27 Ronald Young

Narrative Summary

Escape from Darfur

Mr., Elsadig Saleh, is a refugee Darfur. Darfur is a region Western Sudan which, is predominantly an Arab country on the edge of Sub-Saharan Africa. This conflict in Sudan has displaced 5.5 million citizens and least three million out of 5.5 million were from Darfur.

Saleh was in a refugee camp for three years. “The refugee camps are known targets for the kidnap and abduction of children, some are young as six years old, said Saleh.” In the refugee camp Saleh taught history to young students. “ I really miss teaching history to the to the students and my students came to my class very prepared and ready to learn, however, there became a change in government and issues with war, therefore, I had to fine  a way out of Darfur and the refugee camp said Saleh.” There were a lot of bad things happening to people in that refugee camp, and I feared not only for my life but for the life of my students, my family members all the other good-hearted people there in the camp.

The Darfur genocide started many years ago under Omar Hassan Ahmad al- Bashir, who served as the seventh president of Sudan from1989 to 2019. “The Darfur genocide started when Sudanese government was accused by the Sudan Liberation Army for violating and disrespecting the marginal Africans in favor of the Arabs. “They are just as black as we are, they are Africans, but they consider themselves Arabs, and they do whatever it takes to stay in power and to be on control of the marginal Africans, said Saleh”.

There were refugee camps in Chad which is also near Darfur border and Chad was also a home for over a quarter of a million Sudanese people who were forced to abandon their homeland because of conflict thanks to Al Bashir, Saleh said. Research indicates, that Chad was hardly able to take of itself and then had hundred of thousands of refugees that settled there,” so there was a lot of tension and bad blood building up with the local population.

“I wanted out of Darfur and the refugees camp said Saleh.” Through the grace of God and my favorite uncle who help prepared the paperwork, took me to the bus station and purchased me a bus ticket, Saleh took a bus to Egypt.

Egypt is where I met my wife at and we left Egypt and took a flight to Texas, we stay in Texas for a few years then we move to New York. We were in New York for four years working and saving money to move to Iowa, to raise our family and to complete our education said Saleh.

Saleh is currently a third-year student at the University of Iowa, majoring information systems. “when I am done with school, I plan to start my own business, the one thing I know for sure is that Africa is rich in resources. Upon meeting Saleh in the Human Rights Advocacy class and asking him if he was a refugee and if so, could I interview him.

I learned from Saleh after interviewing him, and researching his country that refugees are usually referred to the United States for resettlement by the United State High Commissioner for Refugees. This all takes place under the guidance of the U.S. Department of States Bureau of population for migration and refugees.

Research indicates that there are nine resettlement support centers who help prepare refugee application for U.S. Resettlement consideration. Once refugees are accepted into the United States then they go through the screening process. Then once the screening process is done the refugees are transported to their apartment, house or place of residents. They then receive work authorization cards and are encouraged to become employed as soon as possible.

Based on my experience of working with refugee they learn English and began to function and become comfortably much faster if they start work soon after arrival.

Many of the refugees begin in entry-level jobs, even if they have some high-level skills or a high level of education. Saleh is currently a third year- student at the University of Iowa, majoring in information systems. He plans to start his own business after his done with his school program.

In conclusion, I had a good experience with this interview assignment of interviewing a real refugee. I learned more about Africa, and how their government work in comparison to the government in the United States. I get very emotional when I try to understand why its so many wars and so many people are killed, and so many people must relocate to another country for protection.