WESTFIELD – W.A.R.M. (Welcoming Assist Refugee Ministry) hosted their last community gathering of the spring on Thursday night at the First Congregational Church.
The event, titled “The Refugee Experience: In Their Own Words,” featured a panel discussion from three new Americans that have settled over the years in the local area.
Sahar Allahmed, Chhatra Basnet, and Lilya Pantus all dove into their own personal experiences with being a refugee.
Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Allahmed’s husband was killed by terrorists in January of 2007. Afraid of having her and the rest of her family in danger, Allahmed moved the family to Turkey with one of her brothers. Applying to the United Nations, the process in Turkey took almost two years, before they could finally gain American citizenship.
Along with Shirley Anderson of W.A.R.M. (far left), refugees Sahar Allahmed, Chhatra Basnet, and Lilya Pantus were on the panel. (from left to right). (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Allahmed remembers selling a lot of her personal belongings just to make sure her family could survive financially.
“It wasn’t easy but we got through it together,” said Allahmed.
Currently, Allahmed is a paraprofessional at Highland Elementary School and has three kids in college.
“We stay together to help each other, support each other,” Allahmed told the crowd.
For Basnet, he was born in Bhutan, a small, landlocked country in Asia, but never really remembers much about his home land. Basnet explained how all Bhutanese living in the southern part of Bhutan were forced to leave because they were Nepali.
Although Basnet wouldn’t detail just how bad the experience was in eastern Nepal at the refugee camps, he did note that he resided in one of seven refugee camps during the 1990’s.
“We had all those bad things in our heart,” said Basnet. “But we lived by smiling.”
It was finally in 2007 when the United States, Denmark, and Canada accepted refugees from the camps in eastern Nepal.
Members of the community gathered at the First Congregational Church for Thursday night’s community gathering. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
Coming into Westfield in May of 2009, Basnet noted how Pantus affected him in a positive way by helping him when she worked at Lutheran Social Services, which is now Ascentria.
“Lilya was a great help,” said Basnet.
Basnet is now in the master’s program at Western New England University with the hopes of becoming a math teacher.
Well before Pantus started working for Ascentria, she was a refugee from Ukraine. Pantus and her family were able to get sponsored by a congregational church and resettled to Binghamton, N.Y. Residing in upstate New York for a little over a month, Pantus’s father left the family and took a job in Connecticut.
Not much longer, Pantus’s father found an apartment for the family to move into in Connecticut. The family then eventually bought a home and Pantus recalls working at 14 years old with her mom at the hospital she was employed at.
“Refugee kids have to grow up a lot quicker,” said Pantus. “It was a struggle in terms of just balancing the two cultures.”
Nearing the end of the panel discussion, Pantus commented on the attitude that the new Americans have when they resettle.
“It’s amazing to see, they don’t take it for granted,” said Pantus.
W.A.R.M. then informed those in attendance that the community gatherings will start back up in September or October.
