Thousands of refugees seek asylum in the United States every year.

An organization in DuPage County is helping refugee women get back on their feet by teaching them how to become designers.

Josefina Rengifo never thought that she would have to say goodbye to life in Venezuela.

 "I need to learn a new life. I'm not young and it's difficult. I don't understand languages. When people go to other countries, people don't want that, but they need to do it," Ren Jiffer said. 

Rengifo said that she was forced to leave her country four years ago and had to part ways with her business and went to Illinois to live with her daughters.

"When I came here, I thought my life was over, why am I? Here, I listened to (other people's) history saying,'Wow, Josephine be quiet. Other people's lives are more difficult. ," said Rengifo, who works at Re:new, where she met other women with similar stories.

Re:new is a faith-based non-profit organization that provides services to refugee women in DuPage County.

Executive Director Kristi Zboncak said: "Our mission is to create a safe space for refugee women to thrive. We achieve this goal by providing sewing courses and English courses, hoping that this will bring us or others a job. "Re: New.

Rengifo is eager to learn English and is encouraged to learn to sew and become a craftsman.

"The most important thing is that you learn that you can do it, and Re:new will take care of the people here," Rengifo said. "They pay attention to how you feel and what happened to your family. This gives you dignity."

The organization started as a sewing group and slowly grew into an organization in 2009. The executive director of Re:new stated that more than one hundred women have participated in the program and worked for the store.

"We found that for craftsmen, sewing and creation is definitely a healing process, especially when they don’t know how to sew. They came here feeling lonely, and suddenly they had a friend, and they had a machine. , They can start creating again," Zboncak said. "The process of healing and the powerful force of accepting (something) discarded and will be discarded, but on the contrary, we can turn it into something beautiful."  

Farida Gasanova has been working for Re:new for the past eight years. She fled Georgia at the age of 47 to work as a kindergarten teacher.

"I can't speak English here, and now I know a little bit," Gasanova said.

Now she is a designer, making everything from earrings to handbags.

"Every time I pray that God will help us get customers. I am very happy, every time a customer comes to my machine to pray," Gasanova said.  

All the products they sell in Glen Ellyn's store are made from recycled materials donated by furniture stores and the community.

"Many of our products are a bit more expensive than you think, but that's because we paid fair wages, and all their wages are directly included in the cost of the product," Zboncak said.

Although the journey was not easy, Rengifo said the organization helped her start again.

"I am very grateful because I have a new family here, and I live with my daughters. Every day I thank the county for giving me a new opportunity," Ren Jifu said.

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