OHIO, U.S., May 21, 2013 (Cleveland.com): A local organization is doing what it can to find homes and work in the Greater Cleveland area for immigrants with nowhere to turn. US Together, located at 2940 Noble Road, serves under the umbrella organization Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. It is attempting to restore the lives of Bhutanese people made to leave their homeland. In doing so, US Together has in recent months found 55 families homes in Cleveland Heights, and about 17 families more in South Euclid.
“It’s a very new community for the U.S.,” said US Together Refugee Relocation Program Coordinator Helen Tarkhanova. “They have a lot of challenges, the biggest being the language, their foreign culture and finding employment.” The Bhutanese coming to the U.S. speak Nepali, the language of Nepal
“It started a couple of centuries ago when their ancestors left Nepal and went to Bhutan in search of good Land (to farm),” Tarkhanova said. “Geographically, ethnically and culturally they were separate from the rest of the country.” They were also different religiously, as the country of Bhutan practiced Buddhism, while the refugees ancestors practiced Hinduism.
“They kept their language and traditions,” she said. “In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the king of Bhutan proclaimed the Bhutanization of everyone in the country. Everyone had to be uniform. They tried to keep their culture, but with ethnic cleansing, they went back to Nepal.”
In Nepal, they were put in refugee camps, where they spent more than 15 years. In 2008, about 60,000 were able to leave for the United States. Tarkhanov said about 400-500 refugees have been coming to the Cleveland area annually over the past five years, while many more have gone to other parts of the U.S.
Tarkhanov said the U.S. Department of State provides resettlement funding for some families for a limited time. Tarkhanov said the refugees are good for the cities in which they settle. “We believe the refugees are an asset to the community,” she said. “They re-populate the neighborhoods and schools, they bring new ideas and perspectives.”