Francis Sengabo: Project director of Refugees and Immigrants Support Services of Emmaus and member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Albany
Background: Born and raised in northwest Rwanda where he graduated from National University of Rwanda with a degree in economics.
He and his wife, Nabaguma Justine, who works for Catholic Charities, live in Albany with their three children: Cynthia, 11; Jonathan, 7; and Sarah, 16 months.
You were one of six sons and two daughters growing up with your parents. Was it a religious household?
I was raised in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, where my uncle was a pastor. I attended Seventh Day Adventist schools through high school. We spoke French in school and Kinyarwanda at home.
What was your job after college?
I worked in 1990 for the country's census department. The population count was seven million, with 15 percent of them Tutsi ruling the 85 percent Hutu. My mother was Tutsi and father was Hutu. In October 1990, civil war broke out and my life took a different turn.
Rwanda had undergone a revolution in 1959 from a Belgian colony to a republic. In 1990, internally displaced persons began coming from Uganda to Rwanda. From 1990-94, the International Red Cross used me to assist with distributing food and putting my EMT training to use.
In 1994, the airplane that the Rwanda president and his advisers were traveling in was shot down. The president was Hutu, and it was assumed that Tutsi killed him. That is how the genocide started, which resulted in 800,000 people being killed, both Tutsi and Hutu.
Were you forced to flee?
I went to Tanzania in 1994 and wound up in refugee camps. The first one, where I lived from 1994 to 1996, had 400,000 people in tents. The second camp had 1,700 people. It was for people deemed "at-risk." The Tanzania police protected us. I helped organize a high school there for seventh through 12th-graders. UNICEF and local humanitarian agencies provided school supplies and built the school. I taught math and later became principal of 300 students and 19 teachers. I applied for scholarship in Tanzania and lived there, in Dar es Salaam, from 1996 to 2001. It's where I met my wife, who is Congolese.
How did you wind up in Albany?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants arranged it. We arrived in March 2007 and I remember it was very cold. It was a big adjustment for us. We didn't speak English. The houses were not what we were used to. Even the bathrooms were different.
The Emmaus United Methodist Church in Albany helped me a lot, a lot. They helped us integrate into life here. Somehow I succeeded. My wife works with Catholic Charities.
You're now the project director of the Refugee and Immigrant Support Services of Emmaus, which is based at Emmaus United Methodist Church in Albany. What does RISSE do and what do you do?
The program began in September 2007 with Rev. Denise Stringer, who was the pastor then, to help refugees and immigrants build a fruitful life in America. We now help 147 families, or 498 individuals, from Ethiopia, Rwanda, the Congos, Sudan, Pakistan, Iraq, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Eritrea. The refugees need help from zero. I was teacher, cleaner, driver. Rifat Filkins, an immigrant from Pakistan, and I run the program, with help from volunteers from colleges and the community. The community is big, but resources are few. We help the refugees learn English, teach them to fill out forms and arrange for homework help for their children.
As a result of our training, 25 people have gotten jobs, many in hotels, restaurants, factories and group homes.
—Azra Haqqie
Source: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Helping-others-adjust-to-life-in-the-U-S-3001806.php#ixzz1mH2GIyTK
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