How to integrate 100 people whose frame of reference is so alien to the daily life that awaits them in the west of Ireland? Where could they be housed? How would the local population react? And where was the balance to be struck between supporting them through the upheaval and letting them cut loose and navigate their own course?
These were some of the questions that faced the Office of Integration and the 20 local agencies in Co Mayo when considering how to make the refugees' transition as smooth as possible.
"When we're introducing these services, we're conscious that these people have spent years being institutionalised and the last thing you want is for that to continue. So there's this delicate balance," says John Haskins, of the Office of the Minister for Integration.
After the eight-week orientation programme - which included classes on budgeting and accessing services - in Ballyhaunis, the plan is for the two groups to settle elsewhere in the county, the first in Castlebar and the second in Ballina. At that point local groups take over from the integration officials. In Castlebar, the point man is Gerry Mulherin, who has helped the first cohort find houses and schools and has an interpreter on call every day to tend to any problems.
"When they moved here first, it was very much hands-on - showing them how to use the washing machine, the cooker, giving them a sense of where they are," Mulherin says. "The group that has moved here, they're fine. They go to [English language] class every morning and obviously the children are going to the various schools around town. They have a routine now and they're fairly comfortable."
For Meitheal Mhaigh Eo, the local body charged with co-ordinating services for the refugees in Castlebar, another concern was ensuring that the local population was kept informed of the situation. To this end, they organised an information day and a welcome party with the Mayor of Castlebar and have set up a mentoring programme where locals can "befriend" some of the refugees and offer them practical help.
Haskins admits that mistakes were made in handling some previous groups of programme refugees but says that, so far, the Co Mayo model has worked well. "The level of change for them must have been quite catastrophic, and I'm sure they still have their difficulties. But underneath it, I pick up a sense of hope for the kids and a realisation that whatever about themselves, whatever about their political views and the situation in Burma, what mattered to them was that they had kids who for the first time were going to have some kind of a chance."
