Tara’s Takes
After I graduated from college, I had a pull on my heart to do some sort of volunteering. But I wanted it to be something I really felt I could see making a different and having an impact. I wanted something that I was truly dedicated to.
That something turned out to be the Big Buddies program through United Community Action. Through this program, I was matched with a student who could use a little one on one mentoring. The commitment was simple, 2-4 hours a month.
I was matched with a young Somalian girl named Muna. Muna’s family immigrated to the U.S. in 1999 and lived in a home in Marshall. Prior to coming to the U.S., they were in a refugee camp. The oldest son never made it out of the camp. They also lost a younger child before they made it here.
Let me tell you a few things I personally experienced with this family.
First, they worked hard. They had some traditional values as to who is responsible for certain jobs, but they were cultural values that were respected. The father worked long hours outside the home. The mother worked in housekeeping at the hospital and ran the home. The girls, Muna was the second oldest, helped with chores and taking care of younger siblings. Even the youngest kids were taught as soon as they were able to be helpful, do chores and contribute to the family.
That’s more than I can say about many of our families right now and the entitlement I see in kids.
I met with Muna every Monday night from the age of 9 to 11. Sometimes we did things just us, sometimes we brought along siblings. Sometimes we did things that cost money, like going to Pizza Hut or for ice cream. Many times, we went to the park or the YMCA. At that time, the YMCA had a program that if you were there as a Big Buddy/Little Buddy, you could use the Y for that visit for free.
During the winter, we spent a lot of time swimming at the Y or shooting hoops.
One Christmas, I took Muna to the Dollar Store. There were seven kids in the family and I gave her $20 to purchase three things each for her six siblings from her. (Everything was still $1 then). She was ecstatic and we spent over an hour wondering the aisles and finding the perfect presents to put under their small tree. We then wrapped everything and I kept it at my house until closer to Christmas.
The following week, I asked her mom for each fo the kids’ shoe sizes, and Muna and I picked out a new pair of shoes for each kid from me. When we delivered the gifts and shoes, her mom cried. I remember thinking how much a $9.96 pair of tennis shoes mattered to a family that had given up everything to start over.
I was Muna’s mentor for two years. I’d like to say I stayed in touch with her. But life got busy, I had kids, a more demanding job and she grew up.
But I had a unique way to get updates on Muna every once in a while. Because she was an active and involved student who continued to pave a new path for herself, I kept seeing Muna updates pop up here and there. She graduated from Marshall High School, graduated from SMSU with undergraduate degrees in Justice Administration and Political Science, was student body president in 2019 and was pursuing her Masters of Business Administration.
Wow! This girl who had to completely start her life over at such a delicate age has taken every opportunity to better herself and her family. I’m so unbelievably proud of the young woman she has become, and hope she keeps pursuing her dreams and making a difference in our world.
So I couldn’t disagree more with President Trump’s statements that he doesn’t want Somali immigrants in the U.S. and that residents of the war-ravaged eastern African country are too reliant on the U.S. social safety net and add little to the United States.
Are all immigrants adding to our country as much as Muna is? I don’t think so. Some are adding more and some are making poor decisions. However, there are plenty of U.S.-born citizens who are adding nothing to our country and making poor decisions as well.
For the most powerful man in the world to speak so derogatory about an entire nationality is disheartening.
If you are looking for a headline to show your point, you will find it. I can also find multiple headlines of U.S. citizens defrauding the government, using government programs to their advantage and even receiving multiple DWIs. However, we are degrading them like they don’t belong on this planet.
So as we move forward in this scary world, I’d like to remind everyone that unless you are a descendent of the indigenous people who lived here before it became the United States, we are all immigrants or from an immigrant family. None of us has superiority over anyone else just because of our skin color, nationality, race, religion or sex. When it comes down to it, we are all human. Let’s start treating each other that way.
