By KAREN LEE ZINER Providence Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — “I was born in war, I grew up in the war, all over, there is war. I would like a new life without machine gun,” says a refugee interviewed for Home Across Lands, a documentary film about refugee resettlement that premieres tomorrow night.
The film chronicles the work of the International Institute of Rhode Island staff and volunteers as they guide Kunaman refugees from a life of despair in the Shimelba Refugee Camp in northern Ethiopia, to their new home in Providence: from thatched-roof mud huts to a path to self-sufficiency in a new country.
The Kunama featured in the film fled their native Eritrea after war broke out between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998. They then spent years in the Shimelba camp until they were granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that allowed them to come to the United States.
At the outset, the camera sweeps across the Shimelba camp’s dusty roads and trains on aspects of life in the camp: women and children carting water, a food drop-off point, makeshift tents and children playing in the dirt. Refugees describe day-to-day survival, without hope.
“Life in the camp is difficult. There is nothing we can do. We completely rely on supply given to us. There is a lack of clothing, jobs and water,” says one woman. “A refugee camp is more like a prison … you just cannot do anything,” says another refugee.
But for some of those refugees, there is hope. The documentary follows several families who were granted refugee status and allowed to come to Rhode Island.
The video is the collaborative effort by executive producer Mary Copp; cinematographer/producer Jessica Jennings; director/producer John Lavall; and editor/producer Julie Lewis.
The International Institute’s executive director, William Shuey, who was among the group that traveled to Ethiopia, said the documentary “is an attempt to talk about the challenge of adjusting to new life for these new families.”
The film documents the institute’s role in helping the Kunama navigate their new world, from their arrival at T.F. Green Airport, to getting settled in apartments, learning the bus system, visiting health centers, studying English at the institute, and at their first jobs, including picking apples and radishes at Rhode Island farms.
It weaves interviews with International Institute staff and many of their community partners, with interviews and footage of refugees in the Shimelba camp.
The half-dozen Kunama families in Rhode Island are among the roughly 150 to 200 refugees the nonprofit agency resettles each year, providing such services as cultural orientation; a first apartment; food, school enrollment, health screening, job training and employment resources, as well as ongoing advocacy, support and referrals.
The agency, founded in 1921, also assists immigrants and native-born individuals and families. Its clients are from more than 100 countries.
According to the institute, the characteristics of the newly arriving refugees in the past five years “have been skewed towards individuals and families in great distress and need.” Many have spent years in refugee camps and have experienced “severe trauma and disruption.” They arrive “with little else besides the clothes on their backs and their documents, and are expected to achieve self-sufficiency within 180 days after arrival.” They receive only $425 per person from the federal government for basic needs.