Pius Kamau: A Few Steps to Assure Refugees' Safety

Posted by metroafrican • March 31, 2010 • Printer-friendly

A Few Steps to Assure Refugees' Safety
Dr. Pius Kamau
Originally aired on KUNC March 29, 2010

I recently took care of a patient with severe burns that she sustained while cooking. What distinguished her from the many burn patients I have managed over the years is where she came from. She was an African refugee who had spent decades in one of the many camps that dot the African continent. She spoke very little English and had only been in the US for a short time.

Ordinarily I would not have paid much attention to her situation but for the fact that a few months earlier, another refugee woman had suffered extensive, and almost fatal burns from a kitchen mishap. She spent weeks in University hospital in Denver including a spell in the ICU. I thought it important to highlight the two women's accidents because they could have been easily prevented.

I must say at the outset that America's generosity to refugees has no equal. Letting African refugees escape the tyranny of brutal dictators, lethal and dehumanizing tribal customs is something more nations should emulate. We want them to have a good life and to attain the American dream. For their resettlement to be successful, neighbors must help them navigate the treacherous waters of American city life.

But many of us are not equipped with enough information about our new neighbors. In turn they find themselves in a confusing, rapidly moving world. I believe we need to do a better job of educating ourselves about each other's world.

Refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and other parts of Africa have lived for decades in camps full of squalor and degradation. And when they find themselves in a motorized and electrified world, danger it seems, lurks everywhere. Much of what we take for granted is too many of them amazing and puzzling. Gas and electric stoves, exposed electric wires and sockets, flammable clothing and more. They need our help to demystify these and many other things.

Many African immigrants in America tend to cluster around others who arrived before them. While this is helpful to ward off loneliness and open new horizons, there are technical and cultural distances that cannot be bridged this way. It is important that we as Americans become part of the assimilation process. Sponsoring organizations ought to be willing and perhaps even required to have a much deeper involvement in the lives of the refugees they help bring to our shores. Even the simplest of lessons about the use of home appliances can lead to a healthier, fuller and less accident prone American existence.

As is true of many refugees the woman I am talking about survived many natural and man made disasters while living in the Sudan. But she almost lost her life in America because of a pot left cooking on a gas stove. I find that unnecessary and tragic.