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HIGH POINT —  Each morning before daybreak, after the graveyard shift at Slane Hosiery Mills, 21-year-old Noel Niyoyankunze heads home to sleep for about three hours before classes begin at High Point Central, where he’s due to graduate this week with his sister and brother.

After school each day, if he finishes his homework in time, he’ll catch a quick nap before reporting to work for his eight-hour shift.

But when Noel talks about school, the broad smile that sweeps across his face hides any weariness.

“I just want to go to college,” he said.

The last two years have been hard for Noel and his family as they have tried to settle into American life. But the family’s spirits are raised these days because they are whole again after being reunited with their father in January.

It was a reunion made possible by the tireless determination of a school social worker whose life has become forever connected to this family of refugees looking to make a new start.

“They suffered so much,” Angel Katona said of her students. “They deserved to feel complete.”

Noel’s parents, Aniceth and Coletta, fled ethnic violence in the Republic of Burundi in 1972 and ended up as thousands of others did, in a refugee camp in Tanzania. They met there and had 10 children, all the while trying desperately to get refugee status in the United States.

Life in the camp was as you might expect: never enough food, never enough water, never enough of anything they needed. But there was more than enough of one thing: violence.

“You don’t know, maybe someone comes at night and kill us,” Noel said.

But amid the fear and suffering there was school. Aniceth and Coletta held education above all else, spending what little money they made to hire a tutor for their children in addition to the schooling they received in the camp.

On a July day in 2007, salvation came with a bittersweet twist. The U.S. embassy approved the family’s request for refugee status. But the night before the family was to leave they learned their father would not be allowed to come with them because of an issue with his paperwork.

Aniceth urged his family to leave without him. Noel remembers well what his father told him.

“He said, 'Just go, forget me,’” Noel recalled. Aniceth wanted a better life for his family, and three of the older children who had families of their own would stay behind as well.

Coletta still can’t talk about the decision to leave her husband behind. She only weeps and touches his arm.

A few days later, the family arrived in High Point where World Relief, a refugee relocation group, helped them get settled.

None of them spoke English, so finding work was nearly impossible. But the family needed an income, so the responsibility fell to Noel, the oldest son.

World Relief helped him land a job at Slane, where he spends his nights putting loads of wet socks in massive dryers. A work accident nearly took off his finger.

Noel understood the need to work and did so without complaint. But every morning when he saw those yellow buses pass their house, envy welled up in him.

“When I came to America, they told me just to go work,” he said. “But I saw the school bus and I thought, 'Wow, how do I get to go there?’”

The family arrived in High Point the same year Guilford County Schools opened the Newcomers School. The school teaches newly arrived immigrant students English and American culture as well as grade-level course work.

It was at Newcomers that Angel Katona’s life intersected with the family. Juliely and Evelina, Noel’s younger brother and sister, cried nearly all day shortly after joining Newcomers. Worried, Katona pulled the siblings out of class.

Through broken sentences, the children explained their father was still in Tanzania and they feared he would be killed. The thought stabbed Katona’s heart.

“I knew it was a reality for many people, but I felt like we were in a position to change that,” she said.

Then and there, she decided to reunite the family with their father.

The struggles of refugees have long been a part of Katona’s life. Her adoptive stepfather fled Vietnam, and her husband’s family are Cambodian refugees. Their stories of survival inspire Katona.

She began working with the family to bring Aniceth to the states. She contacted congressmen, embassy officials, refugee experts, even Homeland Security, anyone she thought could help. She woke up before dawn to call officials in Tanzania, calling so often that they all knew each other by name.

Noel usually was at work when Katona stopped by the house to discuss Aniceth’s case. One day in late 2008, however, he happened to be home. And when Katona heard how well he spoke English, she asked why he wasn’t in school.

Noel joined Newcomers a few days later and, after a year, began classes at High Point Central with his siblings. Through all those long days of school and work, Noel said, there was never a time when he thought about giving up.

“In my country they like to say, life without problems is not life,” he said.

Katona solved one problem when in January all her hard work paid off: Aniceth stepped off a plane at Piedmont Triad International Airport. The family hugged and tears streamed down their faces. After so many disappointments and years of being apart, Coletta couldn’t believe her husband was by her side again.

“After three years, there’s no hope,” Coletta said.

These days, the children talk mostly about graduating, going to college, and the careers they want to pursue. Noel, Juliely and Evelina will all graduate from High Point Central in just a few days.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, their mother and father encouraged Noel to try on the tailored suit he ordered from Tanzania. They smiled with pride as he struck a pose in the navy blue suit, the long coat hanging from his narrow frame.

While her brother posed, Evelina pulled up a picture on her phone of the ocean blue dress she ordered for graduation.

All three kids dream of becoming doctors, but money is a concern. Katona worked with each to find what scholarships they could get, but because they have not received full citizenship yet, they can’t apply for the federal aid that helps students in their financial situation.

There is some good news. A private benefactor has agreed to pay for Noel’s courses at GTCC and Evelina won a two-year scholarship there as well. Juliely will head to Fayetteville State University, where scholarships will pay for most of his tuition.

The older siblings have set a good example for Ive, who is a freshman at High Point Central, and Happy and Liliana, who attend elementary school. They, too, have big plans for the rest of their lives. A small wonder for children who only a few years ago slept lightly for fear they would be murdered in their sleep.

The bond between Katona and her adopted family is a powerful one. Her father passed away in 1996, and Katona now refers to Aniceth as father. Her own children often tag along on visits and, when they do, they all  disappear to play and laughter follows quickly.

Aniceth and Coletta said there are no words to describe how grateful they are to Katona. When asked if she thought someone like Angel Katona existed, someone willing to do so much for a family she barely knew, Coletta smiled and said:

“The name is the person.”
 
Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com