ND SU STUDENT’S RESEARCH
PROVIDES INSIGHT INTO THE experience of refugee women Words by Heath Hotzler | Photography by Justin Eller
J
onix Owino, who was born and raised in Kenya, arrived in Fargo two years ago. It was the middle of winter, and the bitter cold made her feel far from home. She immediately looked for a community of other African women to bring the warmth of friendship into her new life. She met a refugee who had been in Fargo-Moorhead for a decade but couldn’t name a single friend outside of her close family circle. It surprised Owino, who expected the woman to have the strong community ties and friendships that are an important part of African culture. She soon met other female African refugees with similar stories of isolation, misunderstanding and loneliness. The women inspired Owino to research the integration of refugees into the community for her master’s thesis at North Dakota State University. Her research revealed the challenges many refugees face. Now she is sharing her findings so a conversation can start about how to create positive changes that will strengthen the community. “As I visualize it, I want those isolated experiences to end for refugee women,” says Owino, who earned a master’s degree in sociology from NDSU in 2015. “That means people opening their doors, welcoming each other into their hearts. It means people who are living in the same community, who want many of the same things, have to come together. We need to bridge that gap.”
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KNOWLEDGE CHANGES LIVES Long before she arrived in Fargo, Owino saw how knowledge can solve problems and make the world better. That’s what motivated her to pursue a master’s degree in sociology at NDSU and to create new knowledge through research.
NDSU Graduate Student JONIX OWINO
She started forming this world view as an undergraduate at a university in Nairobi. She was curious and wanted to know the reasons behind every answer to every question, but she thought of research as a means to an end, an assignment required to earn a grade. Her attitude changed during her senior thesis project about children raised in prison. In Kenya, an incarcerated mother keeps her child with her until suitable arrangements are made or until the age of four, whichever comes first. The importance of her research started to come into focus as Owino studied the developmental differences between children born inside prison and those born to the general African population. Those differences have the potential to negatively affect individuals and society long term.
After earning her undergraduate degree, Owino helped a nonprofit women’s organization document the stories of women who suffered trauma and abuse. Through that experience she became aware that many government projects and programs in Africa started with good intentions but lacked followthrough due to a lack of research.