Young refugee tells heart-rending tale of loss and redemption
RADNOR » Samuel Cyubahiro’s life before coming to Radnor as a refugee last November is hard for most comfortable Main Line residents to imagine.
At 15, in a region of the Democratic Republic of Congo rife with tribal violence, Cyubahiro came home from fetching water to discover his father had been killed.
“There was bad people who came when I was really young,” Cyubahiro said. “There was different tribes. Some tribes was trying to make our lives miserable.
“So even at the school, some teachers (were with) different tribes and tried to make sure our tribe didn’t get an education. They would show us they didn’t like us. They would beat us a lot. So when my dad saw it, it was too much.”
In response, his father withdrew Cyubahiro from school when he was just beginning his education.“So I been home for a long time,” he said. “When I was 15, these people came when I was not home. They killed my dad.”
With his mother, younger brother and older sister, Cyubahiro escaped into the forest.
“We walked a few miles and met another group,” he said. Those people separated his family by gender. “They took the boys in a big car in the forest. That was the last time I saw my mom and sister. Some older guy took them away to steal something or cook for them.”
Then his brother, Ira Dukundafios, 13, was murdered “when I was looking,” he said.
“They were telling us we are next,” he said. An older guy said it was better to escape. So we tried and got to another country, Uganda. We were running in a big forest.”
In Uganda he ran into “a friend who was a friend of my dad,” he said. “I explained to him what happened and he took me to his house. We were together two weeks but he was not able to give me the things I needed, like school. Security in Uganda was no good. He took me to Kenya and said, ‘Sit here and I am going to find food for you.’ But then he went and he never come back. After two days, I met Erneste (Muhizi). I lived with them for two years.”
Muhizi brought Cyubahiro back to his wife, Denise Uwiragiye, and daughter, Faith, now 5. That family, who are members of the same tribe as Cyubahiro,
were about to leave the refugee camp where they had been staying in Kenya, having been granted asylum in the United States, said Rena Counsellor, a congregant at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Wayne who is involved with refugee resettlement.
The family waited for two more years so that Cyubahiro, who needed to be vetted by authorities, could come to America with them rather than leaving the teenager to fend for himself in the camp, said Counsellor. Counsellor felt called to help refugees after seeing heart-rending images on TV.
“In August of 2015 I was watching the news when they first started showing all these people washing up on the beaches of Europe, showing children drowning,” said Counsellor. “I went into church that Sunday, there was a picnic going on, I saw my minister and I said, ‘We have do something.’”
She knew the church had taken in a Vietnamese family about 30 years ago and after that it helped a family from Poland.
“I can’t just turn away and say it’s happening over there and there is nothing we can do,” said Counsellor, a Wayne resident, who, with her husband, David Phillips, has two grown children. “We have everything here. We are so blessed.”
At a training session in Allentown for those who want to help refugees, some opponents also showed up. They questioned the wisdom of taking in foreigners who might turn out to be terrorists, she said.
“I’m going to trust God that I’m not bringing in a terrorist,” said Counsellor, who works as a student advisor at Eastern University. She began a quest to gather like-minded parishioners, learn about what paperwork needed to be filled out and finally, after a talk given at St. Mary’s by Sturgis Poorman, a retired minister who is running a program for refugees through the auspices of Ardmore Presbyterian Church, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church got its first refugee family in November 2016. That family included Cyubahiro, Uwiragiye, Muhizi and Faith.
That family stayed only a few months in the two-bedroom apartment the church committee rented for them in the Regency Apartments near the Radnor Township Building. They departed for Seattle after learning from a friend of theirs that the minimum wage was higher there and rents were cheaper. However, their foster son, Cyubahiro, now 18, remained behind, happy at Radnor High School where he has been enrolled since arriving in the township. He’s now living in the Wayne rectory with St. Mary’s pastor, the Rev. Joseph F. Smith, and his wife, Sharon, whose own children are older.
“God gave us a gift of this huge house,” Smith said. “When we heard that there was a need for Samuel, he came to live with us.”
“I really, really like it because I get a chance to meet good people and go to school,” said Cyubahiro. “My life changed.”
St. Mary’s has been joined by members of other Radnor churches — St. Martin’s and St. David’s Episcopal churches, Wayne Pres-
byterian Church and the Radnor Friends Meeting — forming a committee with more than 75 people to help refugees. Counsellor hopes they can help resettle another refugee family this fall, working with the Bethany Christian Services, an agency authorized by the U.S. State Department to resettle refugees. However, since the Trump Administration took office, the flow of refugees has decreased, said Counsellor.
Meanwhile, the Ardmore Presbyterian Church rents a three bedroom rowhouse in South Ardmore dubbed “First Place” that serves as a place for refugees to live for a month until they get their bearings, said Poorman.
“I knew there was a need,” said Poorman, a retired Presbyterian minister. Church members donated furnishings. “We want to welcome the people out of our faith perspective. Welcoming the stranger is a strong aspect of Christianity.”
Since opening its doors in February, two men from
Iraq, a man from Sudan, and a family from Afghanistan, have stayed there. Two of the men had worked with the U.S. military, he said.
Some people wait four, eight or 10 years in refugee camps until they are approved, he said. Members of St. George’s Episcopal Church, Bethel AME and Old Haverford Friends Meeting have also joined the effort. Church members provide transportation for the refugees for various appointments and help with translation.
Poorman grew up in Ardmore, graduated from Lower Merion High School and Haverford College. After becoming a minister, he was assigned to congregations in New York and also took his family on a mission to Zimbabwe for three years. He was most recently a pastor at a church in Phoenixville before retiring. In 1999, he founded Welcoming the Stranger in Langhorne, an organization that helps new immigrants with English, computer skills and job preparation. Although he is no longer involved in it, Welcoming the Stranger is still going strong, he said.
All of the immigrants
who have stayed at First Place so far have been Muslim.
“They have appreciated the support they’ve received,” he said. “There has been no prejudice or push back.” Ardmore is a very diverse community, he added.
Poorman, who now lives with his wife in Bryn Mawr, has two grown sons and four teenage grandchildren.
“This work is very rewarding,” he said about helping refugees. “We’re providing what people need and the refugees are so appreciative of the help they receive.”
Counsellor’s group hopes to provide longer term housing for their next refugee family. Meanwhile, she says in touch with Cyubahiro.
“He is very bright,” she said. “He taught himself English in the camp. He wrote down anything he didn’t understand and has a drive for learning.”
At times Cyubahiro is frustrated by a stigma he perceives around the word “refugee.”
“People hear you’re a refugee and they judge you,” he said. “I want to clear [refugees’] name.”
In addition to continuing
to study at Radnor High School, Cyubahiro works at the Giant in St. Davids. He is using some of the money he earns to pay it forward to help two teenage brothers, Brown and Vincent, he met back in Africa who are also from his tribe.
“My goal was to help them,” Cyubahiro said. “They are hungry for life. I send them money for food to eat. They don’t have an education. Life for them is really hard.” Those boys are living in a small shack meant for pets in Rwanda, he said.
“We were talking about the refugees and how to help them,” said Smith. “Samuel is so wise. He says the best thing for them is education, a roof over their heads and food in their bodies.”
To donate to help Brown and Vincent, email Smith at frjoseph@stmaryswaynepa.org. For more information about First Place go to: http://ardmorepres.org/ first-place.