The Citizen, 1992-12-09, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1992.
Ethiopian refugee puts suffering behind her
By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot
Hearing the gentle voice Betre
work Mengesha of Ethiopia uses to
speak to her children, it's hard to
imagine she once stood up to a
government for her beliefs.
Looking at her petite and delicate
frame, you wonder where she
found the strength to endure
hunger, cold and abuse as she fled
on foot from her homeland.
Yet she did and as she sits
serenely on a couch at the home of
Siebolt and Annie Siertsema, she
tells a tale of her escape and the
painful separation from her mother
and daughter which ended Nov. 17
when she arrived in Canada spon
sored by the Blyth Christian
Reformed Church.
"I was bom in a small city in the
north eastern part of Ethiopia," she
begins in impeccable English."
Her father was a priest and she
was raised as a Christian. Her
childhood was idyllic.
"I remember when I was a child,
even the beggars in the streets sang
with happiness," she recalls.
"Everyone had enough to eat."
She attended school, where she
was taught in English, and earned a
degree from Agricultural College.
Upon graduation, she became a
teacher and after two years of this,
accepted a job with the Ethiopian
Ministry of Agriculture which
involved training graduates how to
teach rural people about nutrition,
health and child care.
All was going well until she
refused to become involved with
the Country's reigning socialist
government because it required she
deny God.
"I did not want to become
involved in politics, I only wanted
to do my job," she says. Betrework
was jailed for two days for having
that opinion.
She was told she could have a
house and whatever she wanted if
she submitted to the government,
but she refused.
Fearing she would be jailed for
ever, Betrework decided to flee the
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The face of optimism
Though she's endured hunger, loneliness and fear,
Betrework Mengesha, a refugee from Ethiopia can still
smile while working on an autobiography of her
experiences. She’s staying at the home of Annie and
Siebolt Siertsema near Auburn while she begins to build a
new life in Canada.
country and headed for Somalia
with only the clothes on her back.
Her daughter, who was six, she
left with her mother.
"My daughter was very young I
could not take her with me," she
says.
Hungry and often without shelter,
she trudged approximately the
same distance as from Blyth to
Toronto on foot to arrive in Soma
lia where she encountered more
problems. Though the Somalian
government accepted her as a
refugee, the high-ranking Somalian
men mistreated and abused women,
she said.
Nevertheless, she found a job and
stayed until one day returning from
work she was arrested.
"I was horrified. They could
shoot me and nobody would ever
know," she says. She was impris
oned and told she didn't have the
right to ask why. Fortunately, she
was released on condition that she
never say anything.
Circumstances such as these
forced her to travel to the neigh
bouring country of Djiboutti where
again, she faced difficulty. This
time it was with the weather. As a
refugee, she lived in tents in rocky
terrain where temperatures would
reach 40-50 degrees centigrade.
Unable to bear the heat, she was
aided by an English refugee worker
who took her into her cool house
and eventually connected Betre
work with the World University
Service of Canada which sponsored
her flight to Canada and offered her
a scholarship at the University of
Guelph.
After three years of enduring
hardship, she was safe. But though
she was physically fine, mentally,
she was not.
"I felt so under pressure,"she
says, "half my mind was here and
half my mind was in Ethiopia. I
was so worried about my family
because things were getting worse
there and nobody knew what would
happen."
Just as she wondered how they
were, her mother and daughter
must have wondered the same thing
for Betrework had left without
word to her family for safety rea
sons.
She decided to get a job and earn
money so that if things became
intolerable in Ethiopia, she'd be
able to get her daughter out
"I don't blame anyone if they
don't understand why I quit the uni
versity. I quit for my mother and
daughter for reasons no one can
understand unless they have lived
in Africa," she says.
She found work and during this
period, met the father of her son.
He was also an Ethiopian but could
not withstand the harsh Canadian
winters.
The couple moved to the milder
British Columbian climate where,
unable to find work, they collected
unemployment.
Betrework says because they
couldn't find jobs, she was con
vinced by her common in law hus
band to return to Ethiopia.
"We went back in 1991 and
everything was upside down," she
says. There was new government
but there was conflict everywhere.
Before the problem was the gov
ernment forcing people to be
involved in politics, this time there
was ethnic conflict."
Faced with the inter-racial vio
lence and killing and the disappear
ance of her son's father, she
realized she'd made a mistake com
ing back and decided to return to
Canada.
This time it wasn't any easier.
Unable to get a passport for her 17-
year-old daughter Hirut, she illegal
ly purchased a fake passport and
stole her daughter out of the coun
try. They fled first to Kenya and
then Uganda where the Canadian
Consulate ensured that Betrework,
who was a Canadian citizen, and
her children, were provided for.
Finally, the Blyth Christian
Reformed Church became involved
providing the family room and
board—a service they've offered
many refugees over the years.
"I feel glad all the problems are
gone," says Betrework. "Even with
all that's happened, I don't regret
leaving the Ministry of Agriculture
job. I would have had to deny God
and how could I do that?"
Now that she's in Canada, she
hopes to find work and continue
her studies. She'll soon be leaving
the area to live in London where
she has greater chances of finding a
job.
"I don't want to depend on^wel-
fare. I want to get some skills train
ing and get a job."
She says she likes Canada,
except for the weather. But as she
puts it, "I'd rather take the cold than
face the uncertainty in Africa."
To her, Canada is a sanctuary.
"Canadians have to thank God for
everything they have. God has
blessed them. Canadians have very
little worries. In Africa there is not
only a lack of food, there is the
uncertainty of not knowing if you
will live or die."
"You can't imagine how it is to
live in such uncertainty. You
should thank God that you are not
there," she says.
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