Students get a taste of refugee life
4/28/2010
By Britta Bloomquist
Staff Writer
An example of the few supplies a refugee may have.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, students who are enrolled in Dr. Haji’s student initiated seminar class put on a refugee exhibition to educate the University of Wisconsin – Superior campus on the trials and tribulations that refugees face.
Each student picked a topic to research such as politics, gender issues and sociology just to name a few. Amnesty International awarded a grant and donated items to be used in the exhibition. US Aid also donated items, many which were then donated to local organizations in the community. Many of the items included medical supplies that will be used in our local community.
The exhibition featured tents which showed what it is really like to live as a refugee. One tent was set up with the donated medical items showing how limited the supplies are. For example, a mother giving birth is only supplied with a few necessary items, but nothing as close as hospitals would provide for citizens of the United States.A
lyssa Olson said it was important to have this on campus to create more awareness.
“I think refugees are also being stereotyped as immigrants right now which seems bad,” Olson said.
For one student, examples of refugee conditions really hit home.
Lalese Dawano was ten years old when she came to America as an Oromo Ethopian refugee; she is attending UWS and is currently the only refugee on campus.
“When I got here, it was obviously better than where I am from,” Dawano said.
When Dawano arrived, she didn’t understand or speak any English, but learned it in school.
“People don’t understand you here. It is hard if you go to the hospital and the translator doesn’t understand that you just have a headache and not a migraine,” said Dawano.
The legal definition of a refugee meets at least one of the five issues for leaving his or her country: political, religion, race, nationality and certain social group.
Salisa Buntham said, “We need to create awareness, because many have wrong beliefs about refugees.”
Buntham also mentioned that many refugees that live in the Twin Cities are Hmong and Somalian.
For more information or to get involved, Amnesty International meets every Monday at noon, upstairs in the Yellowjacket Union and the International Peace Studies Association (IPSA) meets every Thursday at noon, also upstairs in the Yellowjacket Union.
Each student picked a topic to research such as politics, gender issues and sociology just to name a few. Amnesty International awarded a grant and donated items to be used in the exhibition. US Aid also donated items, many which were then donated to local organizations in the community. Many of the items included medical supplies that will be used in our local community.
The exhibition featured tents which showed what it is really like to live as a refugee. One tent was set up with the donated medical items showing how limited the supplies are. For example, a mother giving birth is only supplied with a few necessary items, but nothing as close as hospitals would provide for citizens of the United States.A
lyssa Olson said it was important to have this on campus to create more awareness.
“I think refugees are also being stereotyped as immigrants right now which seems bad,” Olson said.
For one student, examples of refugee conditions really hit home.
Lalese Dawano was ten years old when she came to America as an Oromo Ethopian refugee; she is attending UWS and is currently the only refugee on campus.
“When I got here, it was obviously better than where I am from,” Dawano said.
When Dawano arrived, she didn’t understand or speak any English, but learned it in school.
“People don’t understand you here. It is hard if you go to the hospital and the translator doesn’t understand that you just have a headache and not a migraine,” said Dawano.
The legal definition of a refugee meets at least one of the five issues for leaving his or her country: political, religion, race, nationality and certain social group.
Salisa Buntham said, “We need to create awareness, because many have wrong beliefs about refugees.”
Buntham also mentioned that many refugees that live in the Twin Cities are Hmong and Somalian.
For more information or to get involved, Amnesty International meets every Monday at noon, upstairs in the Yellowjacket Union and the International Peace Studies Association (IPSA) meets every Thursday at noon, also upstairs in the Yellowjacket Union.
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Art in the park. Photo by Alyssa Palmer
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