MAR 22 2020
Let us introduce you to one.
by Lauren Husband, Communications Team
Refugee women face gender-specific challenges in navigating daily life at every stage of their migration experience.
Common challenges for all refugee women, regardless of other demographic data, are access to healthcare and education, physical abuse, and discrimination.
However, despite the layers of discrimination faced by refugee women and girls, they are not just passive victims. In many camps and refugee sites, women run nurseries, arrange care for orphaned or lost children, provide safe spaces for other women, feed families and communities, and run small businesses to provide financial support for their families. Much of this work is done without funding or external support.
For our International Women’s Day celebration this month, we think it’s important to acknowledge the intense challenges that refugee women and mothers face— but even more, we want to celebrate the incredible refugee moms in our community! We’re emphasizing the many unique skills, lessons, and strengths that they have to share. We’re highlighting one fierce refugee mama in this week’s blog— Lusia Akilimali!
Lusia is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo but was forced to flee to Kenya many years ago due to internal conflict in the DRC. She is married with five children of her own and adopted two more young girls in Kenya— but she considers all seven her children. In Kenya, while living in the refugee camp, Lusia was a hairdresser and sold produce to support her family.
Lusia wants a better life for her kids in America. She wasn’t afforded many educational opportunities in her youth due to cultural barriers, scarce resources, and unstable conditions, so she is grateful for the many resources, including school lunches and supplies, that her children receive in American schools.
“Now, my daughters receive so many things at school that I did not have. They get food and bags— so many things. It is because of these things that I believe in them [and] that they can do better than me— especially because they have me, a strong woman, as an example.
In Africa, children had to work at home. I want them to learn that responsibility to become strong. I teach them to clean and learn skills by themselves and not be lazy. My mother taught me these things when I was young. Because of this, I grew up to be a leader and knowing that women need to be a leader when they are little. Otherwise they will not learn to lead when they are big.”
Lusia’s efforts to teach her children responsibility and leadership seem to be paying off— of her two adult daughters, one is studying medicine in Ohio and the other is in her second year of school at NWACC. Lusia is constantly asserting the importance of education to her younger children, as well, even when her family falls on hard financial times.
“Right now, my sons don’t work because I want them to focus on school. I don’t want them to drop out of school because of money. I decided to have them stay home to work hard at schooling. Let me tell you the truth: when you work hard and go to school, you can get more money than [I do right now]. I want them to work hard and improve their minds.”
Lusia’s advice to value education isn’t only for her children— she’s taking it as well. In 2019, she passed her Certified Nursing Assistan certification exam and is now preparing for the The Arkansas Nursing Assistant Competency Exam, which she plans to take later this year.
Improving her English, studying for Nursing Assistant Competency Exam, and caring for and leading her family are Lusia’s main priorities at the moment— so how does she find the wherewithal to juggle all of her priorities? Lusia finds motivation in her strength as a woman.
In Northwest Arkansas, we have an incredible community of refugee women who we are so grateful to know and serve here at Canopy. These women are caring, kind, and motivated. They are budding entrepreneurs, they are single mothers caring for eight children, they are a constant support when others need a hand, and they are stronger than we will ever know.
From her experiences, Lusia has one last bit of advice for women, and especially for African women:
“Use your voice. It gives you hope to do something good. In Africa, women are not supposed to talk. But our opinion is one of the most important things in our lives and in our community. Because if you speak and are wrong, you can be corrected, but if you are right, so many good things can come from that.”
These are intense times for everyone in our community as we all do our best to protect ourselves and our neighbors from the current outbreak of Covid-19. Many of our families are expecting to see tough times ahead as businesses close and cut hours, school meals and resources are reduced, and single-parent households are stressed by the change in routine. Are you looking for ways to help?
Support Canopy’s Crisis Relief Fund! This will provide short-term financial support to families who experience a loss of income due to the outbreak. It will be accompanied by case management and employment services designed to help the family regain self-sufficiency as quickly as possible and will be combined with other forms of assistance available in the community.
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