Placide Kagde and his family arrived in Rochester in 2016. This is the first time their family has decorated a Christmas tree. (Dec. 21, 2017) Olivia Lopez
One day, Placide Kagde may tell his son Angel what Christmas sounds like in the Central African Republic. People bang pots and pans. They sing and dance in the streets.
Little Angel is three months old. Much too young to understand the violence that drove his parents from their homeland. Or that they spent years in a dusty refugee camp in Chad where shoes — and sometimes food — were hard to come by.
He just smiled and cooed as Kurt Engel brought a big evergreen tree into his Rochester home on a recent Sunday, to help his family enjoy the Christmas traditions of their new home.
"Make sure you put water in the bottom," said Engel, a volunteer for the Making a Connection Academy program. This program helps refugees aged 16 to 21 succeed in America by offering free English language classes, high school equivalency education, trade skills, driving instruction, meals, cultural experiences, citizenship training and help with miscellaneous things like Christmas tree care.
Delivering the tree was a simple and joyous task, compared with the much larger task facing MAC and its supporters. MAC operates out of the Office of Adult and Career Education Services of the Rochester City School District. The federal grant that has provided the program with $150,000 a year is set to expire at a time when the federal government is slashing aid to refugees. One of President Donald Trump's first actions after his inauguration was to institute a temporary ban on all refugees, citing safety concerns. The ban was battled in court and eventually expired. Still, the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States has plummeted.
In 2016, 1,078 refugees were settled in Rochester according to the Catholic Family Center. In 2017, from January through November, fewer than 400 were welcomed. In fiscal year 2017, the United States accepted 84,994 refugees for resettlement. The 2018 budget says that we will accept 45,000.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that we are witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record, with nearly 22.5 million refugees worldwide. More than half of these refugees are under the age of 18.
Stable countries have not offered new permanent homes to the vast majority of the people who are fleeing violence and danger. This fact is often decried around Christmas time, when people recall that Jesus was a refugee. The Gospel of Matthew 2:13-15 shows Jesus, Mary and Joseph escaping Herod the Great, who had ordered the execution of all male children in Bethlehem. Following the United States’ ban on refugees, Bishop Salvatore Matano released a statement that quoted Pope Pius XII. "The émigré Holy Family of Nazareth, fleeing into Egypt, is the archetype of every refugee family," Pope Pius XII wrote in 1952. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, living in exile in Egypt to escape the fury of an evil king, are, for all times and all places, the models and protectors of every migrant, alien and refugee of whatever kind who, whether compelled by fear of persecution or by want, is forced to leave his native land, his beloved parents and relatives, his close friends, and to seek a foreign soil.”
Placide, his parents, wife and siblings consider themselves lucky to have been welcomed into a new country and offered a new permanent home. The adjustment is not easy, but programs like MAC help young adults who are likely to struggle in traditional high schools due to limited English and formal education. Last year it served about 90 students from countries like Afghanistan, Somalia, Cuba, Nepal, Burma, Ukraine, Congo and Iraq.
Many have had no formal education nor any opportunity to practice life skills. "In the refugee camp, there is no planning," said MAC coach Alla DeWolf.
DeWolf immigrated to the United States from Ukraine as a young woman and understands the struggles the students face navigating the American banking system, for example. "People save their money under their pillow in my country and their countries," she said.
Besides the logistical help, MAC helps students make important social connections. "When I come here, I don't have any friends. I come here to MAC and I have a lot of friends," Placide said.
Some MAC connections have become even closer than friendship. Placide calls Engel "father" and also "Poco Loco," which means "a little crazy" in Spanish. He named his son Angel, a reflection of Engel's name and Engel says he considers little Angel a grandson. Engel, who is retired from Kodak, said that working with MAC students is rewarding beyond words. He said he in awe of all that the young people of MAC accomplish, despite steep language and cultural barriers. "How would I be in Afghanistan?" he asked.
The MAC program reports that 61 percent of its students found jobs last school year. The program also encourages them to go to school, even if it means long days, like those spent by Murtaza Ehsani. Ehsani fled Afghanistan alone at age 11, eventually making it to a refugee camp in Indonesia. He knew no one when he arrived in Rochester in 2016. He goes to school from 9 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. and then works at Wegmans from 3 to 11 p.m . Part of MAC's mission is to get students to stay in school, even though it's a lot of work. "Don't worry about the next five weeks," DeWolf said she tells students. "Worry about the next five years."
She is also trying to convince legislators to embrace this sentiment. MAC's funding is scheduled to run out after 2018 and DeWolf and Engel are proactively seeking replacement funding streams. In a presentation DeWolf said that helping young refugees get jobs and education will reduce their dependency on public assistance, saving taxpayers money in the long term. To learn more about MAC visit www.oaces.net/programs/youth/mac-academy. Donations can be made at www.oaces.net/donate/.
The future of MAC may be uncertain but the Kagde family Christmas tree is shining bright. After the family finished putting on the ornaments and lights, they stuck an American flag and a Central African Republic flag in the evergreen branches. "I thank God and I thank the American people," said Placide's father, Victor Kagde. "We are living here in peace."
Erica Bryant is the Democrat and Chronicle's Pay It Forward columnist. Contact her at ebryant@gannett.com.
More: What charities really want: 12 days worth of giving ideas
More: Refugee janitor's daughter is valedictorian — again