Finding refuge in the UK (From Halesowen News)

Finding refuge in the UK

7:00am Saturday 20th June 2009 in Search

Kassech is no ordinary mother - she met her husband when they were both fleeing their home country Ethiopia after student uprisings. Now settled in the UK, she helps international children adjust to life here, while her husband looks after the baby. She shares her remarkable story to celebrate Refugee Week from June 15-21.

By Kate Whiting

When British students protest about tuition fees they don't expect to come to any harm.

Yet when Ethiopian-born Kassech Shiferaw joined student protests against her government in 1993, she was forced to run for her life.

Eighteen years after Kassech fled her home country and ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya, she talks about her journey to the UK and why she thinks Refugee Week (June 15-21) is so important.

When she was just 18, Kassech was involved in a student uprising in the capital Addis Ababa and had to flee, leaving her family behind.

Now 34, living in Bury, Lancashire and married with a one-year-old son, Kassech is building a new life helping children from all over the world adapt to the UK education system.

Kassech was born into a country in the grip of Communist repression. Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians were killed by the military Derg government, or died through famine.

"My mother died when I was six and I was brought up by my father," she says.

She went to high school and then became active in the student community at a commercial college in Addis Ababa, which led to clashes with the authorities.

"There was a student demonstration in the capital and if you were part of it, you were followed up. The student body organised another demonstration and that time it was a big problem. I had to move.

"I was a teenager and I didn't have time to be settled, so that caused problems for my family. They had to report to the police station and say where I am hiding, so I thought 'It's better to give them peace and to give myself peace'. So I decided to leave the country."

With many of her fellow students, Kassech fled to a refugee camp in Kenya, on the border with Sudan.

"I was hoping I'll be back home after maybe two or three months, I thought conditions might improve," she says.

But things didn't turn out the way she hoped and Kassech stayed in the refugee camp, eking out meagre rations and living in squalor, for more than 13 years.

Despite this, she considers herself to be one of the lucky ones.

In 2006, she was resettled in the UK on the Gateway Protection Programme - one of just 100,000 refugees worldwide who are resettled every year by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"Whenever I'm sitting at home, I think about how lucky I am. Some of my friends and their children are in the camp. I just feel that's hard, but I can't do anything. It was just luck to get away from that horrible situation..."

Today, it's clearly a struggle for Kassech to talk about her experiences in the refugee camp, as she pauses often with emotion.

She has bravely agreed to share her story to raise awareness of the plight of millions of other people around the world, who are in her situation.

"It was really hard, especially for single women, it was really hard for children and single mothers.

"What we did is just to live. There was not enough food. You have to survive with any resource you have in the camp.

"We were situated between the border of Sudan and Kenya and that place is not secure. We were just worried for our lives and it's just by the grace of God, [we survived]."

Kassech won a scholarship from a UK charity to study commerce at university in Nairobi and later worked as a business studies teacher for secondary school students in the camp.

After graduating, her refugee status meant she couldn't get a job in Nairobi, so she contemplated returning home to Ethiopia.

"I missed my family very much and I couldn't find [strength] to stay. The Kenyan policy says every refugee should be in the camp, but I couldn't face it. I thought it could be time [to go home] but people told me 'don't do it, it's not a good time' and at that moment, in 2001, another student uprising began."

Kassech went to Nairobi to renew her documents, where she met students fleeing from the crisis and among them Getachew, the man who would become her future husband.

"I met them and advised them not to make such mistakes like I made. I told them to be active, to be organised, so they could find solutions for their problems."

She met the students again back in the refugee camp, and gradually a relationship blossomed with Getachew.

"My husband was the leader in the student community, so he talked to me about his problems and we decided to live together in the camp.

"I got to know him first before I fell in love, because I had just protected myself for so many years. You know, people might approach you for different reasons...

"My hope was to finish my education, but for him it was love at first sight. He just loved me and was encouraged by my life in the camp."

The couple married in 2004 in the camp, then in 2006, came the news of her successful application for resettlement in the UK "It was such a surprise for me, I didn't expect. Many times I had tried, I was so happy, I couldn't even express my feelings," she says, with a smile.

"When we were in the camp, I was told so many things about the UK. They said UK life is really hard and the people are not good, but when I arrived in Bolton, I was made really welcome, I didn't expect it at all.

"I was just impressed. I thought, 'We are not forgotten, somebody's thinking about us here' and I was so happy. Refugee Action did whatever they could to make us feel [at home]."

This year's Refugee Week, organised by 11 different agencies including the Refugee Council and Refugee Action, is encouraging all of us to welcome refugees, like Kassech, to Britain, with its Simple Acts campaign.

Michael Palin, actress Juliet Stevenson and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams are among those who are supporting the week with a 'Simple Act', from learning a few words of a refugee's native language to playing football in a tournament with refugees.

Kassech is now able to use her experiences of coming to England to help children struggling to make sense of a new country and culture.

"My role is in the classroom. Different children come from different countries and they arrive in Bolton. We give them an induction of the English school system. Most children are bright, but because of language problem, they need assistance.

"They come from Asia, Europe, Africa, different cultures, different backgrounds, so we have to make them feel at home and give them emotional support. For me, it's just a reward to work here."

While Kassech commutes to work in Bolton, her husband Getachew looks after their one-year-old son, Abed, back home in Bury.

"He wants me to work and achieve what I want, so he decided to look after the baby. His education was interrupted and he didn't get a chance to finish, so for the time being, he is looking after the child and maybe in future, he might train."

Kassech hopes to become a student again and return to university one day.

She says: "I would like to do a second degree in social work or community work. I just want to continue this work with children."

She also hopes her story will inspire other refugees to keep going.

"Life may not be easy and you may not get all of what you want, but you have to start from humble beginnings."

:: Refugee Week takes place from June 15 to 21. Visit www.refugeeweek.org.uk