‘We’re here for you’: Lori Trahan hosts reception for Ukrainian refugees

LOWELL — It takes a village, goes the collegial interpretation of the African proverb, to get things done for a community. But if you have a congresswoman in your village, things definitely get done.

U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan demonstrated the power of her office and staff to organize and provide robust constituent services during a reception held Friday for Ukrainian families who have relocated to Greater Lowell because of Russian’s invasion of their country.

“Today marks 148 days since Russia launched its illegal and unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” Trahan said in her opening remarks at the event. “The war has led to tens of thousands unnecessary deaths and injuries, and an untold amount of destruction and displacement for Ukrainian families who have been forced to flee for their safety.”

A statement released prior to the morning’s event noted Trahan’s “strong support of Ukraine’s fight to preserve its freedom.” The congresswoman voted in favor of packages to support the country’s humanitarian and defensive needs.

In April, she traveled as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation to nations neighboring Ukraine to see firsthand the impact of displacement and dislocation on the Ukrainian people. That experience shaped her ongoing response to providing support to refugees who have relocated to the 3rd Congressional District, Trahan told the audience Friday morning.

“Five weeks after the invasion, I went to the Ukrainian border in Poland, Romania and Moldova,” Trahan said. “I got to meet so many families who did not want to leave, who didn’t want to travel far from home. We want to make your transition as easy, as seamless and loving and kind as we possibly can. That’s what today’s reception is all about. Making sure you have the resources, the tools and the services necessary to rebuild.”

That love and support was on display as invited representatives from several local, state and federal agencies spoke to the Ukrainian refugees in the audience about the full range of services they might need, such as identification papers, visas and permits, health care and English-language lessons.

Some of the agencies attending included the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, Lowell Community Health Center, Abisi Adult Education Center, MassHire, the International Institute of New England – Lowell, the Social Security Administration and the Uniting for Ukraine Program. The agency representatives provided handouts on their programs and staff to answer questions.

The speakers were all high-level officials such as Denis Riordan, district director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He referenced his personal experience when he spoke about interviewing Bosnian refugees in the mid-1990s and the hardships of leaving one country for another.

“I have been in refugee camps. I asked a father, ‘Where would you like to resettle in the U.S.?’ And his response was, ‘I just want to go home,’” Riordan said, keying into the longing many refugees have for their homeland. “The U.S. has extended a welcome. It embraces you. And as an agency that works with immigrants and refugees, we want to support you as much as possible. We want to be available to you.”

That welcoming vibe was carried forward by Dr. Robert Marlin, medical chief of the Metta Health Center for refugees and immigrants located within the Lowell Community Health Center.

“We are a dedicated clinic for refugees and asylum seekers. Our model of care is loving kindness,” Marlin said. “We offer multidisciplinary clinical services focused on primary care, mental health and other specialty care. We work to get people all the services they need including health coverage.”

In the audience listening was Mariem Mazkhar, with her mother, Olena. They fled Ukraine in March for a refugee camp in Poland. Her brother had moved to the U.S. almost a decade earlier on a work visa, and she said he now works with the Lowell Community Health Center.

But she says their immigration experience is completely different from that of her brother. She and her mother had never been to the U.S., but she hoped the resources available at the event could help them decide if they should apply for Temporary Protected Status.

“We didn’t expect to come here. I had my school, my studies. It’s hard to find a home when there is no home,” Mazkhar said in excellent English that she said she learned at school, while pursuing paperwork at the immigration table.

“It was sudden. The day the war started, we left Kiev and went to Berdcyhiv, in the east. Getting out of Ukraine from the east was very difficult. We didn’t know, how do we go? What is a safe way, to go?” she recounted. “We ended up taking the train, which was one of the safest ways to go even as it was one of the most difficult ways to go. You could only take a backpack on the train, everything else had to be left behind.”

Trahan’s staff includes her Deputy District Director Sara Khun Leng, who has personal experience with being a refugee. Her family fled war-torn Cambodia when she was 5 years old. They lived in two refugee camps before settling in the U.S.

“When the war broke out in Ukraine, it touched me personally,” Leng said. “We went to work immediately to make sure our office provided all the necessary assistance to everyone who reached out. Lori understood the urgent need for us to respond immediately to assist.”

Finding Ukrainian families a place to settle is the role of the Uniting for Ukraine Program, which matches local people with the refugees.

Greg Trotter, of Bolton, is one of those families. He said he came to meet with already-placed Ukrainians so that he can connect his soon-to-be-placed family with a support group upon arrival.

He credited Trahan and Senior Constituent Liaison Jorge Morales Lopez, with “helping us to try and expedite the paperwork.”

“A friend of a friend was working in a refugee center in Poland, and identified a family willing to move to the states. It’s a father and his daughter, age 11. The mother died last year,” Trotter said. “We knew it could take a long time, and we reached out to the congresswoman’s office, and they responded right away.”

After the event, Trahan reflected on how many people and resources need to be involved in making a new life happen for the Ukrainian families, and was proud of her role in facilitating their adjustment into the community.

“This is just part of the constituent services that we do,” Trahan said. “We wanted to create a forum for that with all our partner agencies and organizations. We wanted to make sure that these families knew that there are resources — that they aren’t going it alone.”