The Foreign Service Journal, March 2013

the Foreign Service journal | march 2013 33 (Afterward, the mother plans to return to her other children in Iran.) When the young woman finally arrived in the United States in January, some friends whom she had met along the way were there to welcome her at the airport. Despite her physi- cal limitations, her spirit remains strong and she is ecstatic to be here. In PRM, we have the opportunity to help refugees like these by providing concrete assistance, facilitating their resettle- ment to the United States in very practical ways. As a Foreign Service officer, it brings me great joy to know that I am helping refugees get out of harm’s way and pursue a better life, and I am grateful for the collaborative efforts of multiple agencies in that endeavor. Our work truly makes a difference. Maha Angelina Armush, a State Department Foreign Service officer since 2006, is the program officer for refugee admissions from Europe, Central Asia, Turkey and Lebanon in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration . The Next Chapter By Rachel O’Hara B ack in 2000, while working with a refugee resettlement agency in sub-Saharan Africa, I spent several months in Kakuma, a refugee camp in desolate northern Kenya. While walking in the outskirts of the camp, I met two young Sudanese broth- ers who were among more than 63,000 refugees there. During our brief conversation, the teenagers recounted how they had lost their parents, fled their villages and made their way to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. After crossing into Kenya, they eked out a tenuous existence, subsisting on one or two meals a day. Their shining ray of hope was the possibility of resettling in the United States some day. Over the years, I’ve met many refugees who have achieved that dream. While they are grateful they no longer have to dodge bombs or witness the deaths of loved ones, they have struggled to master a new language, adapt to an alien culture, and succeed in a difficult job market. Some of them were orphans who ran from hails of bullets back in Africa. But in America they have graduated from elite universities and landed good jobs. Their ranks include Somali agriculturalists now engaged in organic farming, and Iraqi phy- sicians making their way through the recertification process to practice in the United States. A decade of working with refugees has filled me with great pride in my country, for giving so many of the world’s vulner- able the opportunity to resettle in America and rebuild their lives from scratch. I admire the dedication of Foreign Service colleagues like Ambassador William Lacy Swing, director gen- Visiting Embassy Ankara, Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard, left, sits in on a cultural orientation class for refugees who are about to depart Turkey for the United States. Ali Etralik In PRM, we give refugees concrete assistance, facilitating their resettlement to the United States in very practical ways.