Economic crisis is refugees’ challenge, too

Krishna Khadka, 24, fills out a job application at the Goodwill Industries store at 2907 N. First Ave. on Friday morning. Khadka is a refugee from Bhutan and was a high school teacher living in a refugee camp in Nepal.

They come from around the globe, making a home in the heart of Tucson.

In the past decade, about 2,000 newly arrived refugees have settled in midtown Tucson, looking to start a new life free from violence, persecution and poverty.

The melding of cultures is evident in the adults and children who stroll down East Grant Road, near Dodge Boulevard, and in the classrooms at Blenman Elementary, Doolen Middle and Catalina Magnet High schools.

Families from Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and other nations live side by side in apartment complexes, settled there by agencies that assist refugees.

Adjusting to a new language, culture and community is challenging for these displaced and often traumatized people.

Helping them can create challenges for local agencies, police and schools.

Now, the economic crisis all Americans are wrestling with has become their challenge, too.

Krishna Khadka, 24, has a part-time job at a mall food court, but it is not enough to support him and seven family members who resettled here. He is searching for full-time work, filling out an application Friday at Goodwill Industries, 2907 N. First Ave.

Manager Liz Donaldson explained the different jobs at the resale store to Khadka, but told him she gets at least 50 applications a week.

“It has been hard to live here,” said Khadka, a refugee from Bhutan in South Asia, who was a high school teacher before coming to Tucson last year. But he added it was far better than the refugee camp he most recently lived in.

He came with his wife, Phul, and daughter, Crissma, 2, as well as his parents, brother, sister-in-law and niece.

His friend, Uttam Rizal, also a refugee from Bhutan, was with Khadka as he filled out the job application. Rizal, 30, had no trouble finding work after arriving in January. He was hired as a night auditor at a Tucson hotel.

But his hours were cut, and he works only three nights a week.

“It’s not enough money,” Rizal said. “I have many friends who are having trouble finding work. It is quite difficult.”

Ken Briggs, executive director of International Rescue Committee in Tucson, which resettles refugees here, said before the economic downturn, most refugees found jobs adequate to support themselves within 30 to 45 days.

Now it’s taking six to nine months, he said.

Hotels and resorts historically provided jobs for refugees, as did small manufacturers and stores like Target.

Now those businesses have cut jobs, and the ones available often go to skilled workers laid off from other jobs.

Briggs said that in the past, companies have been happy to hire refugees, who generally are loyal, hardworking employees.

“But now they don’t have the money to hire them,” he said.

Jill Rich, of the Jewish Refugee Resettlement of Southern Arizona said the agency is still finding jobs for refugees.

But the program is not placing many refugees at one business, in case it closes, she said.

Refugees do get assistance from the U.S. Resettlement Project. But the 18 months of financial help they used to get has been cut to one month.

Briggs said that in the past six months, IRC resettled 145 people, including 23 families. It is one of four Tucson agencies that resettle refugees fleeing Iraq, Bhutan, Somalia, Central Africa, Cuba and other countries.

He said for the most part, refugees settle comfortably.

“We rarely hear of any complaints,” Briggs said. “We work with (apartment) managers and clients so they are comfortable and safe.”

Briggs said some bullying and teasing occurs because refugees dress and look differently.

But for the most part, “the Tucson community has been welcoming to refugees,” he said.

The agency also connects refugees with English classes and mental health services.

The IRC has reported that almost all of the 1,500 refugees they resettled in Tucson since 1997 originally moved into midtown, with most living in an area bounded by 29th and Glenn streets, Alvernon Way and Kolb Road, along with 500 refugees resettled by other agencies.

Becky Noel, a community service officer with the Tucson Police Department, works with refugees living in midtown apartments.

She teaches them personal safety – why they shouldn’t stand in the middle of Grant during rush hour, for example – and helps them understand police are there to help.

“When there are people from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, police to them are not good,” Noel said. “They are not to be trusted. They beat them. Over there, when police show up, you run the other way.”

Recently, a refugee child fell off her bike. An officer stopped to help, “and the kid took off, running and screaming,” Noel said.

Since refugees tend to be fearful, they are hesitant to call police when they become crime victims, she said.

And if they do call, there is often a language barrier. Usually, no one within TPD can speak the many languages represented in the midtown area. Often, police must rely on people from the neighborhood to translate, without being sure that the translation is accurate, she said.

To help refugees understand that police are here to help, the department will hold a fair for refugees May 2, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Reid Park. The department will have officers from SWAT, the dog unit, bicycle unit and other departments.

Refugees are also encouraged to go on police ride-alongs, “to see what we do,” Noel said.

She said some refugee teens get picked on by gang kids. Sometimes they fight back by forming their own gangs.

“But I’ve had more issues with one refugee group not liking another,” she said.

She said refugees with different religious and political views can end up living in the same apartment building, and sometimes have to be separated.

But for the most part, refugees live together peacefully, Noel said.

City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff said the mix of people living in her ward adds to the richness of the community.

“It’s part of what America does for people,” she said. “Sometimes it’s good to step back and see the hope other people have for themselves through what we have in this country. We lose sight as to what a magnificent system we have.”

When Trasoff’s father immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine in 1921 at age 6, his first English words were “You’re it,” having learned them playing tag.

She said children give her hope that all groups can live and work together.

“These kids from all over the world come together and they’re just kids,” she said. “They figure it out.”

Goodwill Industries store manager Liz Donaldson explains how her store operates to Krishna Khadka (left), 24, and Uttam Rizal, 30, on Friday morning. Khadka and Rizal are refugees from Bhutan.

———

Calling Pima County Home

According to the Arizona State Refugee Resettlement Program, 877 refugees resettled in Pima County in 2008.

From 1990 to 2008, 7,524 refugees resettled here.

———

On the Web

The International Rescue Committee

www.theirc.org

Jewish Refugee Resettlement of Southern Arizona

jewishtucson.org

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and New Parents Network (www.npn.org) wants you to trust your instincts: Child abuse, especially emotional, is not as easy to notice as a bruise.

Is a child excessively shy, fearful or afraid of doing something wrong? This COULD be an indication of child abuse. To report child abuse and to learn more warning signs call, toll-free, 800-4-A-CHILD (800-422-4453).

Source: Child Help USA

For more parenting information, go to the Tucson nonprofit New Parents Network’s Web site, www.npn.org.

Folks can take a break from reality with “The Princess Bride,” the spring show at the Valley of the Moon.

The play, which runs for three weekends on Fridays and Saturdays starting this weekend, showcases true love and magical powers that overcome all obstacles, according to a news release from the 1920s-era fantasyland.

Showtimes are 6:30 and 8 p.m. Shows run through April 18.

Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for ages 7 to 13. Kids 6 and younger enter free.

The Valley of the Moon is at 2544 E. Allen Road. For more information, call 323-1331 or visit tucsonvalleyofthemoon.com.

There have been 110 choking and suffocation deaths involving balloons in recent years, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Tips on preventing tragedy:

• Do not allow children younger than 6 to play with uninflated balloons without supervision.

• Immediately collect the pieces of popped balloons and dispose of them out of the reach of young children.

• Keep small balls and other smooth, round objects away from children, especially those who have a tendency to put them in their mouths.

Source: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

For more parenting information, go to the Tucson nonprofit New Parents Network’s Web site, www.npn.org.

More than 100 schools from the Tucson Unified School District will be showcased at the Festival of Schools on Saturday.

Staff members from the district’s schools will provide information to families about their schools and what students can expect, said Chyrl Hill Lander, a district spokeswoman.

The festival will be from 9 a.m. to noon at the district’s administrative offices, 1010 E. 10th St..

There will be face painting and balloons for children, food vendors and musical performances, Lander said.

For more information call district community services at 225-6400.

PHOENIX — A Tucson woman is resting at a Phoenix hospital after giving birth to quintuplets.

A Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center spokesman says the five babies of Lorena and Enrique Puig (poo-CH’) include three girls and two boys. They were born Wednesday within four minutes of each other.

The babies range in weight from 2 pounds, 1.7 ounces to 2 pounds, 8 ounces.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital officials say the quintuplets will likely remain hospitalized for another 10 weeks.

Lorena Puig carried the babies for 29 weeks.

Banner Good Samaritan is nationally known for the successful delivery of more than 90 multiple births for mothers in and outside of Arizona.

The 21-year-old New Parents Network is striving to find ways to better reach our community’s families. To reach the network, call its new number, 520-461-6806.
Or, visit newparentsnetwork.org or npn.org online to sign up for a weekly parenting tip by e-mail. We’d also love to hear from you – feel free to e-mail moreinfo@npn.org.

For more parenting information, go to the Tucson nonprofit New Parents Network’s Web site, www.npn.org.

Program helps give hundreds a 2nd chance

Francisco Varela, a success story for the Prisoner Re-Entry Partnership program, works at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System.

Francisco Varela says he once made a living stealing cars and renting them to “friends” to raise money for drugs.

With a screwdriver, he could get a vehicle on the road in 15 seconds, he said.

He fed himself by making “meat runs” – stealing from grocery stores without ever getting caught.

Varela, 35, a U.S. Army veteran, said drugs were the focus of his life for several years, but that changed with the help he got from the Prisoner Re-Entry Partnership.

The program, a collaboration among public and nonprofit agencies here, helps ex-cons get jobs after prison.

It began its fourth year here in March.

The U.S. Department of Labor is funding similar Prisoner Re-Entry Initiatives in at least 20 states.

Primavera Foundation, the lead agency for PREP here, is helping nonviolent inmates in some of the same ways it helps the homeless reintegrate into communities.

Similar to its work with the homeless, PREP helps former inmates return to productive lives, said Joy Wilcox, advocacy coordinator at Primavera.

The recidivism rate of PREP clients here is 13 percent, compared with the national average of 44 percent for ex-cons, she said.

About 500 men and women have completed the program in its first three years. About half are women.

In January, 62 clients were newly enrolled in the program. About 100 others are in varying stages of their rehabilitation through PREP. The program is capped at 200 clients a year.

Sex offenders and people convicted of violent crimes are not permitted in the program, Wilcox said.

Varela, a PREP success story, served 18 months for burglarizing a car. He said the incarceration taught him a hard lesson.

When he got out in 2005, he decided to try to regain custody of his son, now 10.

In 2006, he said, he showed up at Primavera’s day labor program looking for work and heard about PREP.

He was accepted as a client. Today he lives in a two-bedroom apartment and works in the kitchen at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, “putting out food trays” and washing pots for $7.45 an hour.

The housing is subsidized.

His job is provided as part of the VA’s compensated work program.

It helps homeless veterans who’ve been in treatment for addiction or behavioral health issues learn job skills and how to keep a job.

Varela said his focus is on his son. Recently he obtained custody of the boy from Child Protective Services, the state’s child welfare agency.

PREP has local support from a high-ranking member of the Tucson Police Department.

John Leavitt, an assistant Tucson police chief, spoke at a recent community event about the program.

He said it helps ex-cons rejoin society and “creates a sustainable business model for landlords.”

“PREP can help lower (property owners’) marketing costs by introducing them to a stream of potential renters,” Leavitt said.

“If their experience in the next two or three years is they make money on these clients, the business community will respond by supporting a program that makes money, creates value,” he said.

He and Primavera staff met with “some of the largest rental management companies” here to encourage them to rent to PREP clients. He said the companies control about 15,000 housing units.

“Primavera seems to have an approach that works. It’s phenomenal what Primavera is doing,” Leavitt said.

“From any viewpoint, our community needs these people to succeed. This program offers the best hope of their success.”

Wilcox said 100 percent of PREP’s funding comes from the U.S. Department of Labor and it is “therefore an employment-based program.”

The goal is to get ex-cons into the work force as contributing members of society, paying taxes and buying services.

Over the four years of the project here Primavera will receive $2.4 million for Project PREP.

Mark Salcido, 46, supervises PREP’s mentor program. Its 90 or so volunteer mentors help ex-cons stay focused on their goals.

In April, Salcido said, he will mark two years out of incarceration. He was a federal government administrator for 17 years, he said, before a drug arrest changed his life.

Salcido served 10 months in the Pima County Jail on a drug solicitation charge and then got a fresh start from PREP.

He got a job as a restaurant cook and also received a bus pass.

Later, while in an electrical apprentice program, he decided to change his career path.

Salcido got hired by Old Pueblo Community Services, another partner in PREP, to work as an apprentice in the PREP mentor program and now he oversees it.

Clients of the program have served an average of two and a half years, mostly for drug crimes, fraud or prostitution, Salcido said.

Most are in their mid-20s to early 50s. Some have been in prison more than once.

All are looking for work and a place to live. They hear about the project, he said, through the state Department of Corrections, parole officers and by word of mouth at inmate halfway houses.

Varela, who enlisted in the Army at 19, served nearly four years. He was trained as an engineer to blow up mines and bridges, he said.

After service in Germany and Kuwait, he went back to school but turned to drugs and ended up homeless and addicted.

“I was trying to fill a void,” he said. “First I’d (take drugs) on the weekend to party. The party turned into every day and then into addiction. I gave up hope.”

His early life was rough, he said.

“My mom abandoned me (to my grandmother) when I was 9 months old. My dad was murdered for drugs” around the same time, he said.

He doesn’t know if his mother is still alive.

Recently, however, he completed eight months at his job at Veterans Affairs.

The subsidized housing is provided by a local nonprofit, Comin’ Home, which helps homeless veterans get off the streets.

The support of the rehabilitation program for homeless vets and of the staff at Comin’ Home has helped him put addiction behind him.

“I’m doing this for my son,” he said.

Salcido said helping ex-cons such as Varela become productive helps the community.

“We’re trying to get across that this population is not something we put away and forget about,” Salcido said.

“We care as a society about homelessness, about people dying in the desert. This population is no different than any other population.

“We’re responsible as a community for helping each other. By helping them, we’re helping ourselves.”

“When we help them find jobs, there’s less crime. Your neighborhood is safer.”

———

PREP client services

• Goal setting

• Mentors

• Jobs leads with employers willing to hire felons

• Bicycles for transportation to work

• Bus passes

• Tool for work

• Cash to get a driver’s license

• Money to attend a job training program or college classes

• Money for books for school

• Referrals to local agencies for housing and other services

———

Partner agencies

Old Pueblo Community Services: provides mentors

YWCA: provides clothes to women ex-convicts

Pima County One Stop: provides job search and re-employment services

DK Advocates: provides case managers to PREP clients

Pima County will receive more than $13 million of the tobacco tax funds collected since an 80-cents-a-pack tax increase in 2006.

The money will go to organizations and agencies that provide services to children up to age 5, with an emphasis on groups that provide family support services and child care assistance, said Diane Umstead, First Thing First’s regional manager for southeast Arizona.

First Things First is the state organization that will distribute the tobacco tax money.

The county is divided into three regional areas: north Pima, which covers the Avra Valley and the Catalina foothills; central Pima, which is mostly made up of metro Tucson; and south Pima, which includes Ajo and Vail. Each is headed up by an 11-person volunteer council.

Central Pima will receive the largest bulk, $7.6 million. North Pima will receive $1.7 million and south Pima will get $3.8 million.

The award was announced during a Monday meeting at Pima Community College.

Umstead said organizations and agencies that serve children within the regions are encouraged to submit grant applications. She said the funds will be distributed before June 30.

Because many agencies in the area have lost funding because of state budget cuts, Umstead said she expects those organizations will want to use the grants to supplement what was eliminated.

Umstead said funds will also be used to immediately help organizations in Pima County.

She said $500,000 has been set aside to buy food boxes for the Community Food Bank and other money will be used to help families pay for child care for parents who are going to school or looking for work.

Peg Harmon, vice chairwoman of the First Things First Central Pima Regional Partnership Council, said during the Monday meeting that the county has 81,749 children age 5 and under who could benefit from the First Things First funds.

“Thirteen million dollars in comprehensive services and programs for young children also translates into an economic stimulus for our local communities,” Harmon said.

———

On the Web

First Things First

www.azftf.gov

South Pima Regional Partnership Council

www.azftf.gov/RC018/Pages/default.aspx

North Pima Regional Partnership Council

www.azftf.gov/RC016/Pages/default.aspx

Central Pima Partnership Council

www.azftf.gov/RC017/Pages/default.aspx

———

How to apply

All grant applications must go through the Phoenix office. Grant information may be found online at www.azftf.gov/ WhatWeDo/Funding/Pages/ RegionalGrants.aspx.

Amista Barwick, 9, is all smiles with the Northwest YMCA group in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Tucson’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade filled downtown streets Sunday with the Irish, the wannabe Irish, floats, antique cars, trucks, fire engines, dancers, pipers, drummers and people who just love a parade.

While Tuesday is St. Patrick’s Day, the parade was 11 a.m. to about noon Sunday.

Among those watching was 80-year-old Betty Kwasny, who came to Tucson from Ohio to visit her family.

“I’m from Cleveland;. This is the first Irish parade I’ve seen in my life,” Kwasny said.

“I liked it all. I loved the bagpipes and the girls dancing the Irish jig,” said Kwasny, who is not Irish.

For 10-year-old Echo Goodrich, who is home schooled by her mother, Dia Goodrich, 36, Sunday’s parade also was a first.

“This is my first” parade, the baton-twirling Echo said before the marching began. “I think it’s going to be fun.”

After the parade, she said, “I thought it was awesome.”

Asked if she saw any of the parade, Echo said, “No, but I think it’s better to be in it than to watch it.”

Kerry Mullen, 35, here from Tewksbury, Mass., to visit family, is a regular at St. Patrick’s Day parades back home.

“Back home we usually take in two a year,” Mullen said.

As for whether Mullen has Irish blood, she quickly answered, “With a name like Kerry, can’t you tell?”

With Mullen were her 4-year-old daughter, Julia Mullen, and her two-month-old daughter, Olivia Mullen.

“I liked the Darth Vader and the (antique) trucks,” Julia said.

The annual St. Patrick’s Day parade is a family affair, but Sonia Navarro, 32, and her family seem to have taken it to an extreme.

After ticking off two sons, two uncles, four aunts and a number of cousins who had come to watch the festivities with her, Navarro gave up and blurted, “There was like 20 of us total.”

“It was fun,” Navarro said. “We especially liked the dancers and the clowns.”

If the parade was not enough fun, an Irish Festival was held at Armory Park, near the parade’s finish, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

People at the fair could buy Celtic souvenirs, Irish food, such as Irish stew or corned beef and wash it down with Irish whiskey or Guinness Extra Stout while listening to Irish music.

John Flanagan, president of the Tucson St. Patrick’s’ Day Parade and Festival Committee, said earlier that some 70 groups had signed up to be in the parade.

He estimated there were 5,000 spectators lining the parade route and that 2,000 people would go to the festival throughout the day.

Members of the Mashed Potato Queens also marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Rally attendees worry that those who need help won’t be able to get it

FRONT, FROM LEFT: Tucsonans Mia Islas, Victoria Soto and Diane Munguia - holding a portrait of her slain son Francisco Munguia - and Maria Vasquez - holding a photo of her slain daughter Carmen Aileen Knight - joined about 70 others at Friday's rally at Las Familias.

One was raped by a Catholic priest 40 years ago. Another’s fiance was slain during a robbery attempt, leaving her alone and three months pregnant. Another survived an abusive relationship and was finally able to move away with her four children from her abuser.

These three Tucsonans – Jim Parker, who is in his 50s, Melissa Royce, 23, and Leslie Evans, 30 – joined about 70 others Friday at a rally against proposed budget cuts to victim services funds.

The rally, which included a speakers’ lineup of victims, law enforcement, city officials and victim services organizations, packed the yard at Las Familias, 3618 E. Pima St. The organization helps victims of childhood sexual abuse.

The proposed reductions would cut off the annual $2.8 million allocation for victim services, $400,000 of which goes to Pima County, said Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall.

These funds are distributed through the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission and come from fines and penalties. The funds help pay for victim advocates, medical expenses, funeral and court costs.

The state Legislature is proposing to take the funds from the organizations that receive them, LaWall said, and offer federal stimulus funds in their place.

This endangers all the programs, she added, because federal funds for victim services are based on how much the state pays out.

If the state cuts off its funding for the services, there will be nothing for federal funds to match for the allotment in 2010.

“Cutting off services would be like cutting off life support,” said Parker, who finally sought help 40 years after he had been raped by a priest. He found solace and services at the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault.

Melissa Royce took the last name of her cab driver fiance Timothy Royce, who was slain last year. She said she would have been lost without Homicide Survivors.

“It was the only thing that gave me hope for the future,” she said. She was there with their child, 6-month-old Timothy Jr.

“It you take away the support, it silences the victims,” added Evans, a single mother of four who was only able to get away from her alleged abuser with help from Emerge!, a center that helps women victims of domestic abuse.

Those who were helped long ago remember how important those services were.

Marissa Cruz-Long, 36, attended the rally. Her father, Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Juan Cruz, was killed 10 years ago at the age of 48 by a drunken driver.

She said the support her family received from M.A.D.D. advocates during the ordeal was invaluable.

“They held our hand and helped us through the whole thing,” she said. “They were like a rock. People need some kind of support through the trial, the whole process.

“It’s sad (the Legislature) is trying to cut out services people need at the most desperate times of their lives.”

Speakers urged everyone to call, e-mail or write to their state legislators and Gov. Jan Brewer, to stop the cuts.

Tucsonans Victoria Soto, 30, (left) and Mia Islas, 25, joined about 70 others at Friday's rally at Las Familias, 3618 E. Pima St. James Noriego, Soto's brother and Islas' cousin, was murdered last year.

Save your dryer sheets after they’re done in the dryer. You can use them to dust your furniture AND they’re great for removing stuck-on foods from your pots and pans. Just fill the pan with water and drop the sheet inside. Let soak for about an hour (or until your next dishwashing moment) and wash as usual. I’ve saved money doing this instead of buying three different products for three separate jobs.
- Submitted by Maggie on about.com group Stay at Home Parent

For more parenting information, go to the Tucson nonprofit New Parents Network’s Web site, www.npn.org.

Readers, writers and even folks who haven’t picked up a book in years are invited to a two-day gala affair at the University of Arizona campus this weekend.

The first Tucson Festival of Books is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.

More than 350 local authors will be on hand, signing, discussing and presenting their work. Topics range from true crime to westerns, horror to romance, teen books to children’s storytelling and activities. Screenplays and TV writing are also in the mix.

“There is going to be something for everybody,” says Bill Viner, CEO of Pepper Viner Homes, and a founding member of the Tucson Festival of Books.

“People might think this is like an old time book fair – it’s not,” he adds. “It’s a very unique thing coming to the community. People can really enjoy something that’s different, educational and fun. They don’t have to be intellectuals or avid readers.”

Some of the notable headliners at the event include Stedman Graham, speaking on the importance of education; America’s Poet Laureate Billy Collins and southern Arizona’s own best-selling author J.A. Jance.

Editor’s note: Tucson Citizen staffer, artist and poet Ryn Gargulinski will be reading her poetry at 4 p.m. March 14 on the main stage of the UA BookStore (next to Starbucks).

———

IF YOU GO

What: Tucson Festival of Books

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday

Where: Various locations at the University of Arizona

Price: Admission is free

Info: www.tucsonfestivalofbooks.org

Man, now in Tucson nursing home, finds out he has large family

DuMoulin, in his late 40s, doing a household chore

A New Mexico woman’s decadeslong search for her father ended Friday when she saw him for the first time since 1971 – in a nursing home here.

Amelia Mendivil, 59, had sought 86-year-old Walter DuMoulin since 1984.

“It’s just like a miracle,” she said. “We just assumed he was dead. I couldn’t believe he was in front of me.

“It’s still like it’s not really true,” she said.

Mendivil used the online Social Security Death Index to attempt to track her father, but his name never turned up.

She finally found his name using a different Internet search and contacted the Tucson Police Department to file a missing persons report.

The report of a person missing for more than three decades caught the attention of Michele Shaw, a crime analyst in the police special investigations unit.

Mendivil and her sister, 61-year-old Judy Carter, had lost touch with their father when the women moved from their hometown of Ajo after he divorced their mother.

The father of two who taught his daughters how to play chess and love classical music was struggling with alcoholism and apparently moved to Tucson, where he eventually became homeless.

A World War II veteran, DuMoulin had been seen at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, but the federal Health Insurance Privacy Protection Act prevented hospital officials from releasing information on his whereabouts to Mendivil.

Eventually, DuMoulin was placed in a Tucson-area group home for elderly men, then moved to Villa Campana Healthcare, a nursing home near St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Mendivil said the social worker there told her that everyone felt sorry for DuMoulin because he never had visitors.

Shaw started making phone calls when the report landed on her desk and a check of DuMoulin’s last known address turned up no additional information.

A phone call to the VA confirmed that DuMoulin had been a patient there and a second call to the hospital’s police department turned up the name of the group home DuMoulin had lived in.

Officials at that home remembered DuMoulin and gave Shaw a list of possible nursing facilities where he might be staying.

Villa Campana was fourth on the list of possible homes, she said.

“I was just dumfounded,” Shaw said. “I really don’t think I did something extraordinary except make some phone calls and make some good connections.

“It’s so much fun to be a part of this,” she said. “Police work isn’t always sunshine and roses.”

The first thing that Carter said to her father when she saw him Tuesday afternoon was, “Hi, dad. I’m not skinny anymore.”

Carter was 23 and Mendivil was 21 when they last saw their father.

DuMoulin didn’t recognize his daughters, but their voices brought back memories.

When asked if he could recall helping Mendivil with homework, DuMoulin said it took him a couple of years to realize that she was tricking him into doing her homework in its entirety.

The man who had no visitors a few weeks ago now has a family of two daughters, eight grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

Four of the grandchildren live in Tucson, Mendivil said.

Asked if he was expecting to have such a large family, DuMoulin said of his daughters, “knowing these two, yeah.”

He said finding his daughters was “wonderful, believe me.”

DuMoulin said he tried to track down his daughters in 2005, but a phone call to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department proved fruitless because Mendivil had remarried and changed her name.

Despite finding his family again, DuMoulin likes where he lives and has no plans to live with his daughters in New Mexico near Silver City.

Carter said she plans to move to Tucson when she retires in a year and both sisters plan to make the four-hour trip as frequently as possible to visit their newly found father.

“We just lost our mom six years ago; she would have been happy to see him too,” Carter said. “We’ve tried off and on to find him and we just thought he was lost forever. I just wanted him to know how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren he has and that we’re not going to lose him again.”

KidsAndCars.org recommendations to keep children safe include:

• Walk around and behind a vehicle before moving it.

• Know where your kids are. Make children move away from your vehicle to a place where they are in full view and know that another adult is properly supervising children before moving your vehicle.

• Teach children that “parked” vehicles might move. Let them know that although they can see the vehicle, the driver might not be able to see them.

• Consider installing cross view mirrors, audible collision detectors, rear view video camera and/or some type of backing up detection device.

• Measure the size of your blind zone (area) behind the vehicle(s) you drive. A 5-foot-1-inch driver in a pickup truck can have a rear blind zone of approximately 8 feet wide by 50 feet long.

• Be aware that steep inclines and large SUVs, vans and trucks add to the difficulty of seeing behind you.

• Hold children’s hands firmly when leaving the vehicle.

• Teach your children to never play in, around or behind a vehicle.

• Keep toys and other sports equipment off the driveway.

• Trim landscaping around the driveway to ensure you can see the sidewalk, street and pedestrians clearly when backing out your vehicle. Pedestrians also need to be able to see a vehicle pulling out.

• Never leave children alone in or around cars – not even for a minute.

• Maintain control of power windows. Most cars come equipped with a “lock out” switch, which allows the driver – and only the driver – to operate all windows in the car.