My Immigrant Story: Local Refugees Share their Experiences at Eastside Family YMCA for Welcoming Week

An attentive audience listened to the "My Immigrant Story" of people like Fiseha Silas, who came from Ethiopia as a refugee. He shared that life in the U.S. began quickly for him.

"You have to pay your rent. You have to pay utilities and all that," Silas said. "The agency helped me a little bit for about three, four months, but after that, it was supposed to be on my own."

Silas left his home country at just 16 years old, coming to Erie in his thirties, a place to get back on his feet through local agencies.

"The challenge is language barrier," Silas said. "A lot of refugees, when they come in, they don't speak English. It's really difficult."

He has lived in the states for over ten years now, working as a case manager with the the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) in Erie and helping fellow refugees through similar situations.

"I feel good about it, because I passed through those challenges," Silas said. "I passed through the same feeling that they have in the first place."

USCRI has helped resettle more than 5,000 refugees here in northwestern Pennsylvania since 2009.

For Gissell Moreno, the circumstances in her own country meant life or death. Moreno told her emotional story of fleeing El Salvador, with gang violence threatening the lives of her family members.

"I think you can worry [and] you can make money, but if you are not safe, you don't have anything," Moreno said. "My mom said we have to move."

Moreno has been in the U.S. for 10 months also working as a case worker in Erie for the Multicultural Community Resource Center (MCRC), saying she is loving every minute of it.

"I feel better because I don't have to hide from the gangs, or try to look around me every time someone is coming," Moreno said.

If you are interested in getting involved, there is an itemized list of necessities to welcome new families to the area. A donation bin is located in the lobby at the Eastside Family YMCA on Nagle Road.

More information can be found here.