After fleeing the Congolese Civil War, LSI resettled the Kaamu family in Marshalltown thanks to a local man and family friend.
Pictures of Rashidi and Salima Kaamu’s children hang on Dan Bean’s fridge next to snapshots of his grandchildren. It symbolizes a father-son bond formed during a chance meeting in an African refugee camp in 2018 and eventually led to the family’s resettlement near Dan’s home in Marshalltown.
Three years after first meeting, in 2021, Rashidi’s family was selected for resettlement in the United States. Dan and his wife Sylvia, along with Abdullahi Hiret, a program supervisor with LSI, met the family at the Des Moines airport in 2023.
Seeing Dan and hearing a familiar language was overwhelming. Dan and Rashidi had kept in touch over WhatsApp all those years, and Abdullahi also speaks Swahili.
“I was very happy. I could cry,” Rashidi said. “I can’t forget that day when I saw Dan. He knew me. I was not alone. There was somebody with me. I had reached a new land, and I’m safe.”
Dan invited Rashidi to resettle in Marshalltown, where Dan lives. He also asked the Kaamu family to stay with him and his wife until the family could get settled. Dan and Sylvia enjoyed having house guests, and tutored the family on navigating the American culture, from table etiquette to how coins can make change. In Zimbabwe, there were only U.S. bills.
Understanding America’s cultures and norms is one of the reasons LSI offers cultural orientation courses for new refugees. LSI’s Des Moines staff assisted 252 new arrivals in 2022, and Sioux City staff had 62.
“Now he is family,” Rashidi said of Dan. “They received me and accepted me. I feel I have a home because of how Dan has connected me to the community. This is my town.”
While most refugee families rely on LSI’s resettlement services to find an apartment and volunteers and donors to furnish it and set it up, Dan wanted to do more than just welcome Rashidi’s family. He contacted members of his church and friends, who donated items and set up Rashidi’s Marshalltown home.
