Refugee Families Welcomed At Troy School

TROY, MI — While tensions over immigration are flaring across the country, due in part to President Donald Trump’s controversial stance on the issue, one Troy school recently embraced a pair of refugee families. The Morse Elementary family welcomed an Iraq family and one from Syria with a potluck dinner. It was much appreciated by Shihab Alzubaidi.

He said that he, wife Marwah Alshrbtee and son Ahmed Alzubaidi, 5, fled from Baghdad, Iraq after his son was nearly kidnapped. Alzubaidi, who had been working as an interpreter for American armed forces, fled and now lives in Hazel Park with his family.

“We chose to escape,” he told the Troy Times. He praised organizers of the potluck for “introducing us to the community and showing us what we need to do to have a better life for our family, without any fear.”

Pierre Kogamakhoul fled from Aleppo in 2013 with wife Manal Nameh, daughter Maria Kogamakhoul, 16, and son George Kogamakhoul, 13. After leaving Syria, the family lived in Lebanon for more than two years before coming to America, where they have been for nearly a year.

Kogamakhoul explained through an Arabic interpreter to the Troy Times that there was a lot of shelling in Aleppo, and his children were afraid. “We saw no end in sight,” he told the newspaper. “We chose to leave.” Kogamakhoul and his family are happy to be in the United States where he and his family feel safe, the Troy Times reported.

Kogamakhoul is one of thousands leaving the country. Michigan, in fact, leads the nation in the number of Syrian refugees. From May 2011 to May 31, 2016, some 505 Syrians came to the state, a significant number choosing Troy and nearby communities for their new home.

Among the 38 other states where 4,600 Syrian refugees have resettled during that five-year period, California had the second-highest number with 496, followed by Arizona with 368, Pennsylvania with 364 and Illinois 291, according to the State Department.

Samaritas — formerly Lutheran Social Services — helped organize the Troy potluck. Jen Hilzinger, a member of the Troy Area Alliance Against Hate Crimes and a staff member at Morse who works with English language learners, reached out to Samaritas, the Troy Times reported.

“There are so many negative connotations,” Morse second-grade teacher and potluck organizer Melissa Batts told the newspaper. “We want everyone to get to know your neighbors before you judge them. What better way than to sit down and share a meal?”

Morse Principal Stephanie Zendler said 60 percent of students at Morse Elementary speak a language other than English at home. She told the Troy Times that 32 different languages are spoken by students attending the school.

“A lot of families move here for work,” Zendler told the newspaper. She said welcoming new families into the Morse community “is not new to us.”

Photo by Kieran Lynam via Flickr Commons