition to providing tutoring, career counseling and cultural education, Muhibzada said Teen Response creates a built-in social support group with people from all over the world. “We’ve become like a family,” she said.

Teen Response, intentionally, also benefits Muhibzada’s family. While her father, who supported the US armed forces in Afghanistan, is fluent in English, Muhibzada is able to share what she learns in English tutoring and career counseling with the rest of her family. “I teach my sisters what this means, what I learned and you have to know this is important,” Muhibzada said.

And for her specifically, Teen Response has helped her manage a busy schedule which in the past year has included organizing logistics for the school’s US military student training program, JROTC; being treasurer for her class; participating in the Upward Bound college preparation program; taking college-level courses at a nearby university; and interning at a retirement home.

“Even if I need help in my classes, I come here and finish it,” Muhibzada said. “When I go home, I relax and go to sleep,”

Feeling violence in the Congo

Refugee flows follow international crises – while many refugees in the past decade have been from the Middle East, in recent years, there has been an increase in people arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each population has different needs, and Refugee Response is built to respond to the shifting nature of these populations.

When there was an increase in Afghan families arriving in Cleveland, Refugee Response surveyed the new arrivals and identified a gap in educational opportunities for adult women. “We saw that particular population was becoming very socially isolated, left at home with young kids and no real outlet or access to understanding the new society or new world they are in,” Kearns said.

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