LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — When refugees arrive in Louisville from lands ravaged by war or famine, it often seems the worst is behind them.
Agencies and volunteers surround them with attention — trying to find them jobs, enroll them in schools, place them in apartments and teach them everything from how to use a bank to how to work their electric stove.
But in recent days, refugees and those who help them have been facing a sobering fact — despite all efforts, even a place of refuge isn't always safe.
Members of Louisville's refugee community have been stunned and anxious since Friday's shooting death of James Kuch Mangui, a Sudanese refugee who had arrived in the United States three years ago.
Highland Baptist Church had sponsored Mangui and three other Sudanese men and had arranged housing for them.
“It's tragic for anybody, but particularly [for] some of the refugees after what they've gone through to get to this country,” said Larey Correll, job development manager at Kentucky Refugee Ministries, which arranged Mangui's arrival in Louisville. “They're starting all over again and boom — it's over.”
Mangui, 24, who lived in the Highlands, died hours after he was shot Friday afternoon in a courtyard at the Arcadia Apartments in South Louisville, where he was visiting.
Police say they are still investigating and are releasing few details about the shooting. Spokeswoman Alicia Smiley did say that shootings are unusual at Arcadia — a complex that includes a diverse mix of foreign-born residents — and that officers and residents have worked to crack down on crime there in recent years.
Monsy DeJesus, property manager at Arcadia, said she believes Mangui died in a case of mistaken identity when he came to the complex to visit a Sudanese friend. A car accident that involved a third Sudanese man may have been the motive for the shooting, she said.
Becky Jordan, refugee resettlement director for Catholic Charities, said she had heard a similar account. “Unfortunately, we think the young man killed was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Jordan said.
She said other residents are fearful but determined that “they're not going to be scared off,” she said, noting that the complex has emerged from a crime-ridden past. “They went through that once. They're not going to go through it again. ”
More than 300 people crowded into Highland Baptist Church for the funeral, singing hymns in English and in Dinka and praising Mangui as a free-spirited yet ambitious man who had worked hard to learn job skills and make his way in this country.
They were known as the “Lost Boys” because they made a harrowing trek as children from war-ravaged Sudan, spending years in refugee camps in East Africa before coming to America. Numerous churches sponsored small groups of the men, helping them learn basic skills, find housing and receive job training.
Mangui's ordeal began in 1986 at age 7, when he was separated from his family during Sudan's civil war. He fled the country on foot with other boys and lived 13 years in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya before coming to Louisville with about 125 other Sudanese men in 2001.
Although Mangui had recently grown distant from those at the church and was making friends in other circles, church members also knew him as an upbeat, optimistic man who worked hard to earn his general educational development certificate and job training, and had been working at Norton Hospital transporting patients.
“He was so kind and just a tremendous human being who simply wanted to make the most of his life,” said Joe Phelps, pastor of Highland Baptist Church. “They've been traumatized and terrorized in Sudan, and they come over here hoping to be in a place of safety and don't realize it's not nearly as safe as they think.”
A 20-year civil war has raged in Sudan, displacing more than 5 million people by the end of last year, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees. A growing refugee crisis in the nation's western Darfur region has attracted world attention in recent months.
Edgardo Mansilla, executive director of the Americana Community Center, said many Americana Apartments residents are anxious to learn more about Mangui's murder. “Is it personal thing, is it something against refugees?” he said.
The center regularly provides orientation classes for newcomers to this country, from English courses to classes on how to contact police or navigate the school system.
Last night the center offered a bus tour of sites in the surrounding area to help newcomers learn about their community and hear from neighborhood leaders.
Mansilla said that some refugees and immigrants can get involved in crime, but “most of them are working hard and trying to be part of society. … They are coming here for a new start, not to have any problems.”
Those helping refugees say that they can advise them on steps to avoid violent crime and financial scams but that they ultimately can't shelter refugees if they want them to lead independent lives.
“You tell them, 'Do this, don't do this,' [but] they have to find out for themselves sometimes,” Correll said. “You explain something to them, and they can't relate to that situation. … We're trying to develop this self-sufficiency and empowerment. They're going make mistakes. We just hope they're minimal and we can undo it sometimes.”
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— Peter Smith is a news writer for the Courier-Journal of Louisville. Photos available for purchase from the Courier-Journal.