Leela's Story
I am a bona fide citizen of Bhutan. Bhutan is a small country in Asia between two other big countries—India and China. I got my primary education in Bhutan until the sixth grade and then I had to leave the country. Bhutia people in Bhutan had all the power, and gradually they began discriminating against the other tribes of people. So they did not allow us to speak our language in the schools, and they burned our Nepali books in the school. It is very painful to say also that they took our Nepalese girls and they raped them.
In 1990 we made a very very peaceful movement just to ask for the human rights in the country. They accused us as terrorists, and the police and the army started coming and they started confiscating the property, like our cattle and our other cash crops and food crops. Bhutan was also making a plan how to get rid of us so that people from the northern side could take come and settle in the south, and we had nowhere to go and complain our sorrows and discrimination. Many families were taken to the jail and were forced to sign a form called the Voluntary Migration form. So to avoid the signing we had to run away from home. Cows, bulls, sheep, buffaloes—everything we set free from their cells and we started our journey. We left Bhutan and went to Nepal, through India. It was a long walk. There was only one refugee camp in Nepal. It was not well managed, many people started dying there because of an epidemic. We shifted to another camp.
I started my education again from grade seven in the refugee camp in Nepal. After finishing my high school education, I joined college. First of all I worked as a program supervisor in a child and disabled program run by Save the Children UK. In one year I became the head of the camp, the highest post in the community, and I started teaching in our school.
When we were in the refugee camp we were busy, we were always thinking about how to find a bright future. We were thinking that Bhutan was our future. We were trying to go back to our country but all the things we tried failed. After 17 years in the camps, the US came and proposed to us that we be citizens of the US.
We arrived in the US and in the beginning it was very very difficult. On behalf of my family and on behalf of all the Bhutanese families that are living here, I wish to say that we are very grateful to all the agencies that help us to be here. And still, what we want to say is, we are very new to the US, the culture of the US is very new to us. The problem is that people without English are having trouble getting jobs, and so if people from government or other organizations can provide certain trainings to our people. We find it difficult to go in the legal process. Listen to our voice, listen to our sorrows, and help when we are in need.
In 1990 we made a very very peaceful movement just to ask for the human rights in the country. They accused us as terrorists, and the police and the army started coming and they started confiscating the property, like our cattle and our other cash crops and food crops. Bhutan was also making a plan how to get rid of us so that people from the northern side could take come and settle in the south, and we had nowhere to go and complain our sorrows and discrimination. Many families were taken to the jail and were forced to sign a form called the Voluntary Migration form. So to avoid the signing we had to run away from home. Cows, bulls, sheep, buffaloes—everything we set free from their cells and we started our journey. We left Bhutan and went to Nepal, through India. It was a long walk. There was only one refugee camp in Nepal. It was not well managed, many people started dying there because of an epidemic. We shifted to another camp.
I started my education again from grade seven in the refugee camp in Nepal. After finishing my high school education, I joined college. First of all I worked as a program supervisor in a child and disabled program run by Save the Children UK. In one year I became the head of the camp, the highest post in the community, and I started teaching in our school.
When we were in the refugee camp we were busy, we were always thinking about how to find a bright future. We were thinking that Bhutan was our future. We were trying to go back to our country but all the things we tried failed. After 17 years in the camps, the US came and proposed to us that we be citizens of the US.
We arrived in the US and in the beginning it was very very difficult. On behalf of my family and on behalf of all the Bhutanese families that are living here, I wish to say that we are very grateful to all the agencies that help us to be here. And still, what we want to say is, we are very new to the US, the culture of the US is very new to us. The problem is that people without English are having trouble getting jobs, and so if people from government or other organizations can provide certain trainings to our people. We find it difficult to go in the legal process. Listen to our voice, listen to our sorrows, and help when we are in need.
