J.D. Long-Garía/CATHOLIC SUN

Dilli Bhattarai, a Bhutanese refugee, sweeps the floor Feb. 19 at Pro’s Ranch Market in west Phoenix.

Catholic Charities helps refugees find new life with local supermarkets

Ranch Market isn’t your standard grocery store.

When you walk into any of the seven Phoenix locations, you’ll be all but overwhelmed by the vibrant colors of fruits and vegetables and the tall displays and the fragrant, sweet smell of traditional Mexican pastries.

You’ll notice the attention to presentation. The store is well-organized and the signs help you find what you want. You might notice the extra fish display for Lent, but you’ll definitely notice you’re not alone. Good food draws crowds.

But you probably won’t notice the 25 or so refugees Pro’s Ranch Market employs. They come from Cuba, from the Sudan, from Nicaragua and from Iraq. You won’t notice them because these refugees, who often suffered unspeakable horrors before arriving, are diligently working in gratitude.

Dilli Bhattarai, a Bhutanese refugee, is part of the safety crew at one Phoenix location. He’s responsible for keeping all the aisles clean and clear.

“I like my work,” he said in broken English.

Patrolling aisles for spills may not seem like a dream come true, but before arriving in Phoenix, Bhattarai spent 18 years in a Nepalese refugee camp.

“The refugee life is the end of life for a human being,” Chandra Basnet, also a Bhutanese refugee, said through a translator.

Nearly 20 years ago now, the government of Bhutan forced more than 100,000 Bhutanese Lhotshampas out of the Asian country, which borders Tibet to the south.

“Lhotshampa” means “southerner” in Bhutanese and refers to residents who are descendants of Nepalese migrants. The migrants first moved to Bhutan generations ago to pick crops.

In the 1980s, the Bhutanese government started fearing the growth of the Lhotshampas, according to Fr. Silas Bogati, executive director of Caritas Nepal. With continued migration, the population of the Lhotshampas came to rival that of the Bhutanese natives.

“There was a bit of jealousy,” said Fr. Bogati, who has worked with refugees in Nepal for years. While some of the reaction could be ascribed to religious difference, he said ethnic diversity was the real cause.

“Women were raped, houses were bulldozed. The government began a policy of intimidating the [Lhotshampas]. They created a terror situation so that they would get out of the country,” Fr. Bogati said.

The U.S. government has resettled 22,000 or so, he said, and plans to resettle 60,000 total.

“Hopefully in five years we’ll close the camps,” Fr. Bogati said.

Refugee families are given a small hut and their basic needs are met at the camps. Though Caritas helps provide education, refugees don’t have opportunities to work.

“They have come to the United States hearing it’s a land of opportunities,” said Fr. Bogati, who visited with 200 Bhutanese refugees in Tucson last month. “Most of them have done pretty well. Maybe the older folks have a hard time because of the language.”

Basnet, Bhattarai and his daughter Bhima found work at Ranch Market thanks to Catholic Charities’ refugee resettlement program.

In the Phoenix Diocese, Catholic Charities serves more than 1,000 refugees each year, providing comprehensive job readiness classes along with general employment preparation.

At any given time, Catholic Charities is trying to place 200 refugees in jobs. While it used to take an average of two to three months, it’s now taking as long as six months to find jobs for refugees.

“The economy itself makes it difficult,” said Joseph Donald, employment coordinator for Catholic Charities’ refugee program. He also said language barriers can be an issue. But Catholic Charities works with refugees to help ease the acclamation process. All told, Catholic Charities’ employees speak 26 different languages.

For most refugees — who, by definition, have escaped persecution in their home countries — it takes 2-3 weeks to get to know how the system works.

A couple years ago, a refugee at Ranch Market was carrying a bag of apples that ripped open, spilling all over the floor. The refugee put his head down and waited, Claudia Perea recounted. She later discovered, through a Catholic Charities translator, that he was waiting to be hit.

“We told him it was fine,” she said, choking up. “He was just kneeling down, waiting.”

“Some of those things are very common,” said Donald of Catholic Charities, himself a refugee from the Sudan. “Some little things will trigger past experiences. We tell refugees that if they don’t understand something, it’s OK to ask. And if they’re afraid to ask, they can always call us.”

Despite coming from a variety of backgrounds, the refugees wind up becoming part of the family at Pro’s Ranch Market.

“I see refugees as one more segment of our community,” said Tina Huff, executive director of human resources with Ranch Market. Huff brought the Catholic Charities refugee program to the market a few years ago.

“We already cater to customers from various ethnic backgrounds,” she said. Hiring refugees was a logical extension.

 And the refugees are grateful for it.

“I’m a very lucky guy to work at Ranch Market,” Bhattarai said, taking a break from sweeping. “In five years I’ll have a green card. I’ll be very proud of that.”