Sea Lions, do you have any outgrown swimsuits cluttering up your closets?  We have an opportunity to help someone else by donating those suits to people that can really use them.  Joey Kuhlman will have a box to collect them each time the Sea Lion store is open. The suits will be going to a group of Somali Bantu refugees living in the Mesquite, Texas area.  For more information about this group, check out the information below or contact Joey Kuhlman. 

Joey’s mother-in-law's church provides a great deal of assistance to this group.  The social worker that works with these refugees sent the information below.

     The Somali Bantu have been in Mesquite for one to two years.  They are just part of the Bantu tribe that was rescued from ethnic cleansing by the UN.  There are 30 families and 129 children here.  The Bantu people were originally from Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.  They were captured by Arab slave traders and brought by ship to Somalia and sold as slaves two centuries ago.  They have not been allowed education or ownership of property until recently.  The rift between native Somalians and the Bantu continues.  The Somalis have tried to wipe the Bantu off the face of the earth in a brutal civil war. 

       In 1999 the UN approved the entire Bantu tribe eligible for relocation to the United States, around 12,000 people in all.  They were first sent to camps in Kenya to await relocation.  Many in the camps continued to suffer under deplorable conditions and these were the first to be evacuated to Mesquite, Boston, Charlotte, and San Diego.  Others who have been more fortunate received American orientation while in their camps.  For the first time they are seeing refrigerators, toilets, bathtubs, paper towels, cleaning supplies, diapers, ice cubes and last, but not least, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!!  They are also learning to speak and write English.  For many it was the first time to use pens and pencils!

     Our friends in Mesquite are still working very hard to become part of our society, but struggle because they have difficulty trusting people.  The women are always at home with their children and have no education.  The men are being helped by the Muslim community to find jobs.  They are doing well working as truck drivers and in assembly plants.  They are still struggling to speak English.  All of the children are in school now.  Their clothes and shoes come from donations.  Most of them speak English thanks to teachers who donate their time after school to tutor them. 

     All of the families live in one apartment building complex that has a swimming pool.  Unfortunately, the children spent last summer just staring at it because they have no swimming suits.  They could sure use your team's help.  Used swim suits will be very welcome.

Thank-you.