By Bill Miller and Jessica Easthope
JAMAICA ESTATES — Efrain Hernandez and his new friend, Antonio, are from different countries, but they both grew up in rough circumstances — on the streets.
Hernandez is from Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, while Antonio is from Venezuela. He left there last September to seek asylum and a better livelihood in the U.S.
Both men had scant economic opportunities growing up, so they entered lives of crime. Hernandez, 38, calls it “doing all the wrong things for the right reasons,” but the consequences outweighed profits.
“I used to be on the street selling drugs,” he said. “And a couple of my friends died. I was incarcerated for a while.”
Later, Father Jim O’Shea, provincial of the Passionists for the Eastern U.S., challenged Hernandez to turn his life around. “I thought I’d give it a shot, Hernandez said.
So, in 2010, he and Father O’Shea co-founded the nonprofit “Reconnect,” which helps turn former “disconnected” youth into entrepreneurial adults by teaching technical and social skills.
In January, Reconnect pivoted to add services for asylum-seekers like Antonio, 33, who is now learning English and culinary skills.
Antonio hopes to one day be a chef, with the means to reunite with his wife and two children. He also aims to become a U.S. citizen. He asked that his surname and hometown not be published to protect his family back home.
Originally, the nonprofit was called Reconnect Brooklyn because it was started in that borough. Now it is just called Reconnect and is located at Thomas Berry Place, a retreat center on the grounds of the Passionist Monastery on Edgerton Boulevard.
About 50 participants each year, whether they’re immigrants or from local neighborhoods, learn culinary skills under the mentorship of Anthony O’Connor, the campus chef. They can also learn facilities management and repairs, organic produce farming, and custom printing of T-shirts.
Reconnect’s new program for asylum-seekers began with eight men who are currently living in a Queens hotel that has been repurposed as a refugee center. Their Reconnect training is four days a week for 16 weeks.
Father O’Shea said he is pleased with the program, noting that it is a work in progress. He said the asylum-seekers were referred to Reconnect by other service providers that previously collaborated with the group and knew about its training opportunities and community-building framework.
“Reconnect is bringing in those who are easily forgotten on the margins who, because of that, often suffer consequences,” he said. “But here, we’re bringing people into a community that helps them to see that they’re safe, they are welcomed, and they’re good.”
Father O’Shea said the asylum-seekers arrive alone and vulnerable, and Hernandez added that the newcomers are now “family.”
“The next step is to get these guys their working papers,” he said. “If they get working papers, hopefully, they can get into some good-paying jobs.”
Hernandez interpreted for Antonio, who described how his mother struggled to raise him and his siblings with no father in the home. Juvenile delinquency prevailed.
“Same thing,” Hernandez said, comparing his life to Antonio’s. “Doing all the wrong things for the right reasons.”
Later, Antonio set out to be a responsible husband and father, but making a living is tough while roving gangs of armed militiamen prey on the Venezuelan populace.
So Antonio joined the recent mass migration from South America to the U.S. and traversed several countries, including his homeland as well as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
The going was tough, Antonio said, and tragic. Like many have recounted before him, Panama was especially harrowing, where thick jungle, downpours, floods, and mudslides mired the travelers. He saw mothers swept away with their children and drowned. He saw another woman holding a child who died of hypothermia.
Antonio said his journey took much of the month of September. Still, he knows of other travelers who departed Venezuela at the same time as he did but have yet to arrive.
When asked if the struggle was worth it, Antonio brought his hands together in the universal symbol of prayer. Again, Hernandez interpreted.
“He said, first and foremost, he would like to thank God and to thank the United States of America for giving him the opportunity to come into this community,” Hernandez shared. “He never thought that he would land in a place like this — a brotherhood.”
Speaking for himself, Hernandez added, “We live in a world now where everything is tough. Everybody’s always beating down on people, and we basically just don’t do that.
“We find the good in you. It’s just straight-up positive energy every single day.”