Sub-Saharan African refugee women have become asignificant group in Western countries over the past20 years. Their plights and successes have beenreported by service providers.This study intended to uncover the meaning refugeewomen from the Great Lakes region of Africa attributeto being recipients of services during the first 4months of their resettlement in the United States.Social constructivism was used as the theoreticalframework for understanding the refugee women'sexperience. This qualitative study used aphenomenological approach. Findings revealed theimpact of pre-resettlement experiences on the meaningrefugee women give to the phenomenon under study.Underlying the major themes were two threads: thefear of annihilation and the need forself-preservation. The key constructs ofpowerlessness and cultural differences were shown tohave an impact on the experience of receivingservices in final resettlement. Practitioners,educators and policy makers will appreciate theimportance of understanding the refugee women'sexperience of receiving services in order to developand provide culturally responsive refugee services.