Almost twelve years ago Dracilla fled the violence in the Congo with her three young children: Joseph, Alizia, and Ephriam. After Dracilla’s application for refugee status was approved the small family spent ten years living in a United Nations Refugee camp in Uganda, waiting to be resettled to another country. For those ten years Dracilla supported her children by working as a farmer. It was hard manual labor, and life in the refugee camp was never easy, but she did what she needed to in order to keep her family safe and together.
A year and a half ago the four arrived in Fort Worth as refugees. Dracilla and her oldest son, Joseph, work in a factory while the two youngest attend school.
In April Dracilla brought her family to one of JFON’s monthly clinics to apply for their permanent residency. Only Joseph speaks a little English and none of the volunteers at the clinic spoke Kinyabwisha, Dracilla’s native language. But it was still a time of welcome and hospitality and joy. Even without a common language the volunteers were able to teach the children to make paper flowers for Mother’s Day.
JFON is delighted to have the opportunity to help Dracilla and her children in this part of their journey. Thank you to all of the volunteers and donors who help make this possible!