January 28, 2006
Informational session on Immigration Reform
Contact IIRI staff Ellen Gallagher at egallagher@iiri.org or 401-784-8644 for more information or click here
International
Institute of Rhode Island's mission is to enable all area residents, especially
immigrants and refugees, to become self-reliant, invested participants in
our communities, while fostering respect and understanding among all people.
Read more
Thanks to great supporters like you, refugees
are turned into Americans and Rhode Island success stories
Meet Joe Teaway.
Joe has an associate's degree. He speaks two languages. In Liberia, his
native country, he owned a small construction company. Then in 1992 a savage
civil war erupted. Lawlessness and unimaginable cruelty drove him, with a
million others, from his home, into camps in neighboring countries. Joe
wasn't defeated. He worked construction whenever he could. He taught young
refugees how to build things, to help them forget their traumas. He made
sure his own kids got an education. Camp schools could be surprisingly good.
Teachers and professors who had also fled the horror staffed them.
And he had a dream: to build a new life in a secure world, in America. His
family's last long-term residence in Africa was a filthy refugee camp. The
toilets overflowed. Sickness thrived in the crowded conditions. The host
country was hostile. The threat of massacre storming through the camp gates
was real and daily.
If Joe's life were a movie, you'd be on the edge of your seat about now. But
you know, there's a happy ending. Two years ago, Joe and his family were
among the lucky few evacuated to Rhode Island.
If this were a movie, you'd be cheering at the end. Within two weeks of his
arrival Joe was building houses for a local developer. The stress-induced
hypertension that nearly killed both him and his wife, Kebbeh, disappeared.
His oldest son, Joe Jr., received a full scholarship to Rhode Island College
last September and he'll be transferring to the Brown University pre-med
program by 2007.
If this were a movie, it wouldn't surprise me to see tears in your eyes when
the lights came on. And it's all real.
Because of great supporters like you, you make this kind of happy ending
possible over and over for refugee and immigrant families…today, and year
after year.
Since 1921 the International Institute of Rhode Island has aided tens of
thousands of newcomers from foreign lands to adjust, learn the English
language, find work, and become productive citizens of their adopted
country. In the beginning, the people we helped were mostly Irish, Italian,
or Portuguese. Today, they are from every corner of the earth…sometimes, as
with the Teaways, from very violent and despairing corners of the earth.
Last year the teachers and counselors at the International Institute of
Rhode Island served more than 16,000 men, women and children. They found
their way to our Providence doorstep from 105 different countries. Yet they
all have a few things in common: a courage that outweighs their fears…a
willingness to work extraordinarily hard…and truly amazing determination.
THANK YOU for being part of our family here at the International Institute
of Rhode Island and warm regards for a happy and healthy new year!
Warmly,
William Shuey
Executive Director
Teaway's youngest daughter
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