The dark Jungle of Iraqi refugees

BY MITCHELL WU, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
Photos by Mitch Wu

Neither of us can speak Arabic, but Ashraf knows enough English to get through to us.

"I want to tell [the world] that they should help us," he says. "We cannot stay here."

Every evening, at this empty loading dock in Calais, France, charity workers bring him and dozens of other refugees food and tea.

The weather here is wet and colder than Paris. With winter approaching, it's only getting worse.

Ashraf is still a teenager, but like all the others we talk to, he looks years beyond that. Most of them are from Afghanistan, and in many cases, their stories overlap. They've endured many hardships to get here. They've left families behind and spent all their money. Now they're stranded in Calais.  (More)

Male nurses from Rajasthan

BY RANA ROSEN, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE
[to lead story Go west young Indian nurses]

Purushotan Jangir prays every morning before going to Fateh to study until the place closes. At the institute, he has many friends who are also male nurses studying to go abroad. They are all from one place: Rajasthan.

The 23 year-old nurse says he has much to pray for. "I have a lot of responsibility in my family," he says. "I am the elder person in my family and have two brothers, three sisters and my father is no more. I want to give high education." He hopes for better pay in the U.K. But it isn't just the money. "I want to care for the poor and ill. I want to help the weak and handicap person. I have a helpful nature."

Because of the pressure he has to support his family and his future, he looked into many professions. He considered engineering and business. Jangir says, "I will join the nursing profession for many reasons. The first one is money. Second, you get a lot of respect. I heard people give a lot of respect abroad. Third one, you help the poor and needy people." His community in Rajasthan treats him with the respect of a doctor, he admits.

Although he has already had several marriage proposals, he plans to spend two or three abroad before he takes a wife. He wants to be more established in his career first. But he's not sure that he will be abroad for the long haul. He doesn't believe everything he hears. "If behavior is not proper, and there's not respect for nurses or people from abroad, then I can't stay," he says. "I will come back to my own country." He treats people kindly and wants that reciprocated. Money cannot be the only important matter, he says.

Jangir is too discreet, so his fellow student Jogender Singh, 28, explains why nurses from Rajasthan are mostly men. "People don't allow females to go outside to get a job; that will humiliate their families," he says. "Slowly, slowly they are understanding that Rajasthani girls should get a job, but not out of the area." Jangir added that Rajasthanis don't encourage their girls to do nursing; people don't think it is a good path for women. "Kerala is different because it is the most educated state," Singh adds. Jangir says education is needed in Rajasthan. The families don't think nursing is safe for women, because they leave the home circle and go abroad. But this thinking is slowly changing. They did see how lucrative the career was for the women from Kerala who came to work at hospitals there. So they sent their men to join in.

[to lead story Go west young Indian nurses]

June 2006  (More)

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