Drivers Education help is needed for our refugee friends who are interested in obtaining their TN license. There is not a system in place through the resettlement agency that educates refugees on driving a vehicle. I am sure that the resettlement agency and possibly the State Department recognizes the need but they probably just have no funding to help with this sort of teaching.

In the three years I have been involved with refugees, I cannot count the number of wrecks that refugees are involved in. When I walk around the refugee apartment complex parking lot, so many cars have apparently been wrecked. I’ve known of many of my friends who have been hospitalized after their car accident. Recently, one lady was killed.

In many ways I am sympathetic to new refugees because they are told early after their arrival that they will be required to pay several important bills such as their rent, their light, gas and water, their food, insurance and their phones. The responsibility of paying bills is a shock to many refugees who have never once had a bill because they have grown up in a refugee camp. Many refugees are not educated and the required tasks here are immediately overwhelming. In trying to pay all their new bills, refugees try to get a job and when they finally do, they soon realize they need to buy a car in order to transport themselves to and from work. (Depending on where their job is located and the times they start and finish work each day, the Memphis bus system isn’t always a good solution for transportation.). Many of the refugees find a way to buy a car (yes, usually they are taken advantaged of) and before they are actually able to obtain their TN license, they get behind the wheel. They need to get to places and realize going through the proper training could take them years to accomplish.

Many refugees do not speak or read English, therefore studying for a drivers license or taking a written test for one does not work. When a struggling refugee is at risk for themselves and their children being thrown out of their home in the projects they are desperate and choose to risk driving without a license to and from work, to the grocery store or to various important appointments. Thinking on this…can you imagine the low of feeling I am now being evicted from the projects? Can you imagine feeling those feelings and being in another country?

Asha’s Refuge would love to help with a better plan to help educate refugees behind the wheel of a car. Ideally, it would be wonderful to be able to partner up with a reputable driver’s school that could offer some basic training while their teachings are translated in the language of each refugee. I wish Asha’s could hire a team of people to do such a thing. Perhaps in the future this could happen. There is so much that I can foresee in our future and according to His will we will get there. If you are reading and have any thoughts or ideas on helping us with this project, please let us know!