(upbeat music) - Welcome to "Generation Rising."

I'm Anaridis Rodriguez Here at Generation Rising, we have conversations that explore solutions to the inequities our diverse communities face every day.

With us tonight is, Dr. Omar Bah.

Dr Bah and his wife founded the Refugee Dream Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

Dr. Bah is a survivor of torture, a former journalist, and a refugee from The Gambia.

Along with what is a very busy schedule at the Dream Center, Dr. Bah also teaches global mental health fundamentals at Harvard Medical School's program in refugee trauma.

Dr. Bah, thank you so much for being here with us today.

- Well, thank you so much, Anaridis.

It's an honor to be here.

I'm actually excited.

- I'm excited too for our conversation, welcome.

Let's talk about the Refugee Dream Center.

- [Dr.Bah] Sure.

- Tell us about that.

- Well, I mean, it's a center that serves refugees from all over the world.

I came here 15, 16 years ago now, and I realized refugees did not have an opportunity for continuity in services.

And I got a job after 19 days of arrival.

I was a refugee.

I did not have a community, no family, no friend.

Started from the bottom and after 19 days, I felt I was on my own.

I was left, literally, I did not, I had to learn everything from scratch.

And that was not easy because you have to learn the culture, explore the culture shock, culture clash, literally being reborn.

And, after that experience, I thought it was necessary to help other refugees not to go through that.

And mark you, I was able to read and write English.

I could speak English, but I went through a lot of challenges in adjusting into American culture and society.

So the idea was really to create, fill gaps, but also continuous services for other refugees for as long as they needed so that they can properly integrate into American culture, both in terms of social, economic, and family life, so that they can be more able to contribute into American life.

- So you founded the center in 2015.

You're based out of Providence, Rhode Island.

How many refugees have come through your doors?

- We are currently, our reach is 3025 individuals, mostly in Providence, (indistinct) but all over the state, (indistinct) literally everywhere.

And these are individuals from mostly Middle East, Africa, the Caribbeans, Latin America.

I think about 80% refugees, some people that are not documented and some that are asylum seekers.

A very wide spectrum of population, very diverse and different languages.

About 39 languages are spoken among the staff, between board, staff and volunteers, so just to give you an idea how many people, like people from different diverse perspectives that we work with.

- That is very diverse and you offer a number of services.

- [Dr.Bah] Sure.

- Walk us through what a day is like at the Refugee Dream Center.

- Well, what we figured out, that it is not really good to create a system where we are locked indoors and people have to make appointments to show up.

So it's open doors, it's basically set up in a way that is home away from home.

So folks walk in, in an ideal day, you have dozens of individuals sitting at lounges, watching tv, learning English, working with volunteers or English teachers, learning English.

That's really one of the main things that we push.

Financial literacy, some people hide money when they get jobs, hide money under the mattress.

- Hmm.

- They don't know about opening a bank account.

So we work, we have financial literacy classes, digital and computer literacy.

Some folks, when they're here five years, it's time to rush, to start, even when they speak English, they have to go for citizenship classes to start learning how to pass that test.

By the way, that test is so hard that an average American can fail it because it's a lot of history, a lot of dates that you have to memorize.

So an average day is like that.

Then we have a case management team that works with individuals at every level, interpreting, transportation, working with them to apply for jobs, training them about job interview skills.

It's a very, very busy place where literally you're just helping people hands on, wraparound services for almost every aspect of life.

Sometimes it's as easy as reading an utility bill that people cannot.

- And helping them pay that bill.

- Exactly.

- I love that it is an approach that's so familiar to them, just like a second home, you say?

- Absolutely.

- People are able to walk in.

Having that type of connection instead of something that's more procedural, what does that do to making sure that the refugee engages and follows through?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Because the idea is to minimize or probably completely eliminate this notion of bureaucracy where folks are already overwhelmed and it's a lot of information within a short time.

And you know, the typical refugee, you don't know where you're going.

You actually are not prepared to travel.

War happens, bombs are flying, you have to leave home and go to another country with nothing or almost nothing.

It's not actually like the typical journey, a story of an immigrant where people say, "I came with a hundred dollars in my pocket at the airport, or $20," you come with nothing, for a refugee.

Most of them don't even know where they're going until they arrive.

And then basically it is like you are in a utopian place or another planet.

You have to start everything from the bottom.

So the idea is, you know, if we have small grants to pay for cash assistance or for pay for utilities or help with rental assistance, even when they get jobs, the idea is to not only make them to be self sufficient, but also to help them to get out of the welfare system because we think that's an economic contribution to the state, to get people out the welfare system.

- Of course, of course.

- And to feel some sense of dignity.

And so, our approach was to work with everybody.

We don't work, I mean, when I started, there was a little bit of confusion.

Because I'm a Muslim, so it's a lot of Muslim refugees are coming, "Oh, they told us a Muslim is helping Muslim refugees."

I said, "I help you, but I also help other refugees."

And the Africans would say the same thing.

They'll come, "Oh, they told us an African is helping African refugees.

I said, actually, my...

The vast identities probably is a strength to bring everybody together.

- And you use that, it seems, as a building block.

You were telling us that you recently celebrated Thanksgiving and it was the first time for many of them to understand what that tradition and that holiday is like.

So you do embrace all different walks of life, all different cultures.

- Absolutely.

You know, one of the biggest gifts that the United States is giving the individuals that call themselves refugees or even immigrants of every shade is the opportunity to belong, to feel like they're dignified.

Experiencing Thanksgiving, working to understand, to learn English, to get around, to know the state, to get by, to feel free, that you are safe, it's one of the most important things, you know?

And I always tell folks, even at my work, I tell them, you know, it was not by force that the UN is forcing the United States.

It is just out of humanitarian reasons.

And folks are appreciate that to a certain, to a great level.

So that's why, you know, we always celebrate holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the holidays that would introduce them to American life, that will help them to not only learn, but also belong.

- You and your wife came up with the idea of the Refugee Dream Center, you tell us, after your own lived experience.

- [Dr.Bah] Sure.

- What motivated you?

Tell us about your story.

A lot of people - - Sure.

- may know it already, but it is rather compelling.

You've lived many lives it seems.

- Yeah, basically I was inspired by folks like Martin Luther King, you know, the word dream, I was introduced to it a lot when I came, you know, the American dream, owning a home.

I said, "oh, let's do that for refugees, to live the American dream.

And that's how the dream became the central part of the Refugee Dream Center.

But it really was mostly around advocacy, around housing.

And eventually we decided to found it and turn it into a non-profit because we knew there were a lot of direct services that needed to be done.

And for me it was really more like a philosophical undertaking.

What is next for me?

What is next for my life?

What do I wanna do for the rest of my life?

And then it was, then I came to the conclusion that is a continuation of what I have always been doing.

First, I wanted to be an attorney, a lawyer, because I wanted to be a human rights advocate, to fight for people who have been abused by a regime, a dictatorial regime in The Gambia where I grew up in.

But also to help women like my mother, where I grew up in, my mother was live... She was the first wife of the first child of a family that is extended, living in a compound of over 30 people that she had to fetch water and carry buckets of water on her head and fetch water for them to shower, do laundry for them with her hands, cook for everybody.

And if everything is late, if anything is late, she will get tortured, by somebody.

She has to do everything on time and enough.

I was upset and I wanted to support my mother.

I wanted to get my mother out of that situation.

I wanted to help other girls.

She was married as a teenager.

I wanted to help other girls not to go through that.

But I went to college and I couldn't continue.

Just two years, I could not afford it anymore.

Then I walked into a small newspaper that came out twice a week and I told the editor, you know, "I wanna be a reporter.

I go to the court as a law student and I see a lot of things that could be reported."

But the bottom line is what I wanted was to have an opportunity to continue that lawyering, to have a voice, but give a voice to others.

And that is basically how my journey as a reporter started.

And it was really the same philosophy that continued.

I said, "What can I do?

What is my new form of journalism in the US?"

And it was serving fellow refugees, being an advocate for them, giving them the opportunity to have a voice, but doing something that I think will compound all those things that motivated me, inspired me in life.

- So you're 21 years old, you are a journalist in The Gambia and you're reporting on things some people in power were not happy about.

You are persecuted.

Tell us about how you eventually came to Rhode Island.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Again, my age, 21 then, when I started as a reporter, just out of community college after two years, it was something that made me very naive and exposed myself to a lot of danger because I used to ignore a lot of advice and warning signs.

You know, I would walk into military barracks and try to report something and get tortured.

And when I get tortured, a few weeks later I'll be back.

It was a time when a lot of reporters got killed or disappeared.

And I just, I survived that because I think I was in the notion that I would only die but I'll do my job.

It was an extremely violent situation on the dictatorial regime.

But long story short, I was declared a wanted man when the dictator found out that I was reporting secretly for an American based website about extreme human rights abuses that were secretive.

And they declared me a wanted man, I was able to flee.

I fled the country, went to a neighboring country known as Senegal.

But while I was in Senegal, they kept announcing and with my photos that I'm a wanted person, basically paraded me like as if I'm a bank robber, like a criminal but there's mentioned like is wanted for writing about it.

- [Anaridis] There were posters - - Posters everywhere.

- of you everywhere.

- Everywhere.

And so it was very dangerous so I moved to Ghana, which just to give myself a little bit of space.

Luckily, the American embassy in Ghana was aware of my situation.

Somehow they were aware that I was in Ghana and then they picked up my case within a short time, one year.

I'm say emphasizing short time, one year is very short.

I was evacuated to the US as a refugee because in my, during the plane journey, there were about 20 other refugees from other countries in the same journey.

Most of them were in refugee camps for 10, 15 years when I spoke with them.

That's why I'm emphasizing short time.

And I ended up in Rhode Island, had no idea I was coming here.

Literally never heard of the name until one day before arrival.

Actually, I thought actually I was going to an island until they showed me a map and I saw Rhode Island.

Excited, nervous but excited that it's the smallest state.

And guess what, I'm from the smallest country in Africa on the African mainland.

So it was, I was hopeful it was going to be easy to connect and integrate because of the sizes.

So whoever chose Rhode Island was a genius.

- It was divine intervention, - - Absolutely.

- you would say, you go from the smallest country in Africa to the smallest state in the United States.

Interesting you mentioned the trajectory, the journey being short and you being lucky in that.

Tell us about what has changed for refugees since you arrived here in the US.

- Well, well, absolutely, a lot of changes have happened.

When I came it was mostly refugees from Iraq, Southeast Asia and Bhutan, and then we had a lot from West Africa like Liberia and then survivors of the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi.

But now we have a lot more coming from Congo, Syria, and now a lot from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

And of course, from the usual places, the Southeast Asia, you know, Somalia, then the Caribbeans.

And then there's a new wave of individuals who are not coming through the refugee process, they're coming through the US southern border.

And that is a whole new category that is not, they don't have any documentation and we have to use all our resources to help with the legal documentation, provide services and support.

So it's a lot of more now detailed activities that are happening.

- And the activities, they kind of ebbed and flowed in recent years, especially coming from the Trump administration - - Sure.

- into President Biden's administration.

You talk about being able to process this record number of migrants that are coming to US borders.

- Sure.

- The president recently did talk about his plan to increase the cap of refugees allowed into the country to 125,000, - - Yeah.

- right, which is much higher than what we've seen years prior to that.

Do you think that's the right legislative approach?

He also wants to establish resettlement agencies that would allow refugees to be able to come and be processed quicker - - Absolutely.

- through the system.

Where do you stand on this type of legislative approach?

- No, I think it is absolutely great because there has always been a lot of bureaucracy and difficulty in people getting resettled.

You mentioned the Trump administration.

During that period, the US was accepting less than a 20,000, less than 20,000 refugees.

And that was a big departure from the usual American values of humanitarian support, but also welcoming immigrants and refugees.

Even Canada was resettling more refugees than us.

So Biden's increase to 125 is a huge jump, meaning that they have to put a lot of pressure on resettlement agencies but we want that, we want to support individuals.

Imagine Ukraine alone, more than 10 million people are displaced.

And if you count those internally displaced, you're talking about 20 million just from Ukraine alone.

Getting a small number, 125 out of all the people displaced in the world, 125,000 is less than 1% of that population.

And guess what?

The US resettles more refugees than any country in the world.

Just imagine, there are people, that is different from people moving from one border to the other.

It means people who are getting processed and brought into a new country through a process called refugee resettlement.

We take more refugees than any country.

So it sounds like a big number, but it's very small.

It's less than probably 0.01%.

And then the new process they're talking about is like the private sponsorship course, which, what happens is they, now the resettlement agencies are not able to do everything.

Actually, in Rhode Island it was only two traditionally until recently, when we became also one officially.

But imagine there are church groups, there are community associations, book clubs that can say, "Oh, we want to take one family from Ukraine."

The US government is providing that avenue for people to be able to sponsor private sponsorship.

Eventually, they'll work with resettlement agencies, but at least they can process people quicker.

So basically that is the new approach that they're trying to promote.

- That leads me to my next question is, what does that mean for the state of Rhode Island?

Because we see these big headlines and these big numbers, but in reality in Rhode Island, the scale is much smaller.

We're only talking about - - Hundreds.

- several hundred, if that, refugees coming into state borders every year.

- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So, they do it per capita.

So I mean, 400 or 300 for Rhode Island may be equivalent to 4,000 for Texas.

So, in Rhode Island, it'll be a couple of hundreds every year but that's a lot for the state because remember, we have to, they use resources before they get jobs.

They use social services, they have to look for apartments.

Housing is exponentially expensive in Providence now.

So those are all factors that are looked at.

And then, you know, so we utilize a lot of community resources, volunteers, you know, from different aspects to support.

And then it is not only those who come through the formal process like 2-300 or 400 a year.

Some people migrate from one state, the government may take them to Massachusetts, they end up migrating to Rhode Island.

So eventually, before the end of the year with those coming from the southern border and those migrating from one state to the other and those coming directly to refugee resettlement agencies, you're talking about a thousand individuals, that is a strain on the state.

And then, it just basically, all partners coming together and working to ensure that there's a better resettlement process.

- Is there anything happening in the state legislature?

- Sure.

- Or any state laws that could help ease that strain or ease that process that you're supporting?

- Well, I think, at state level, I mean we are trying to engage a lot of, a number of legislators to support this cause.

And the argument is not, we are not asking to bring more individuals to the state, but to support communities.

You know, people struggling with housing, people struggling with homelessness, people struggling with youth gang-related problems.

And I think, needs some mentorship.

So those are some of the things we are promoting at state level.

And the governor, for the first time, we got a designated grant, 50,000, for the first time from the state.

Now they're including that in the state budget.

And we hope there will be more support like that.

And there has been a lot of investment in training, job trainings and placements because the emphasis is for people to get jobs, be self sufficient, learn English, and integrate into American society.

And then that is the argument we are putting forward with the state legislators.

Because again, it is not about bringing more people, of course, more people will come, but it is more about helping people from the bottom up.

And remember, it is not only about the 400 coming every year, it is people who are new generation, who are born to immigrant parents, born to refugee parents.

People who need similar services just like their first generation parents.

- So you are supporting refugees for a long period of time.

- Absolutely, some people will support them.

They get married, their children are getting served, served at our center.

And then, that's why actually our emphasis, I always say this, we serve refugees and Americans, you know?

So Americans in the sense that people born to refugee parents who grew up here, who still have their cultural clash and cultural differences that they need to adjust and support.

And also kids from local schools.

Our youth mentorship program brings in an average 50 kids from local schools like Moses Brown, the Wheeler School.

They come to learn about our cultures.

They don't have to travel to Ukraine or Afghanistan or Congo to know about there.

We meet, they come to our center.

So basically, the idea is building bridges and some of the kids from the refugee population are born here.

- Hmm.

- And then it's basically for the longer term.

- So, the people who live in the state inform your work.

You also teach at Harvard Medical School.

You teach in the program for refugee trauma.

How does that inform the work that you're doing at the center?

- Yeah, actually I think it was motivated by my own story.

I was a torture survivor and declared a wanted person, came to Rhode Island, started from scratch, no family.

I was extremely traumatized.

But guess what, I had no idea.

Nobody told me about mental healthcare.

Nobody told me about treatment.

And I know there was only one term for mental illness in my culture, means crazy, like crazy.

- In many cultures, yeah.

- In many cultures.

Non-western cultures, and it carries so much stigma.

People will ostracize you and take you as you are a lunatic, like walking in the streets.

So, I didn't wanna associate myself to any of that.

And in 2012, I met, I was invited as a panelist at the Brown Medical School and the guest speaker was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

So when I finished, he told me, "I think you're a natural psychologist," he said, come to my class.

He had a certificate program and then he gave me a scholarship to do that program for six months.

And then two years later he gave me a scholarship to do something that ended up becoming a doctorate in psychology.

And we just became, it became like mentor-mentee situation.

Now in that same program I learned in 2012, that's where I teach refugee trauma and now I engage in a lot of trauma.

- So it's like a full circle moment.

- Full circle, yeah.

Because, and that is partly, that also inspired what I do, how we make sure we mentor young people, psychosocial support, psycho-education, using the back door to support trauma up-liftment rather than the direct things that will create some sort of stigma.

- So we're moving into, obviously, the new year.

- [Dr.Bah] Sure.

- What are your priorities in 2024?

You've recently been designated an official resettlement agency by the federal government.

So you are going to be easing into that process.

What is the Refugee Dream Center focusing on?

- Yeah, absolutely, two major things.

One is really getting adjusted into becoming a full refugee resettlement agency.

Meaning we are, there are two prongs to our mission, doing gap filling and continuing services, as one that we've always been doing, but also now doing initial resettlement.

So that is a great new experience that we are looking forward to in the new year.

And the second one is this new wave of individuals coming from the southern border.

And then places that are unexpected because some, a few number are from Latin America, like Colombia and the Caribbeans, but some are from Mauritania and West Africa, Senegal, Ukraine, Afghanistan.

People who could not join with the evacuation from Afghanistan, they fly to Southern America or Latin or the Central America and then take the road to get to America.

And those are individuals that have no documentation or even if they do, they're not legally resident, meaning we have to pay for their legal fees, look for lawyers, do interpreting for them, get food for them, connect them with shelters or find apartments for them.

It's a whole new process that we are looking forward to, we are overwhelmed and I think the coming year will be even more overwhelming.

- So instead of meeting them three months after they've arrived, you're now meeting them at the airport?

- At the airport now, yes.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- For those who are watching, our audience, who wanna help or just wanna stay in touch, how can they do so?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Through our website, you know, our contact information is there.

The www.refugeedreamcenter.org or our phone number or just visit us at 747 Broad Street.

And folks, you know, get involved in almost every aspect, transporting people, donating, doing everything or teaching English.

- Anyone can help.

- Anyone, anyone can show up.

- Well, it's been a great conversation.

Thank you so much for the work that you do and for your time here today.

- No, thank you.

The pleasure was mine, thank you so much.

- We have run out of time.

We would like to thank Dr. Omar Bah, Executive Director of the Refugee Dream Center.

You can watch this episode and all our past episodes anytime at watch.ripbs.org.

And be sure to follow us on these social platforms for the latest updates.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music ending)