Series Premiere on Concord Community Television: Down the Braided River Part 1

ConcordTV is proud to present Down the Braided River: My Journey as a Deaf Refugee. This 3-part series, produced and directed by independent producer Julia Freeman-Woolpert, tells the story of author and advocate Bhawani Dangal, a Nepali refugee born hearing who became deaf as a child.

From the producer:

In the early 1990s, Bhutan expelled over 100,000 citizens in a little-known campaign of ethnic cleansing. Among them was seven-year-old Bhawani and his family, who spent 20 years in Goldhap Refugee Camp in Nepal before being resettled in Concord, NH. Born hearing, Bhawani became deaf as a child, enduring loss, stigma, and profound isolation. In the camps, the arrival of Nepali Sign Language classes changed everything: for the first time, Bhawani and other Deaf refugees could communicate.

Part 1: Bhawani discusses the book and why he wrote it, and talks with co-author Julia Freeman-Woolpert about the process of writing it when they didn’t have a common language. Bhawani communicates mostly in American Sign Language, and Julia in English.

Continue Reading: https://www.yourconcordtv.org/2026/11/07/4120/