A GUIDE FOR NEW IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA

The Immigrant Experience : Tales of the Transitions of Successful Immigrants

“You Can Make A Difference”

CHISENGA MULIMINE,miss-africa-international Chisenga Mulimine
Miss Africa International 2005

Born in Lusaka Zambia, Chisenga Mulimine leaves no stone unturned in her desire to make difference in a world where basic human respect seems all lost. The seventh of fifteen children Chisenga knows first hand the challenges faced by the people she left behind.
In 2005 Chisenga was crowned Miss Africa International and saw this as an opportunity to give voice to the oppressed women and children of her native Zambia. Today Chisenga runs a hectic schedule catching up with charitable causes including
assisting her father run an orphanage and school for orphans, organizing annual Christmas Parties for street kids who have no place to celebrate.

She is a proud member of Ingoma; a singing group raising awareness for Africa in California, Member of the Paps team, a team of volunteer nurses and doctors dedicated to the prevention of cervical cancer by establishing permanent Cervical Cancer Clinics in developing countries where cervical cancer continues to be leading cause of death in women. Through this organizations initiative two clinics have been established in Eldoret Kenya and screened almost 1,000 women.
Currently residing in Loma Linda, California, we sat down with this young leader to find out where she gets her strength.

Why did you come to the U.SA?
Chisenga: When I had left Zambia to come to the United States in the winter of 1993 there was a great need to care for orphans. But somehow, in the five years that I had been gone, that need had turned into crisis...It was in that moment that my expectations of realizing the American dream of a nice family, in a nice house, driving nice cars was forever altered. I realized my heart was at home, and therefore my treasure, my dream, was right there in front of me.
My mission is to use the great opportunities that America has and is giving me to make a difference in the lives of my people.

How was your transition like?
Chisenga: My journey to the United States is a story of prayer, providence and perseverance. After arriving by way of sponsorship, I discovered nothing was as I was told it would be nor as I imagined it to be. I arrived late at night in a desert called Palm Springs, CA.
When sunrise hit I was greeted not with the lush Hollywood I had seen on the American TV shows but with brown hills, dried out shrubs and a sweltering 100°-in the shade sun. And they think Africa is hot! The clothes I was promised never materialized. For almost eight months I got by with one pair of shoes and two African outfits that I had brought with me from home. I experienced the cold harshness of racism for the first time in my life and the realization truly hit me that I was on my own I had no family to fall back on, no trust fund to live off of, just the faith that I had brought with me in the God that I serve. God delivered for me once again and I graduated Valedictorian of my class, being the first African student at the high school to hold the honor.
After high school I found myself without the financial means to begin my collegiate education. I completed training as a Certified Nurses Assistant and began taking local jobs to save for school. At times I would work twenty-four hours straight and other times, I slept in the hospital lobbies and bus stations because of my work schedules. I would only eat one meal a day just so I could save money. Finally after two and a half years of working I found a school where I could afford to work my way through. That school was Pensacola Christian College in Pensacola Florida.
My years at PCC were the fondest of my life to date. I became the first black president of the student body my freshman year and held that position all four years of my education. I finished a bachelor's degree in nursing as well as a bachelor's degree in premedical studies.

Where do you see the future taking you?
Chisenga: I am where I am today because of God's grace on my life. When making changes in life it is important to put God first.
I am very excited to see what the future has for me. I hope and pray that I have more opportunities to be a voice for African women. I hope to be the Voice and Face of Africa that makes a difference.

What is your philosophy of success?
Chisenga: My philosophy of success is very simple. Hard work and never giving up! My definition of true success is being able to achieve something that in turn makes a difference in someone's life.

What is your message to immigrants
Chisenga: I believe that there is a special reason why we are immigrants. God trusted us enough to bring us to this land of opportunities so that we can use these blessings to make a difference in our respective countries. In short, let us not forget where we came from; it is the foundation of who we have become today.

Are you now living your life's Purpose?
Chisenga: My life has been blessed with a myriad of powerful experiences that though often painful, I know have been instrumental in building the person I am today and the person I am still becoming.I have lost two sisters to HIV and another sister was brutally murdered by her husband. I also live with the pain on knowing that several of my family members are living with HIV. I never forget the time I held my aunt's frail, cold, HIV body as she took her last breath in my arms. I also remember holding my little nephew, changing diaper, after diaper in his late stages of Aids until one day he gave up the fight. I realized then how helpless and painful it was to watch someone so pure and innocent suffer so painful and that is why I am fighting so hard today to get help for my people. The moments in life where I have felt I have achieved the most were times when lives were saved because God allowed me to be there. My favorite such time was being able to buy my father his dream car. Months later, when he suffered a stroke at one-o-clock in the morning, it was that car that saved his life since there would have been no other means by which he could have reached the hospital in time for treatment. A lady who was dying of AIDS was planning to take her life, but when she heard me deliver my monologue about the beauty and strength and value of our African women she was encouraged and made the decision not to take her life but to continue to fight. When my sister became gravely ill God gave me the grace to be able to bring her to California to receive treatment in the hospital and she lives today. These are the achievements that mean the most to me and which inspire me to press on, because when we save even one life we end up touching the lives of every person that the saved individual is able to touch. The gift keeps giving and that is the beauty, the reward of service.
I am thankful for the trials I have endured because they have made me strong. I am thankful for the times of little means because they have built my faith. I am thankful for the betrayals because they have taught me what it is to love. I am thankful for the joys of home and the warmth of family because they have taught me what it is to be loved. But most of all I am thankful to a God who not only gave me these dreams, but also is giving me the tools with which to achieve them.

More on Chisenga’s at www.malabath.com/people

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