Refugees Settling In

Chandra Khatiwada was 42 the first time he tried ice cream.

It was just last week, when a local veterinarian took Khatiwada and his family to McDonald’s for some food. They got ice cream for dessert, and loved it. 

The family has had a lot of firsts over the past two and a half months. 

Khatiwada, his wife, Chandra Kala, and their four children were relocated to Ansonia from a refugee camp in Nepal this past March. 

Though the transition has been difficult, Khatiwada said life in the United States is much better than from where he came. 

Khatiwada spoke with the Valley Independent Sentinel last week, using limited English skills and the help of translation from Dr. T.C. Nanavati, a local veterinarian who has been helping the family adjust to the area. 

Click here to read background on the effort to resettle refugee families in the Valley.

Learning Curve

The family is trying to learn English, get jobs and make a home for themselves in Connecticut, after spending the past 19 years in a refugee camp in Nepal.

There, they lived in a one-room bamboo hut and said they never had enough food to eat. 

The family lacked electricity and running water. They had to wait in line for more than two hours to get clean water. 

When they first arrived in America on March 17, they didn’t have appropriate clothing for the cold air. 

Today, they still lack furniture, clothing and even dishes, pots and pans. 

But they have a roof over their heads, in their three-bedroom apartment in Ansonia.

Self Sufficient

The children — Pununya, 17; Bishnu, 15; Mohn, 12; and Suraj, 5 — are all enrolled in the Ansonia school system. Some are concerned the school system won’t be able to handle the refugee students.

UNHCR PhotoBut Suraj is already speaking English.

Khatiwada speaks a little, too. 

Chandra Kala, the mother, is hoping to enroll in a class to learn the language. 

That’s the first step toward being self sufficient — the main goal for the refugee families brought here by the International Institute of Connecticut.

The institute is placing a handful of families in Ansonia, and helping them make the transition from refugee camp to jobs, bills and school. 

Khatiwada and his family receive assistance from IIC, but it will slowly decrease over the next six months. 

Both husband and wife said that they are willing to work and would take any job offered to them.
 
Right now they do not have a job, or even a car. 

Some Help

Nanavati, who is a Hindu like the Khatiwada family, has been driving them to church and the supermarket and has been giving them money and buying them households items. 

Nanvati, who owns Ansonia Animal Hospital on South Main Street in Seymour, is collecting food, clothing and other items for the refugee families. 

He said they need items like dishes, pots and pans and even a used vaccum cleaner.
 
Anyone wishing to donate something to the refugees can call him at 203 – 735-9915.

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