Refugees and Immigrants: Challenges in the U.S.A.
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On Sunday, October 26, 2014, members of Africans United Organization held a special event titled "Refugees and Immigrants: Chanllenges in the U.S.A." Faziri Ndahiro, Girma Erena, Zamda Kamikazi, Gerard Ndacayisenga, & Partick Kiptoo sat on the panel discussing AUO, their personal experiences as African refugees and immigrants, and some programs that AUO is running to engage the community. The event was apart of the Flying Squirrel Community Space's stop mass incarceration programming for the month of October.
A life of an immigrant in America, especially that of a refugee, can be very challenging during his/her first few months of their stay in the new home. Almost always, refugees and immigrants come to America in search of a new life, a life free from turmoil and hardships. Many of them have gone through untold sufferings in their motherland, ranging from war trauma, poverty, persecution and rape.
Upon arrival to the new home, they expect that their struggles have been left behind in their native countries. But as soon as they arrive, they realize that there is a new set of challenges waiting for them, such as securing a job, finding a place to live, buying food, and enrolling their children in school.
As a result of the aforementioned challenges, a few of our founding members, who also came through the refugee system and experienced these challenges firsthand, found it fit to start Africans Organization United in an effort to try to ease some of these challenges.
AUO strives at providing better information to immigrants and refugees, in particular about life in the United States, their legal rights, economic issues, emotional isolation caused by the stress, becoming a citizen and small business ownership, advocate policies aimed at promoting economic self-reliance and increasing the quality of life of refugees.
In addition, one of our main purposes is to provide for the advancement of the welfare of immigrants and refugees who reside in the Greater Rochester, New York area through networking, mentoring, education and training, so that there is a positive environment for promotion of African culture, practicing of African traditions and maintenance of high ethical standards among its members.
Statement from the Flying Squirrel collective on stop mass incarceration programming:
Related Articles in the Flying Squirrel's stop mass incarceration programming: "They think it's a game, they think it's a joke!" Ferguson organizers speak! | U.S. out of my living room: The case of Leslie James Pickering, the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, & Burning Books | The impact of mass incarceration on families | Vulnerable Populations/Critical Populations: The criminalization of poverty, homelessness, and dissent | Keith LaMar AKA Bomani Shakur: Live from death row | Partial Q & A from "The Whole Damn System is Guilty"
