Episode 3: Hope for the Refugees - Part 1 of 2

Ever wonder what is it like to be a refugee?  Deep dive into the plight of Afghan and Burmese refugees as Denise and David Johnsons, Founders of H4OPE non-profit organization share their personal journey of helping these Houston area refugees.

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Transcript

in order for America to do well we have to help these refugees assimilate so it's hope for the oppressed the poor and the encumbered whether you help them or ignore them they are there and they these children are the future of America

[Music]

welcome to hello world where we help you to ReDiscover the good that's all around you in today's podcast we welcome a dynamic Duel who are perfect Partners in life they're fun loving and energetic and they pour out their love to the people around them and through their not-for-profit organization h4o PE they provide support to the refugees who have recently resettled in our community and we hope through this episode you'll learn a little bit more about the refugees and how you might be able to lend a hand so without further delay let's welcome the Johnsons Welcome to our in studio podcast your guest number one sitting in our new studio hey welcome thank you thank you for having me so yeah before we jump right into all this work that you guys do why don't you share a little bit with our audience a little bit about yourself because I know you have a lot because I say you are fun-loving and energetic so share a little bit about yourself we both enjoy hiking and rock climbing so there's no rock climbing in Houston so we do indoor rock climbing yes you do twice a week we work out together Monday Wednesday Friday and we climb every Tuesday Saturday and most of our vacations are scheduled around hiking yes different parts of the country and other countries and whenever I see your vacation pictures if I feel like the whole world is just the two of you uh in in some mountains and some um peaks of that that is how we pick a lot of our hiking locations yes is off the beaten path away from the crowds to get away living in Houston we're around crowds all the time so yes we like getting away yes yes so um before you I think right now you're a full-time working in your ministry yes before you got into this you had another professional life yes what did you do so I am a CPA and I uh have been an executive for almost 20 years but now that our kids have graduated one is married and another one's getting married um it's allowed me to be able to cut some costs and I can now do ministry full-time which is such a huge blessing because it's really it's really what I'm called to do right now in my life and so um we've been able to make that work so I am doing Ministry full-time and David you are I feel like you're doing Ministry full-time but some days it feels like it but I still have a full-time job I'm an I.T manager and I've been in that been that job for 20 years I've been in I.T for almost 30. wow and and now you are um still doing that but spend a lot of all my non-working time is willingness so your not-for-profit organization everybody wants to say hope for Hope but it's h4o PE can you share with us what or audience what does it stand for and how did you get started with that so I wanted to use the word hope but for you to be able to find a name of an organization in the state of Texas that have not been used it's very difficult to get that an unused name to match with a domain name it's very hard so I thought if I added a number in there it does help it which it did so um it does say it is hope but it's kind of a play on word so that's why the four sits inside the H so it's hope for the oppressed the poor and the encumbered okay how did it get started um so actually I was helping the refugee Community through my church and uh I am a refugee myself and I guess after so many years of just living life here I never even thought that we even have refugees so whenever our church was doing some Outreach for the for the refugee Community I was so shocked to find out that there were still refugees here and when we went over there the whole apartment complex is 100 refugees and they were so scared they didn't want to come out they didn't want to say hi and I didn't really understand so when our first how I got into the community and got them out of their apartment complex was to do a major close distribution I just collected all the clothes and I just dumped all the clothes out in the parking lot and they all started coming out to stay close and as they were coming out I started writing down their names and their apartment number so that when we come back they'll remember who we are I see so we only meet their most immediate needs yes through clothing just providing clothing for them and they were so excited because it was like free shopping for them so um and so that that was one way how we can introduce ourselves to the community because when we went the time before that um and we walked around no one even said hello to us they didn't even make eye contact they don't know who you are and then as I um so I'll tell you the story so after that we got their names and their and this was around uh Halloween so I also passed out candy for the kids um so then for Thanksgiving I thought it would be neat to get some Luby's uh Thanksgiving meals yes and to hand them out to each family and then we got to know each family as we delivered these traditional Thanksgiving meals American style things it helps them to understand the new culture that they live in yes and their kids probably go to school and they are probably making Pilgrim hats yes and have no idea and learning all about Thanksgiving but not eating the actual meal other than what the hell so then as we got into these apartments I then found out that almost all of this was the Burmese community at that time that almost all of the Burmese children um are born in the refugee camp and the parents their parents were either born in a refugee camp or have been in a refugee camp since the age of three or four so the parents have no idea what it's like to even live outside of a refugee camp so not even in their home countries culture the culture that they know is Refugee yes camps yes they don't even know what life is like not in a refugee camp I can only imagine um the the shock in appalled of being America that is so different so different from well they I they actually I mean living in an apartment here versus a refugee camp is luxury from what they're getting because in a refugee camp um I was in a refugee camp in Malaysia and as a kid I don't remember anything other than swimming in the beach and but so I don't remember the hardship but their refugee camp in Thailand because they're from Burma and they had to escape the persecution there so they went to Thailand the refugee camp in Thailand is not the Refuge camp that I experience in Malaysia it's a very difficult life yes you have very minimal you don't have beds you're sleeping on cots or on the floor um and a lot of times whatever belongings you have it's very limited so you can't just and the camps are so big you can't just send your children to go to the restroom by themselves because they actually can get killed or you know killed or raped or any of these things so someone has to go with them so in a small family a lot of times if the dad is busy doing something the mom has to scoop up all the children if they're young and all their belongings and walk them to the restroom and back because if you leave your belongings unattended it can get stolen now they have a bathroom in there yes apartment there are no doors to lock yes and these refugees it's like a giant tent basically and you just have cots and your belongings are there we've seen pictures of those camps that the the refugees would show us and they're basically bamboo huts with no doors yes so there's no there's no private space like you'd have even in the the apartments that they're in here they have a door they can lock that's just in bedroom like multiple times you know in a dwelling place so you also work with the Afghan Community yes so tell us a little bit about them because I think they're they're also culturally very different they're very different so um there's been a mass influx of Afghans into our community because of the Taliban since uh August of 2021 um it first started with the United States going over there and just doing a mass rescue and brought them over here and recently I found out that there are 26 apartment complex in Houston alone that houses all these Afghans the Afghans for our community is the number one um Refugee um people group is it in our community as far as we're aware yeah so not aware of any larger Refugee Community Refugee or Afghan community Refugee refugees that most of the refugees now that have been entering recently yes are Afghans yes that is correct just because of that but the mass influx actually came in in 2021 the ones that are we still have some coming in um today and those are the ones that work for the United States Army that weren't able to escape but the United States have been taking them um a few at a time so they are still coming in because their life is in danger for working with this United States yes and then um it's also the opportunity of when the United States can bring them also so a lot of times when they the recent ones like in the last year the ones that are coming in they get a phone call and they they're told that they have to get on the plane and they have to leave whatever they're doing they're in the middle of their job they might be wearing their armies outfit or whatever they're doing they can't they don't even have time to pack a bag they literally have to go immediately and then so that's when we met this one family who the mom had just had a baby and they had to go so she left her and her brand new born baby didn't have a passport so she left the baby with her mom and then the Taliban didn't allow women to leave the house any longer so at first when they first took over it's my understanding what I've been told by the Afghans is they the women can um go to the grocery store but they'd have to like go right back home they can't hang out outside and girls uh fourth grade and younger were allowed to go to school but that's it and then in the last year no women are allowed to leave their homes under any circumstances so the grandma could not get milk for that baby that they left behind so he died three months later of starvation that must be rough I mean to have to leave their country with their literally shirts on their backs and then leaving behind not just their belongings but their loved ones yes it's really sad it's really sad but so now that they're here what are their biggest challenges that you see

um one I think for me that's hardest for me to see is they don't they they don't normally it appears that they don't normally value education especially for girls a lot of the girls don't even go to school over there when they before the time of the Taliban so they are very laid back about getting the kids registered for school so I've been having to really push the parents to register the children especially the girls they're very prompt in registering the boys but the girls they're just like whatever um and then the girl a lot of the girls because when they were over in Afghanistan they didn't go to school so I had a twin a set of twins where the brother is in fourth grade but the sister is in second grade because she didn't go to school in Afghanistan so when she had to start in kindergarten and when the brother came over here he has been going to school so he was able to start in second grade so there's a great difference even though they're twins wow I mean I think they already know that they have differential treatment but now here because they will go to school the girls who did not go to school and they're older than all of their their classmates it will have some kind of impact on them because you know no matter what I guess what What ethnicity you are you do have that teenage years coming up and yes and you're feeling different yes and it's going to be difficult during when they get there right now you know in in elementary it's not things they think about right they're just making it day to day just trying to get their grades and living life and it's I I think that it'll have more of an impact on them when they're a little older but yeah yes and so some of the um the ones that I was had the privilege of working with you guys in the in the apartment um they are older when they came and because they didn't go to school back home they're in much lower grade yes and and they're already in their teen years yes they're not able to read yes and it's not just able to read in English they can't even read in their own language it's very challenging to teach them English when you can't even translate for them because they don't read their own language right wow exactly it's hard so so now they come with just a few things on their back and maybe whatever they can carry um what are the greatest needs and that they have to that you guys are able to support or or at least Point them in the right direction so when they first come here um they are provided an apartment to stay in with six months of free rent and they do have food stamp for food but that even that in itself takes a while to kick in so sometimes some communities will come in there and help them some of their Refugee representations representatives from various organization will come in and help them however we did find a family where they didn't know how to turn on electricity they had a handicapped child we walked into their apartment and it's starting to hit summer with no electricity no food they literally are in a complete empty apartment with this handicapped child and so we immediately brought some rugs some food help them get the electricity turned on so the next I think two days later they did finally get electricity but um you know I I think hardship for them right now is not unexpected for them so I guess it's not as hard but for us when we see that it's it's really difficult so they're basically coming over here with nothing um and they probably didn't have too much to begin with so I guess that's an interesting point that maybe their their differential versus what we see yes is is not the same as ours well I think one of the big differences between the Burmese and the Afghan the Burmese all came over here having lived for 10 20 years in refugee camps they literally knew nothing nothing they didn't know anything about having their own furniture or home to live in and and all the things that go with that all the Afghans that come over they came from them they had homes where they were with furniture and established lives and family around them so they had an entire community that they were coming from um so their their mentality is completely different yes and you know so they know what they're missing the Burmese I had no idea what they're missing literally zero they have no concept but the Afghans do so they they're already when they get here they already know what they're striving to get they want to get furniture and they don't know what to ask for yes they do and then with these share with the other community you have to say here you need this yes they don't know what they don't know right oh interesting so even with the Burmese um the first time they've ever ever those kids have been in the house was that in our house we took them to our house and some of our friend's house they it blew their minds because they've never been a house they're like this is the first time I've ever seen a house what's a house right yes yeah it's not a tent and you have so many doors yes at least one of them went in our house and said is this a furniture store they ask if our house was a furniture store because you have a breakfast area table and a dining table it's like why do you need so many yeah that's interesting so so tell us about the the h4ope program it's besides grabbing them you know Furnitures and and donations you guys are there at least once if not twice or three times sometimes every day yes so tell us what what you guys do with through your organization so our goal is to assimilate the refugees into our community um when we I first started so the the Afghans and the Burmese are so different as David explained so with the Burmese um what I saw was the recycling of the use of welfare so the family lives on welfare they don't even know what life is like without welfare right because they've only lived in Refugee hands which everything is provided to to you but in smaller amounts than it is here so then what I saw was the older children would finish High School they would get the same assembly line jobs as their parents and then they would just move next door in the in the same apartment complex and so the poverty just recycles from generation to generation at this point

but they don't even know what that looks like there's no aspiration because they didn't they don't know the concepts they don't even know what that looks like to even aspire to it right it they just know this refugee camp and then this is how my parents currently live so that's how I live right that's all they know is that why you take them to these to your house to see that okay outside of these apartment complex it's a whole new uh world out there yeah that you actually need to participate in because the family that one of the families that we work with they were they arrived seven years ago and they are still living in the exact same unit seven years later and they haven't progressed at all so I realize that it's very difficult to change the parents their mindset this is they're raised this way they don't understand it it's too uncomfortable for them to change so that's why I decided they're focused on providing for their families yes right now for them to to they don't have the capacity to move Beyond just providing those basic pains it just means it comes every day like you gotta eat it so it does it does for them and then it's difficult to also change older people as you know they tend to be I know yes but I do too and so um and then it's harder for them to learn English to now try to get a career or do something different so that's why I decided I'm going to start with the children because they are our future generation also and they're going to be the ones to get their parents and them and then their children out of poverty we visited colleges we take them to the movie theater last summer we took 50 Refugee children to a movie theater on a bus and of the 50 only four kids had ever been in a movie theater before that wow we're we take so many things for granted for granted yes so they got to see a movie yes in a theater with air conditioning and cushy seats yes and I'm sure you bought them oh yes the person that sponsored it made sure that I provided popcorn candy Pizza they they were so cool they got the full experience suck we have the most gracious donors I could ever ask for what what did they I mean tell me about their their uh expressions or what this is the best day ever it was so cute gosh just you know simple things that we you know okay what's what's in the movie theater we just go but for them some more things that absolutely blew their mind when we've taken them out you take them to uh an office building or a mall and you put them on an elevator they have no idea what that is the buttons no the feeling of going up and down the elevator an escalator yes they were scared to get on it yeah and scared to get off yeah yes wow all those things that we take for granted yes and it was so cute the others went so they experienced the elevator and so it was going down they're like well Folly I'm like you're fine you're okay so um a year later I was like okay I'm gonna take you to an amusement park so you can ride a roller coaster and this boy he was like he's an older boy too he's like no problem I know what that's like I've ridden an elevator

the roller coaster is nothing like a never elevator no no I got this I'm not gonna be scared I'll run an elevator I know what it's going to be like hey he's so scared on that roller coaster he wouldn't come back on it you know what I don't even buy roller coasters so I can only imagine but what a neat experience for them to to expect yeah right to see different things to start expecting yes um things better for themselves and for their family they need to see life outside so um the same donor that gave us that sponsored the movie theater he also owns Korean barbecue place downtown so he allowed us to take their families and all the down there to experience to eat Korean barbecue well they are so poor that most of their meals is a lot of rice and a lot of rice noodles and then they make broth with Fish And that's their flavoring and then they just put like raw vegetables in there they just eat a lot of carbs to fill up so they rarely have ever they rarely ever eat meat um I've eaten with them plenty and I've had meat one time um so this is the most the kids have ever seen me do they have upset stomach afterwards

upset stomach they literally went to the bathroom and started throwing up because the in the meat was so delicious

three bowls of rice you know those Korean rice is very three bowls of that rice and then they ate because it was an all-you-can-eat place we just kept ordering they ate everything I was just like besides myself I couldn't cook fast enough for them and then finally there are my stomach hurts we didn't know we should have cut them yes yes but their their stomach probably isn't used to that much meat together at the same time but it was yes it was very sweet but they they I mean it's something they can even still they loved the experience oh yeah so besides the the experiences that you provide for them um you also I think provide them English classes right so we teach them English and vocabulary words um public speaking yes the public speaking which I love you got to judge that I got to judge them and and they it's so neat to see them when they first try to um present they're so shy and and they look everywhere but at the judges right or the audience and then after two three times right better they got better and then two of them did a speech in front of the crowd at my last fundraising event and they did phenomenal I'm not that's that's the thing is a joy to see them um Blossom yeah whatever they're learning yes so you also do I know um because we participated in it you also do like Christmas wish list and backpack program yes so every year um so education to me is a ticket to freedom in America right um so and it's free so um and because they are so poor everything they have is donated they don't get a saying what they wear most of the time no because they can't afford to buy it the parents can barely afford food on the table so they're not getting a new outfit for first day of school there's no back to school shopping and there's no back to school shopping um so we provide back new backpacks shoes and school supplies for them every year um and I get a lot of slack for this but I do let the children pick the backpacks they would like yes you do so we have to go shop specifically for the backpack that they would like because it's the only time they actually get a saying in their life and I want them to feel proud when they go to school that they actually have something that represents who they are right whether it be Spider-Man or princess or just their favorite color for this year it makes them so proud to go to school to where to have something that they it like that's them this year right and that connects them to their classmates because they have same things I had the pleasure of shopping with you yes for their backpacks and this is why in the introduction where I say you know you pour your love out for for the people around you because me I'm just grabbing them okay you need 25 red ones we're grabbing 2500 plus I don't care if it says Nike or whatever but she just sprawled out on the um aisle okay never mind there's other Shoppers okay she's sprawled out on the aisle just her with all the different backpack and she's like on her list because no she needs she needs something more sparkly this one's for her and really care about each individual child and what they will like and don't like so that's that takes this is not just check the box yeah that you really love them and then you want them to um have that one thing or two things that they can feel proud about at school because they're probably going to show up in some hand-me-downs or yes um things that doesn't make them connect to their class their non-afghan or or Burmese classmates so yeah I just touch my heart to see that so of course I was more patient with that shopping spree awesome thing is those kids know that we love them yes they do know they do know in part two of Hope for refugee you're gonna donate something you need to donate it where you yourself

that is that are willing to go every single week to help you that is difficult to get what are some of your most memorable experiences I was very stressed from work that day it's time for me to go to see the kids and I was so stressed and frustrated just thinking oh gosh this this ministry is wearing on me because I have my job and that's my current responsibility to my boss and I have all these problems I'll try not to cry but she hugged it so tight she's like this is my very first pair of shoes I've ever owned and I just thought and that brings us to the end of another exciting episode of hello world please support our podcast by hitting the Subscribe button also don't forget to smash that like your likes will help our podcast reach more awesome people like you lastly tap that notification Bell to receive instant alert whenever we drop in a new episode we can't wait to see you again on our next episode until then keep on being a positive force in this world