Central African Resettlement in NC

Central African Resettlement in North Carolina

A Roundtable Discussion

Join us for a round-table discussion on Central African refugee resettlement in Durham, featuring:

• Dr. Maura Nsonwu, an Associate Professor of Sociology at North Carolina A&T University
• Dr. Sharon Morrison an Associate Professor of Public Health at UNC-Greensboro
• Leta Hallowell, a senior at Duke University, completing her honors thesis in International Comparative Studies on Congolese resettlement
• Lenny Ndayisaba, a Durham resident and refugee from Rwanda

The panel will be chaired by Dr. Deb Reisinger, Assistant Professor of the Practice at Duke University. Reisinger coordinates student partnerships with Francophone refugee families through service learning courses in Global Health and French Studies.

This event is the third part of a series “Central African Resettlement in Durham” funded by the Duke Africa Initiative. The primary goal of the series is to raise awareness about the growing refugee population in Durham, and to involve recently resettled refugees in these discussions.

Speaker Bios:

Maura Nsonwu, PhD, MSW, LCSW is an Associate Professor and Interim BSW Director in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.  Maura has practiced as a clinician, educator and researcher in the areas of refugee resettlement, human trafficking, health care, child welfare and social work education for 30 years.  She has received external funding and produced numerous publications in this area of inquiry. Maura is a research fellow with the Center for New North Carolinians at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro serving refugee/immigrant communities as an advocate/scholar.

Sharon D. Morrison, MSPH, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Health Education and a Fellow of the Center for New North Carolinians at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Throughout her teaching, research and service efforts she has focused on the global to local dynamics of refugee and immigrant well-being with special attention to community-engagement, collaboration and empowerment. She is interested in post-migration and life-style related disease emergence among newcomer communities and culturally appropriate strategies to support health and social integration of Congolese and other refugee populations.

Leta Hallowell is a senior at Duke University majoring in International Comparative Studies (ICS) and French. Leta began working with refugees during her sophomore year as a volunteer tutor and conversation partner. She is currently writing an ICS Honors Thesis about the experience of Congolese refugees living in Durham. Her analysis focuses primarily on oral history interviews and ethnographic observation of one Congolese refugee family who arrived in Durham last year.

Lenny Ndayisaba was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but due to conflict and persistent war, his family was forced to flee to Rwanda in 1996. There, he spent the next seventeen years living in a 13 ×14 foot house made of mud, sticks, and UN plastic sheeting, as part of the Gihembe Refugee Camp. He came to America on July 1, 2014.