A Busy First Month for Refugees RICHMOND, KY (WEKU) -

When refugees arrive in the United States, they face a daunting first month of paperwork, meetings, and emotional upheaval. WEKU's Julie Schindall spent a month following two newly arrived refugees from Nepal to understand their journey and the challenges they will face in their new country.

On a Friday morning in Lexington, Kentucky, 30 refugees sit in the basement of the Maxwell Presbyterian Church. Kentucky Refugee Ministries, the agency responsible for resettling refugees in Kentucky, is running a session about personal finances. Among the attendees are Budha and her husband Shabahadur Mangar.

Budha and Shabahadur arrived yesterday morning at the Lexington airport. They spent four days in transit, traveling on six planes from Kathmandu, Nepal, to the Bluegrass.

The basement room buzzes with translators speaking Nepali, Arabic, Swahili, and French. Most of the adults pay careful attention to the presenter, from Fifth-Third Bank in Lexington. Some attendees can barely write. Their children may have never known life outside the refugee camp. Some people in their thirties are just learning to develop a signature.

Across the street from the church is a three-story building that houses the Lexington office of Kentucky Refugee Ministries, or KRM. The first floor is cluttered with old clothes, child car seats, and a mattress for a baby crib. Upstairs, six staff members work on furniture that looks like it came from a schoolhouse. They're all women, friendly and tidily dressed.

Barbara Kleine directs the Lexington office.

"Our office, like all refugee resettlement offices around the country, provide mandated resettlement services for newly arrived refugees," Kleine explains.

Kleine says a lot of people don't really understand the ministry's work because they don't know what a refugee is. Refugees have a specific legal status designated by governments or the United Nations. In 1951, the US signed an international agreement to legally define the protections afforded to refugees.

The definition of a refugee says the person must have "a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion." The person has to feel unsafe in his country.

"It's What We Learned In Orientation"

Budha and Shabahadur, the newest refugees at the KRM offices, are petite, smiling newlyweds. Budha is 30; Shabahadur 40. They don't talk about being persecuted. But then it turns out they lived in the camp for 18 years.

The Mangars are ethnic Nepalese who were born in Bhutan. Over two decades ago, Bhutan started kicking out the ethnic Nepalese population. Now, 107,000 ethnic Nepalese from Bhutan live in seven refugee camps in Nepal.

Six days after their arrival in Kentucky, the Mangars go to the food stamps office in Lexington. As refugees, they are entitled to food support at the beginning of their time in the US.

While the Mangars and I wait around for over two hours to file their paperwork, we talk about job prospects for the couple.

"For the first time, we have to do any job, like entry level. We got the information from orientation classes," Shabahadur says.

As refugees processed in Nepal by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office, or UNHCR, Budha and Shabahadur went through extensive pre-departure preparation courses and medical examinations. They seem well-versed on the realities of life in the United States.

"First of all, we have to do whatever work we find here, just to sustain our life. Then after that we have to pass the GED, and ESL classes. Then after that, if we get a chance, we'll go to university. It's a long journey," Budha says.

Plenty of Food

Kentucky Refugee Ministries arranges for all refugees to move into a private apartment shortly after their arrival. Budha and Shabahadur live in an apartment complex with Shabahdur's younger brother.

When I visit them on their 12th day in America, they play me Nepalese music videos and show me their sparse closets and clean bathroom.

By about 7 o'clock, we end up congregating in the kitchen. Budha is making dinner.

While Budha stirs lentils in a saucepan, the Mangars tell me about life in the refugee camp.

Residents cooked everything over charcoal fires. Shabahadur says it caused lung problems. Budha shows off her right bicep, which is strong from hauling water from the well for washing, cooking, and drinking.

The Mangar's favorite thing to eat so far in America is meat. They never had fresh meat, or produce, in Nepal, they say.

Barbara Kleine of KRM says stocking the apartments with food is one of the most important tasks before the newcomers arrive.

"Many of our refugees go through an incredible amount of food in the first 30 days, because they've had such limited access to food in refugee camps for years," she says.

"The Doctor's Didn't Care"

The following morning, I meet Shabahadur at the public health clinic in Lexington. He has a check-up for this tuberculosis test.

We spend nearly two hours in the waiting and exam rooms. Shabahadur doesn't seem to mind. He says in Nepal, doctors didn't care about giving refugees good healthcare.

"Here the doctor will ask everything. There we have to tell our problems, and then they don't listen to us. The doctors, there, they don't care. They take less care of us than other people - less care of camp people," he says.

When we're done at the clinic, we hurry over to the apartment, pick up Budha, and I drive them to their English class placement test at the KRM office. When we arrive, there are a handful of refugees waiting on the front porch. They point excitedly to the jeep I'm driving. It's like Budha and Shabahadur have a chauffeur!

In the middle of June, another of Shabahadur's brothers arrived from Nepal. Right after his arrival, he started the same process Budha and Shabahadur had just completed: moving into the apartment, cultural orientation, doctor appointments, English classes, visits to the social security and food stamps offices, appointments at the bank. This year, Kentucky Refugee Ministries will assist nearly 200 refugees in this process.

In 2008, over 60,000 refugees came to the United States. Within their first 30 days, each and every one must undertake a lifetime's worth of paperwork. In addition, they'll cope with homesickness, language problems, and, often, post-traumatic stress symptoms. But Budha and Shabahadur say it's worth it. Now they're safe. © Copyright 2009, WEKU