We have been featuring profiles of EJP alumni who are now out in the world making an impact in their communities. In our latest EJP profile, we would like to share the story of David Gbabiri, a high school principal and English teacher in Garoua-Boulaï, a city in eastern Cameroon near the border of the Central African Republic. After being released from the Illinois Department of Corrections in 2012, he was deported back to Cameroon.
David says that EJP classes and programs like Language Partners helped to prepare him for life after serving his time. “I got some college credit to prepare me to come back and do whatever I could. I learned about English literature, and English as a foreign language, which helps me a lot at my job now,” he told me in a phone interview from Cameroon.
The high school is run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church and has more than 100 students. About 20 of the youth are refugees whose families have fled violence and poverty in the Central African Republic. The school day begins at 7 a.m. and lets out at 3 p.m.
“We train them to become citizens of the world. We talk about ethics. We talk about education. We even talk about religion. Our main goal is to build them to become the best that they can be. They have to make this a better place to live. That’s what we bring to them.”
David visited the U.S. for the first time in 1997 with his then-wife, who was from America. He decided to move to the U.S. in 2001 and lived in Palos Heights, a suburb of Chicago.
David served a seven-year prison sentence. When he was released in 2012, there were two ICE officers waiting for him at the prison gates. He was detained for nine months at the county jail in Dodge County, Wisconsin, where the sheriff has a contract with ICE to hold immigrants. He was then put on a plane by two ICE agents who travelled along with him all the way back to Cameroon.
EJP became more aware of the issue of individuals who face deportation following completion of their sentences after hearing the stories of David and other EJP students. We developed our guide, A New Path: A Guide to the Challenges & Opportunities After Deportation, to address this increasingly common consequence of stricter immigration policies. EJP’s Reentry Guide Project is currently working with organizations in two African nations (Nigeria and Uganda) to create reentry guides there.
According to David, his return to Cameroon was “not too bad.” Friends and family, he says, “welcomed be after being gone for a decade.” Within two months, he found a job teaching at the Lutheran School “which made things easier.” In 2016, he became principal at the school.
In 2022, David resumed his own education, earning a Master’s Degree in political science from the University of Bertoua, Cameroon.
From being a member of EJP’s Language Partners’ program to becoming a high school principal, we’re happy to see that the lessons David learned within EJP continue to serve him well!