Nepalese Immigrant Helps Refugees Find Home In West Hartford Library

In Nepal, Pramod Pradhan had to pay to enter his small, local library: about 10 rupees, or roughly 25 cents at the time.

The West Hartford resident was in awe of the accessibility and quality of American libraries when he and his family immigrated to Connecticut in 2004. Now, as the West Hartford Libraries first community engagement librarian, Pradhan is on a quest to prove the library can be more than just books, CDs and magazines.

“In tight budgetary scenarios, [libraries look for] a way to find how to survive,” Pradhan, 47, said. “But in the meantime, a library can be a place in the community where it can be a catalyst for community revitalization. It can be a center point for everything where people can feel there is a place of belonging, a place of safe haven where everyone can count on.”

For Pradhan, this means a place to help refugees as they assimilate into life in Greater Hartford.

Since 2005, when he moved to West Hartford, Pradhan worked in a variety of positions at Hartford Public Library, most recently as a digital programming specialist, he said. After moving to the U.S., Pradhan said, his family turned to the Hartford library for help applying for citizenship and Social Security, and researching school districts for his son.

“The library was the first place we went to seek any kind of information,” he said. “If we got stuck somewhere, we always had someone to help. It’s not that easy to navigate in the beginning through the process of getting settled.”

When Pradhan’s family came to town, there were about 50 people living in West Hartford from Nepal, he said. A year later, he said, he and others formed the Nepalese Association of Connecticut, which now has more than 500 members living in West Hartford.

While at the Hartford Public Library, Pradhan worked to help refugees from other countries — such as Bhutan, Somalia and Myanmar — navigate town services and acquire loans and houses, he said.

He said he meets the refugees when they come to the library looking for English classes. Pradhan is able to communicate with many of them because he speaks five languages: English, Hindi, Nepali, Bengali and Urdu.

“The library is one place where all these communities can come together and get engaged,” he said. “I saw this big opportunity here to connect not just the immigrant communities, but the community as a whole with the enormous resources the library has.”

In September, Pradhan took the community engagement librarian position at the West Hartford Library and is based at the Faxon Library in Elmwood, he said. And in October, the town appointed Pradhan as a liaison to the human rights commission, he said.

West Hartford Libraries Director Martha Church said Pradhan brought a cheerful disposition and an abundance of personal experience to the position.

“He is there to welcome people who may have never used a library before. And he’s lived the experience many of them are having,” she said. “The library was a first point of connection for him and his wife. Now, he’s able to turn it around.”

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