International Vendor Spotlight: J From Eritrea to Switzerland and freedom
I
?yKISABEL MOS<MAI\IN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
National Service. The work - laundry,
cleaning and cooking - wasn’t the
fter being persecuted for her
problem; I couldn’t bear to live unfree. You
religious beliefs, Tirhas
can t decide anything for yourself
Ghebremichael, 45, fled her home
everything is dictated, you are not allowed
country of Eritrea for a new life in
to resist or to even voice criticism.
Switzerland nine years ago. She now sells
But then one night, I had a chance to
the street paper. Surprise, in Bem where
flee from the camp. As soon as I was out I
in
found freedom and happiness. But
knew I had to leave the country, there was
still life is not always easy, she said,
no way back. Together with two other
rinding full-time work to help support her
women, I crossed the border to Sudan
daughter is Tirhas’ next challenge. Here is
Because you don’t really have a chance to
her story, in her own words:
make it there on your own as a woman I
On Oct. 20, 2006, that is nine years ago
continued toward Libya. Then I crossed
I came to Switzerland via Basel and
the Mediterranean and reached Italy and
applied for asylum. I had left Eritrea, my
Switzerland. -
home country, a few months before. f just
After a long and difficult time, here I
couldn t stand life there anymore.
have found some joy in my life again. I had
My problems began when my family and
met a man during my journey and became
I had started to read the Bible intensively
pregnant.
My daughter, Lydia, was born
and met with likeminded people in a
2007 in Bern. Her father and I are not
Protestant church, instead of attending the
together anymore, but he also lives in
Eritrean Orthodox church services as
Switzerland.
before. Our president did not approve of
Because I am a single mother, it has
those gatherings. So our church was
been difficult for me to find a full-time job.
closed, and my mum was put into prison
That s why I m still not fully recognized
for a while. The government also tried to
and
don t have a proper residence permit.
find me, but I managed to hide. .But in the
I can only claim the “Identification Card
end, they captured me and brought me to
B” when I have lived in Switzerland for
Sawa, the biggest army training camp in
one year without claiming any social
the country. There I had to work in the
benefits. But there is a problem: whenever
PHOTO COURTESY OF SURPRISE
Ttrhas Ghebremichael fled her
homecountry Eritrea and went to
Switzerland, where she’s found a new life
selling the Street Roots’ sister paper
Surprise.
■
SURVIVORS, from page 5
One woman said she was violently
thrown out of her home by art abusive
husband 14 years ago. She couldn’t
find work or housing and eventually
gave up. She’s been homeless ever
since.
Another woman said she chose the
streets, “because I’d rather be alive.”
The women said their stories are not
unique among Portland’s homeless
female population.
Coaching applicants
Beier and Neal said advocates are
coaching survivors on how to present
themselves to landlords. This includes,
“how to show up, how to talk a certain
way, look a certain way, act a certain
way,” said Beier, so that a landlord
finds them more desirable as tenants.
These conversations, she said, disgust
her “because housing is a basic need.”
She also warns survivors not to tell
landlords about a TA-DVS grant on the
front end because despite anti
discrimination laws put in place to
protect survivors receiving assistance,
with dozens of tenants to choose from,
landlords tend to rent to those with
better rental and employment
histories.
Neal said that countywide,
advocates have incorporated
apartment application tips into their
conversations with survivors. To
combat the lack of housing and
shelter, she said, other new
approaches have emerged as well,
such as working with landlords to
avoid evictions or add security and
using hotel vouchers while clients wait
for restraining orders to kick in. She
said making landlords aware of their
tenants’ rights has helped prevent
illegal evictions in some cases.
A push for funding
Marc Jolin at A Home for Everyone
said that as his organization prepares
to make recommendations to the city
and County about how to best spend
the newly allotted $30 million for
shelter space and housing, the
growing needs of domestic violence
survivors has been a part of the
conversation. However, how to spend
that money is ultimately up to the City
Council and county commissioners.
But, Neal said, there’s a “vast
difference” between homeless shelters
and domestic violence shelters.
“Homeless shelters have a long way
to improve. They’re very stressful and
traumatizing places,” she said.
Later this month; she plans to visit
several alternative shelter models in
Washington that were built following
the Building Dignity Strategy. This
approach incorporates shelter design
and programming focused on healing,
empowerment, and meeting the needs
of survivors and their children who
can benefit from trauma-informed/
care.
Neal said she’s trying to build the
case for funding something similar in
Portland.
“It’s not just about income,” she
I apply for a job - today, my daughter goes
to school the whole day and I could work
longer hours - they always say they only
take people with a “B-card.” Apparently
that is more safe and easy to administer
for employers than hiring someone with
the “Identification Card F” which I have.
Luckily, I found work for a few hours
with a cleaning business. But the time it
said. “When people leave, the risk for
serious violence or homicide goes up
significantly.”
A 2003 study of 11 cities and 220
domestic violence homicides found the
risk of severe violence and murder is
nearly four times greater when a
survivor attempts to end an abusive
relationship.
“Things look different when a
domestic violence survivor leaves or
becomes homeless because of violence
- because there’s somebody out there
looking for them,” Neal said, adding
that the involvement of child welfare,
police and the courts, on top of trying
to find or maintain housing and
employment, put survivors in a
complex and often scary situation.
This past legislative session, a bill
that would have increased the TA-DVS
amount from $1,200 to $2,000 died in
the Joint Ways and Means Committee
with a $5 million price tag. Senate Bill
503 would have also expanded TA-DVS
to include sexual assault victims. Sen.
Laurie Monnes Anderson
(D-Gresham) introduced the bill and
said she will continue to push the
issue. She submitted a budget request
to Ways and Means to increase the
amount to $2,000 before next session.
She’s waiting for a response before
deciding whether to introduce another
bill in the short session but said she
will “absolutely” be back with a similar
bill in 2017 that will possibly seek a
more substantial increase.
takes me to travel to work and back is
often longer than the actual hours. So I
hope to find more work in or near Bern.
My religion still gives me strength and
hope. When I came to Switzerland, I used
to attend Eritrean services, but for a few
years now I attend a church in Zollikofen
(a suburb in Bern) every Sunday. There I
have met a lot of Swiss people. That feels
good. I also love to meet people and talk
to them, when I sell Surprise at the Co-op
supermarket in Bahnhof Street in
Ostermundingen (a town in the outskirts
of Bern). Once a woman walked up to me
and asked me where I was from. We talked
for a while, and then she gave me a bag
full of beautiful, new clothes and started to
cry. I didn’t understand exactly why, but I
started crying as well.”
Translated from German into English by
Katrin Wolf. Courtesy ofINSPNews
Service www.INSP.ngo/ Surprise
Sight 4 Sore Eyes
By Mike Vance
What you want to see
is all you behold or even notice
You can’t be bothered with
the possibility that your knee-jerk
judgement was wrong.
If there is a better perspective,
you turn the other way, annoyed
what you hear is what
you were trained to listen for
As if all other information was just
extra lettuce in your salad.
To lend a hand to one
who suffers on the streets,
you just can’t be seen to do so.
Even though your pockets are
exploding with dough.
You hope to see me gone
and you feel that I
owe you an apology.
For my edgy personality
and the sharp biting words
that fired from my mouth.
As you turned a deaf ear to me.