NYC: Work and home

Follow the odyssey of Bhutanese refugees Chet Nath, his wife, Uma, and their five-year-old son, Kushal, as they begin their new life in New York City, following 17 years living in exile in Nepal. (View Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9). International Rescue Committee volunteer Misha Cohen has been documenting the family’s journey as they learn to navigate their new home. In April, Uma was hired as a cashier making $7.25 an hour at a gourmet market in Manhattan. She works the night shift five days a week, arriving home after Kushal is asleep. Now, Uma’s only time with Kushal during the week is when she gets him ready for school each morning. Even though Uma doesn’t go to bed until nearly midnight she always rises with Kushal at 6:30 AM While Uma has had to start working at a low wage job, she says she is happy to have the right to work freely. In Nepal it was illegal for her to work outside the refugee camp. And in Bhutan anyone who had a family member who participated in the peaceful rally of 1990, in which the Southern Bhutanese petitioned the government for equal rights, were denied the right to work. Uma’s father and father-in-law both took part in that rally. [gallery]