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Source: Greeley Tribune, Colo.24小時迷你倉Jan. 23--In the United States, and more specifically Greeley, refugees and their plights are not understood by many.Stow Witwer, and several others in the Greeley community, did everything they could to make people understand at the Refugee Collaboration Forum on Tuesday."We are all ancestors of people who came here from another place," said Witwer, a Greeley attorney, to open a forum held quarterly to find ways the community can collaborate on making the transition for refugees into Greeley smoother. "We can all trace our backgrounds, except for very, very few of us, from land and countries across the world."So why is it refugees, who come to Greeley mostly from east Africa, southeast Asia and central America, are so misunderstood?"They are newest members of our community," said Witwer to a crowd of several dozen who had gathered to hear what the community is doing to help the fast-growing population of residents in Greeley.Witwer also wanted to show people that today's refugees are not much different than our own grandparents and great-grandparents."Many are from countries quite different from ours, whether that is climate, government, cultures, religion or history," he said. "But each have their own story."The forum focused on what Greeley-Evans School District 6 is doing to help the children, who in some cases have no education and can't read or write even in their own language.Joe Wisemann-Horther of the Colorado Refugees Services Program, said the U.S. has a long legacy of providing sanctuary to refugees. The newest group just looks different than the European descendants of the past.Last year, there were 15.4 million refugees worldwide. The U.S. took in just under 70,000 of those, more than any other country, but still only a fraction of the population.Greeley is what is known as a secondary migration area, where refugees who were originally placed elsewhere have relocated because of the opportunity for employment here. JBS Swift employs many of the refugees in Greeley."Many choose to come to Greeley," Wisemann-Horther said. "I think they benefit from that and Greeley benefits from that."Marte Samuelstuen, Jessica Cooney and Laura DeGroote, who work exclusively with refugee students at Greeley's three traditional high schools, outlined programs such as Newcomers, Advancement Via Individual Determination, El Teatro, and several others that help students."It has been fabulous to watch some of our students who come with limited academic experiences rise up and succeed," DeGroote said. "It is such a privilege to work with these students who are captivated and want to learn."Three refugee graduates of the district also spoke to the crowd and explained how hard it was for them when they first arrived and what it meant to them to have teachers like Cooney an迷你倉旺角 DeGroote.Sadiyo Adan, who came to Greeley at 15 from Somalia, told the crowd how she would go home at night and read the dictionary to improve her English skills. Today, she is studying nursing at Aims Community College.Khai Tha Zin OO didn't even understand a simple "hi" when she arrived at 14 from Thailand, but graduated from West in 2013 with a 3.9 grade point average and now is a freshman at the University of Northern Colorado and working four jobs. And Shaban Mohamed was 17 when he moved to the U.S. from Kenya and is now in college."Teachers rarely get to say they admire a student," Cooney said. "But this young man I admire. When he got here he didn't even know how to hold a pair of scissors. To think he went from that to college. That is not just drive, but intelligence."Mohamed is now studying to be a teacher at UNC and working two jobs. He wants to return to Kenya some day."I want to go back and help people in Kenya learn English," he said.The stories never end. The forum also included about 30 minutes of round table discussions with current students in the district.One girl, a junior at Greeley Central High School, told her table how her parents and brothers came from Africa before her and her sister. The girls remained in a refugee camp with their grandparents until they could leave safely.Another girl explained how her family fled Eritrea in East Africa quickly without her brother -- who had been taken from the family and forced to be a soldier -- because they were going to throw her mother in jail and kill her father if they didn't leave.She is hoping to reunite with that brother, who is now in Israel.Cooney said the students' English skills are strong because of the intensive English Language Acquisition classes they get during the day. It is what teachers focus on most with the students to get them caught up.Wisemann-Horther closed the forum by asking the crowd to embrace refugees and educate others in Greeley about them."These are young people who take the risk to tell the narrative of their journey," Wisemann-Horther said. "They are brave to continue to talk about that to people who have a hard time understanding why they don't understand (our culture and way of life)."Wisemann-Horther said the list of new things refugees have to understand is huge. For instance, a bed, which one boy said was too soft compared to what he was accustomed to. So he slept on the floor instead."Talk to everybody who wasn't here, and let them know what a fantastic job District 6 is doing for these students," he said. "Their narrative can't be about negativity, but about a community that collaborates and gets things done."Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the Greeley Tribune (Greeley, Colo.) 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