Clara Hanna

When international crises occupy the headlines and the world's center stage, sometimes it's important to remember the ordinary people who get involved in any way they can. Take Clara Hanna, for instance.

In the summer of 1999, during the crisis in Kosovo, Ms. Hanna, an office assistant in the department of family and community medicine, volunteered with the Refugee Crisis Center sponsored by Catholic Social Services.

Despite no knowledge of the Albanian language or any experience working with refugees, in 1999 Ms. Hanna offered to mentor an Albanian family who had fled the war and sought temporary asylum in the United States.

Ms. Hanna welcomed the Ahmeti family like she would her own, helping them with the difficult transition to America and American life. Ms. Hanna helped the Ahmetis negotiate the little things most of us take for granted: learning the language, finding suitable employment, shopping for groceries, and learning the public school system.

"When I first met them they didn't speak English and I didn't speak Albanian," Ms. Hanna recalled. "For a while we functioned on hand signals."

The Ahmeti family traveled thousands of miles to the United States to escape the conflict in Kosovo.

Ms. Hanna says that to help the family learn English, she obtained an Albanian dictionary and made flashcards for the family using pictures from magazines. In addition, Mrs. Ahmeti would sometimes call Ms. Hanna at work for a brief conversation to practice English. After some time, the family learned some English, and Ms. Hanna helped Alim Ahmeti, the father, find better paying employment in an industrial shop in Grand Ledge-even going so far as to drive him to work at 4 a.m. until he obtained his driver's license.

Ms. Hanna says that as she and the family started to communicate more effectively, the Ahmetis tried to articulate their experiences in Kosovo to her.

"They wanted me to know about the hardships they had suffered, the relatives that had been killed, and their house that had been burned during the occupation," she says. Despite these horrible events, the Ahmetis fondly described their country as a very beautiful place.

In April 2000 the entire family moved back to Kosovo. Ms. Hanna kept in contact with them and even called them in Kosovo. Unfortunately, the Ahmetis found that their country had still not recovered from the war: there was no running water, little electricity, and no employment.

So now Mr. Ahmeti and his cousin have moved back to Lansing, where they continue to work to help bring their wives and children back to the United States. Ms. Hanna says that she thinks the Ahmetis will be successful in their transition, but she is not ready to give up her relationship with them, even as she considers mentoring other families.

"I will never abandon them," she says simply.

Despite Ms. Hanna's efforts, there remains a steady need for refugee mentors. Ms. Hanna says that Lansing has a surprisingly large refugee population, with approximately 60 or so families needing mentors. For more information, contact Lansing's Catholic Social Services Refugee Center at (517)484-1010.