Tag: Congolese Refugees

CDC Health profiles released for Bhutanese and Congolese refugees in America

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Centers for Disease Control has some reports you might like to see if Bhutanese and/or Congolese refugees are being resettled in your towns.  This could be important information needed by your local health department.

Below is where you can find more information at the CDC website.

The CDC has some great stats, and not just on health issues. http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/profiles/congolese/population-movements/index.html

For the Bhutanese the big concerns are nutritional deficiencies, communicable diseases and mental health problems relating to their ability to adjust to living here. (We have already brought over 70,000 Bhutanese/Nepalese to the US).

For the Congolese (we have begun the movement of 50,000 to the US) the big concerns are parasites, Malaria, and mental health problems relating to sexual and gender-based violence.

Gee, I guess Obamacare’s money tree will be taking care of all these problems!   (This post is archived in our ‘health issues’ category).

CDC:

The refugee health profiles found on this page provide key health and cultural information for specific refugee groups resettling to the United States. Information gathered from the World Health Organization (WHO), International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), US Department of State, and other sources is provided to help resettlement agencies, clinicians, and public health providers facilitate medical screening and interventions appropriate for each refugee group.

Each profile has six components:

  • priority health conditions
  • background
  • population movements
  • health care and nutrition in camps/urban settings
  • medical screening of US-bound refugees
  • health information

Available refugee health profiles include:

Could Congolese refugees bring Ebola to America?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is a possibility presented by Aaron Klein writing at World Net Daily this week, here.  Hat tip: several readers.

We briefly noted the fact that Ebola, although supposedly a different strain than the one making the news, is present in DR Congo.

And, we are bringing a huge number of Congolese refugees (DR Congo) to America at the UNHCR’s urging—50,000 by 2019, see our post yesterday.

We admitted 4,540 Congolese refugees to the US in FY2014 which ended on Sept. 30th, 2014  (go here, map is incorrect, scroll down to table).

However, I think a greater long-term threat to America is what we reported yesterday—Congolese women in need of mental health treatment raising children in some impoverished home in your town or city.

Remember readers! Refugee health treatment is the responsibility of your local health departments!  See our health issues category here for what other diseases and health problems (including mental health) you are responsible for.

From World Net Daily which is becoming the go-to major internet news source*** for refugee news (something we are very grateful to see):

Since an outbreak of Ebola hit the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July, the Obama administration has brought into the U.S. at least 1,900 refugees from the disease-stricken nation, WND has learned.

Required medical screening for refugees may not detect all diseases. The mandatory blood and urine tests for all refugees would not detect Ebola.

The strain of Ebola found in the Congo is slightly different from the virus that has been ravaging West Africa. Researchers have concluded the Congolese outbreak is not connected to the epidemic in West Africa.

The U.S. refugee program this year is on pace to resettle 70,000 citizens, including a limit for the fiscal year of 2014 of 14,000 from Africa, with the State Department giving priority to Congolese refugees.

Since July, at least 1,900 Congolese refugees have been resettled within the U.S., according to statistics provided by the State Department.

A report from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration shows 944 refugees were admitted from the Congo in July; 628 in August and 338 in September, for a total of 1,910 Congolese refugees.

The exact number of arrivals from the Congo for this month are not yet published. However, the total number of October arrivals so far from the region of Africa, according to the State Department, is 934, with most likely coming from the Congo.

The Congo has had its own outbreak of Ebola that started in late-July reportedly after a hunter brought home an infected bush animal carcass. Since then, 49 people have died in the Congo.

There is much more, read it all.

*** See all of the articles on refugees and the US resettlement program in recent months by World Net Daily reporter Leo Hohmann by clicking here.  See especially American mayors saying STOP!

Congolese refugee women in America need costly mental health care; 50,000 in the pipeline!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Coming to a town near you! Photo: http://www.humanosphere.org/world-politics/2013/02/mixed-reactions-to-the-dr-congo-peace-deal/

 

Your tax dollars:

We told you here in June of 2013 that the US was aiming to resettle 50,000 Congolese (DR Congo) refugees over the next few years and the US State Department has been busy, busy, busy getting the flow started.  Indeed this article tells us something we didn’t know—they want to get the 50,000 here by 2019!

If you visit the statistics at the Refugee Processing Center (US State Department) you will see that at the close of Fiscal year 2014 on September 30th, we resettled 4,540 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the year (Don’t look at the map where someone has left out DR Congo! or case numbers, look at individuals numbers listed for DR Congo in chart below map).

Apparently enough of them are here to begin studying their needs, in this case, their need for costly mental health treatment (also needed by the Bhutanese).  The report (partially funded by the UN) suggests “leveraging local resources.”  Of course that means the feds aren’t going to pay for it—state and local taxpayers will!  Wyoming are you listening!

Anne Richard, US State Department and Antonio Guterres head of UNHCR. The UN is calling the shots on Congolese resettlement to America. Richard to Socialist Guterres: Jump? How high?

From the University of Texas:

AUSTIN, Texas — The U.S. government must do more to address the needs of Congolese refugee “women at risk” through trauma-related services and social support, according to a report by the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA) at The University of Texas at Austin and the Department of Sociology & Social Work at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

The report issued recommendations for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which is responsible for resettling 50,000 Congolese refugees in the United States by 2019. The recommendations are based on a study of refugee women from the Democratic Republic of Congo who have resettled in the United States after decades of unrest in their homeland.

“The women who participated in our study experienced multiple traumas and hardship,” said Noël Busch-Armendariz, lead author of the report and director of IDVSA in The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work. “This study provides empirical evidence to inform the tremendous efforts already underway to meet the needs of Congolese female refugees.”

Although the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program emphasizes economic integration through job placement, the report finds that many refugee women had unmet needs for trauma-related services, social support and longer-time financial support, said IDVSA researcher and project director Karin Wachter. The study was partially funded by a $15,000 grant from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).  [So the UN is basically telling Americans to spend more money on this problem they created for us!—ed]

Leveraging and long-term service = your money!

“Access to long-term services to address trauma and loss is essential for this population,” said Maura B. Nsonwu, the lead researcher from North Carolina A&T. “The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program could leverage local resources for these services, such as domestic violence and sexual assault centers in cities who receive Congolese refugees.”

So what does the US get out of this arrangement when mentally-impaired single mothers raise large numbers of children in your town?

See our ‘health issues’ category with more posts on the refugee health problems you pay for.

Lexington, KY: Habitat builds 400th house, this one for Congolese refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is official, there are no more poor Americans in need of homes in Kentucky!

By the way, Kentucky is a Wilson-Fish state which means the refugee resettlement program is being run by the US State Department contractor Catholic Charities (KY state government is completely out of the loop).

From WKYT (Hat tip: Robin):

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Along with the help of volunteers from Catholic Parishes of Lexington, Habitat for Humanity is building their 400th home in Lexington.

“A number is just a number but t’s a symbol of the number of families we’ve been able to serve who need decent housing,” says Rachel Childress, CEO of Lexington Habitat for Humanity. “It’s also symbolic of the thousands and thousands of other families in Lexington (and around the world) who do need a quality, affordable place to live.”

Memba Mmandama and his wife Anjelani moved to Kentucky in 2010 after their home in the Democratic Republic of Congo was destroyed by rebels.

Why did the resettlement contractor place the family in a slum apartment in the first place?

After living in a refugee camp in Mozambique, Memba and his family moved to an apartment complex in the U.S., but it is overcrowded, has a faulty heating and cooling system and is infested with roaches.

That’s where Habitat for Humanity stepped in.

It is not just houses being built in Kentucky for refugees, it is mosques as well (raising the profile of Islam).

See all of our posts on Kentucky, they have had their share of problems with refugees!

Oregon: Congolese refugee family of 13 was homeless all summer

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

So why are we bringing more Congolese refugees to America when we can’t take care of the ones here from earlier batches?

The Mushombe family didn’t just ‘find their way’ to Oregon from Africa, some US State Department resettlement contractor*** was given this family to resettle, why did they drop the ball?

(Just so you know the US State Department announced in 2013 that they are pushing to bring in 50,000 Congolese in the coming months and years.)

The Congolese family was homeless for the summer, lived in a Portland park.

From KGW.com (hat tip: Joanne):

LAFAYETTE, Ore. – A refugee family of 13 people has a home to rent in a small town after being homeless this past summer.

Oswald Mushombe and his wife Nakinga Mahinga have 11 children, ranging in age from 5 months old to nearly 16 years old. Some of them were born in a refugee camp in Africa, where the family lived for five years to escape violence and persecution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Housing problems after they arrived in the United States 16 months ago led to the family bouncing around and eventually ending up living in a Portland park this past summer.

Mushombe said he tried everything to get help from a variety of agencies.

A week ago, they ended up in front of the McMinnville home of Monica Radke. She took them in, and has been spearheading a help campaign ever since.

***It looks like the major federal contractors in Oregon are Catholic Charities, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, and SOAR (Sponsors organized to assist refugees).  Which one screwed up?   They will all say they were responsible for only up to 8 months after that the family is “supposed” to be self-sufficient.

So I guess they don’t feel they have any moral responsibility for these people once the contract is up?  The family sure is lucky that there are kind Americans who are not being paid to take care of refugees.