After Fleeing Somalia, Making Vermont Home

AP/Sayyid Azim

Between 2003 and 2006, more than 400 Somali Bantu refugees were resettled in Chittenden County, most after many years in Kenyan refugee camps.

It's been nearly nine years since the first Somali Bantu refugees were resettled in Burlington. Between 2003 and 2006, more than 400 Bantu arrived in Chittenden County, most after many years in Kenyan refugee camps. We talk with three members of one family about the biggest challenges - and joys - of rebuilding their lives in a completely new place. Abdullahi Hassan and his oldest daughter, Khadija Adam, arrived here in 2005. Abdullahi is now a liaison between the ethnic Somali and Somali Bantu communities and the Burlington schools, and Khadija works as a caregiver at Shelburne Bay Senior Living and wants to go back to school to become a nurse. Khadija's husband, Suleiman Husein, arrived in the U.S. alone, in 2003. He's now a line manager at Autumn Harp, and is aiming to get a degree in social work.

Also on the program, we talk to 22-year-old Noor Bulle about his memoir, Hardship, which traces his life from Somalia, to the refugee camps in Kenya, and finally to the United States. Bulle started writing his life story in high school, and is now looking for a publisher.

Read the first two chapters of Hardship (pdf 78kb)

And, between leaving their native Somalia, living in Kenyan refugee camps, and immigrating to the United States, the Somali Bantu community has been through a lot in the last few decades. We hear from Judy Scott, the director of the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, about what people can learn from the Somali Bantu about loss, persistence, and starting over.