Dr. Omar Bah is a co-founder of the Refugee Dream Center. A torture survivor himself, Dr. Bah and his wife are working to create a space for all people to find refuge in Rhode Island. A former journalist and a refugee from The Gambia, Dr. Bah also teaches global mental health fundamentals at Harvard Medical School’s program in refugees trauma.
Below is an edited and condensed version of host Anaridis Rodriguez interviewing Dr. Bah. You can watch the in-depth conversation here.
ANARIDIS: Let’s talk about the Refugee Dream Center. Tell us about it.
DR. BAH: 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 friends. 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 ... 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.
ANARIDIS: So you founded the center in 2015. You’re based out of Providence, Rhode Island. How many refugees have come through your doors?
DR. BAH: We are currently, our reach is 3,025 individuals, mostly in Providence, but all over the state, literally everywhere. And these are individuals from mostly Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean, 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.
ANARIDIS: That is very diverse and you offer a number of services. Walk us through what a day is like at the Refugee Dream Center.
DR. BAH: 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.
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 a utility bill that people cannot.
ANARIDIS: And helping them pay that bill.
DR. BAH: Exactly.
ANARIDIS: I love that it is an approach that’s so familiar to them, just like a second home, you say?
DR. BAH: Absolutely.
ANARIDIS: 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?
DR. BAH: 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.
ANARIDIS: Of course, of course.
DR. BAH: 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.
ANARIDIS: 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.
DR. BAH: 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 U.N. is forcing the United States. It is just out of humanitarian reasons. And folks 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.
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