These are the swollen hands of a refugee from Chin State, Burma. He supports his large family by working in a meatpacking plant, as do many other refugees here in Michigan. He must use a knife that is the wrong size for his grasp, through his eight-hour shift, sometimes 6 days a week, in extremely cold conditions. He doesn't want to complain, because he is scared to lose his job.
A young Karen refugee woman also works at this meat packing plant. Her job, again eight hours a day, six days a week, is to use her left arm to grab gobs of fat and throw them into an overhead bin. She can only use her left arm because her right arm is congenitally amputated a bit below the elbow.
Medifree has partnered with her church to obtain a prosthesis for her. She does have health coverage through the meatpacking plant, but her co-pay is a whopping 25%. We will be posting updates so you can share in her happiness as she finally gets her arm.
If you haven't heard about the Karen people, please check out http://www.khrg.org/ and http://www.freeburmarangers.org/. They are a minority people in Burma who are being systematically hunted down and killed by the Burmese army. It is an ongoing tragedy that for some reason rarely if ever makes it into the world's consciousness. Maybe because the Karen have no oil or other earthly riches.
1 comment:
such heartbreaking stories... I will say a pray for both of those people and their families tonight.
That is so great that you are helping... but more importantly... it is so awesome that you take the time to listen to the stories of these precious people. I think one of the best gifts that can be given to another human being is to sit long enough and listen to someone share their story. Everyone wants to feel heard.
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