Month: April 2020

Posted on

Shoutout to our featured staff, Josh Levin!

Photo: Grace Ogihara
Photo: Grace Ogihara

What’s your main role as staff at Jonathan House?

I’m the Jonathan House Program Manager, which means I’m responsible for the day-to-day operations of Jonathan House, including the program and the premises.

How did you first get involved in Jonathan House?

Tom, the president of IAFR, told me about Jonathan House after I had just returned from Italy where I’d been doing volunteer work with another organization. At that time, Jonathan House was just an idea; it didn’t exist yet. After my time in Italy, I was looking for a way to continue working with displaced people, and the idea of working here in the Twin Cities with Jonathan House appealed to me. It just felt like a good fit.

What’s something that everyone can do to help the cause of asylum-seeking individuals in the US?

I think it’s important to be well-informed. There’s a lot of misinformation out there because the immigration and asylum-seeking issue has been a fairly hot and trendy political topic for some time now. It can lead to false perceptions of people. I think it’s important to hear firsthand experiences from asylum-seekers themselves. There’s plenty of that stuff that can be found online, in podcasts, and in books. If I were to make a shameless plug, our website is a good place to start.

Is there a statistic or fact that has surprised you concerning asylum seeking individuals?

Concerning asylum-seekers in the United States, something that surprised me is how long they need to wait before they can get a work permit. It’s a minimum of 180 days, and that’s a minimum. It can take longer than that.

What is something asylum seeking individuals have taught us?

Gratitude. Just an appreciation for life and other things that I too often take for granted. I distinctly remember a friend who, every time he prayed, he always thanked God that we all woke up this morning, and he’d continue to say, “because some people went to bed last night and never woke up.” And I knew that that had been an actual reality for him. Those weren’t just empty words, and that’s something that’s always stuck with me: an appreciation and gratitude for just being alive.

Hobbies?

I love outdoor activities. This time of year, I spend a lot of time at the family farm making maple syrup. Really, anything that gets me out in the forest: backpacking, camping, rock climbing, canoeing, snow shoeing, etc.

Posted on

“Everybody came together”: An asylum seeker’s story of housing, community, and healthcare

** All photos and details used with the permission of the individual.

A.G. reads in the living room of IAFR Jonathan House. She recalls how she found strength in her faith during an emergency hospitalization in February.

For A.G., IAFR Jonathan House has been more than a safe, stable place to stay while she rebuilds her life as an asylum seeker in the United States. It also provided a protective community when she became critically ill.

In February, A.G. started having sharp pains in her abdomen. One day she became very sick. Her housemate called their neighbor Lynn Thompson, a Jonathan House volunteer who the women know and trust.

Thompson took A.G. to a nearby Urgent Care, but when her symptoms became more serious, they decided to call an ambulance. An IAFR staff person met them in the hospital emergency room, to be present with A.G. while the doctors ran tests to identify the issue. “Everybody came together to save my life,” A.G. says.

Even beyond the physical cure, when facing illness in an unknown land far from family, community is healing. Asylum seekers often face social isolation and marginalization from basic need services like healthcare. Because of your support, Jonathan House residents like A.G. have access to community partners and resources that ensure they receive medical treatment and sustain good health.

IAFR staff and Thompson continued to visit A.G. during her hospitalization. A.G. asked staff to pray with her before she went in for procedures. She gets teary-eyed as she recalls it. “You were with me night and day,” she says. “You were such an encouragement to me; you helped me more than the doctor.”

A.G. gives thanks to God that she was able to receive the medical care she needed and return healthy to IAFR Jonathan House. She was recently granted asylum and is working toward finding independent housing. She hopes someday to be reunited with her family.

A.G. wraps herself in the multicolored blanket she has crocheted to “record” her time at IAFR Jonathan House.

The current global pandemic clearly shows the tie between being able to “shelter in place” and safeguarding our health. But what if you have been forcibly displaced? What if you have no shelter? This is the reality for many asylum-seeking individuals in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The importance of housing and quick, easy access to healthcare becomes ever clearer, particularly for vulnerable populations such as asylum seekers. 

Because of supporters like you, asylum-seeking individuals can have their healthcare needs met in safe, stable shelter with supportive community. 

 “Jonathan House helped me a lot with my health when I was sick. They help fulfill all my needs. Even when I move to my own home, I want to stay connected with Jonathan House.”

In the meantime, A.G.’s place is woven into the fabric of IAFR Jonathan House. She is quick to laugh with her housemates, helps care for her roommate’s infant, and enjoys crocheting in her downtime. She recently completed a large colorful blanket crocheted from various sources of yarn, including some knitted clothes she unraveled and repurposed.

She wraps herself in the blanket like a hug. “It’s my ‘record’ of Jonathan House,” she says. “It is really a Jonathan House memory for me.”

Posted on

Shoutout to our featured staff, Kelsey Briggs!

Kelsey is our Community Coordinator here at IAFR Jonathan House.

“I oversee our trainings, volunteer system, and overall engagement. I also work pretty closely with our residents regarding some aspects of our programming, such as goal meetings. During this time, I meet with residents to discuss their ambitions for the future and together we work through steps to get where they want to be.

I really like this aspect of the work because it is a tangible way to provide support (and maybe some hope), and it gives me a chance to get to know our residents better. It has also become a way to just share life. We all have hopes, dreams, disappointments, insecurities, and so forth, and when our residents are willing to take time to share those intimate feelings with me, I feel a deep sense of connection and joy. I hope they do too!

How did you first learn about the plight of asylum-seeking individuals in America?

I don’t remember exactly, but the first time I was really struck by the situation I was interning with a Boston based nonprofit. Through my work there I ended up becoming close friends with a displaced family that was in a really horrible situation at the time. Even in the midst of it, they were constantly taking time to care for me physically, mentally, and spiritually and I was touched by the mutual benefit of sharing our lives.

How did you first get involved in Jonathan House?

I first got involved with asylum seekers in Rome, Italy. I was studying there and volunteering at a drop-in center, which I later learned was run by IAFR. I ended up really loving the work there and went back to Italy for a time with IAFR before returning to the United States to work with Jonathan House. In between my two stints in Italy I was interning at a nonprofit in Boston where we were exploring community style housing options for displaced people and I connected with Jonathan House at that time to interview them for a research project. I never would have imagined I would end up working with them at the time!

What’s something that everyone can do to help the cause of asylum-seeking individuals in the US?

I guess I would say that all people who have been displaced are far more than people in need. There is a temptation to label people in a certain manner when we read only one part of their story. At Jonathan House for example, our residents are not only seeking asylum, they are also doctors, language gurus, international finance managers, parents, expert knitters, basketball and soccer fans, incredible chefs, curious, funny, bright, and a million other things. They are full humans who have, due to circumstances out of their control, found themselves in a hard spot. 

Something everyone can do is be aware of both of those things when they meet an asylum-seeker. Sensitivity to the fact that seeking asylum in the U.S. genuinely puts you in a very vulnerable situation that sometimes requires tangible help, and sensitive to the fact that “asylum seeker” is one title of many.

Is there a statistic or fact that has surprised you concerning asylum seeking individuals?

I think one thing that is surprising is that, according to the most recent statistic I have seen, asylum seekers are waiting an average of 1,000 days to have resolution on their cases. That is nearly three years of living in uncertainty, sometimes with lack of access to services to help meet the most basic needs, let alone sustaining “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

What is something asylum seeking individuals have taught you?

I have learned a lot from the willingness of my asylum-seeking friends to open their lives to me. They have shared stories and wisdom that they have collected along their lives journeys, they have shared practical advice and perspective in my moments of difficulty, they have shared hugs and tender moments of laughter, they have fed me, given me clothing, then given me more food! I guess to sum it up, they have taught me a lot about what it means to love someone openly, and without condition, in a way that invites you to let your guard down, knowing you are safe enough to come as you are.

What languages do you speak?

English and Italian. I also studied German in school, but it would be a stretch to say I speak it now. I also have built my Oromo vocabulary to a solid 5-10 words, so it seems that should count for something.

Do you have any hobbies?

Reading, studying Italian, yoga, going to the gym, and cooking.