Refugees and Immigrants: Challenges in the U.S.A.

<p> <style type="text/css"> P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }</style> </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">On Sunday, October 26, 2014, members of Africans United Organization held a special event titled "Refugees and Immigrants: Chanllenges in the U.S.A." <span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">Faziri Ndahiro, Girma Erena, Zamda <span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">Kamikazi</span></span></span>, Gerard Ndacayisenga, &amp; 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.</span></span></span> The event was apart of the <a href="http://thesquirrel.org">Flying Squirrel Community Space</a>'s stop mass incarceration programming for the month of October.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"drupalimc_large","fid":"10489","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><!--break--></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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 </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">gone through untold sufferings in their motherland, ranging from war trauma, poverty, persecution and rape.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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 </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">that there is a new set of challenges waiting for </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">them, such as securing a job, finding a place to live, buying food, and enrolling their children in school.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">As a result of the aforementioned challenges, a few of our founding members, who also came through </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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.</font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in">&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Statement from the Flying Squirrel collective on stop mass incarceration programming:</strong></p><div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;"><font style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" size="3">The Flying Squirrel Community Space joins in the call-out for a month of mobilizing against mass incarceration! We demand an end to m</font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font size="3">ass incarceration, police terror, repression and the criminalization of a generation! Our month of action and education against mass incarceration is a scream against the societal&nbsp;</font></font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font face="Times, serif"><font size="3">effort</font></font></font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font size="3">&nbsp;to cover up, white out, ignore, neutralize and suppress the reality of the prison industrial complex. The PIC imprisons over 2.2 million people, and monitors another 8 million people through parole, probation, ankle monitoring, general surveillance and other measures of state control. If the prison population in the U.S. were put together in one city, it would be the 4</font></font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000">^{<font size="3">th</font>}</font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font size="3">&nbsp;largest city in the country.</font></font></div><div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" align="LEFT">&nbsp;</div><div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"><b><font color="#000000"><font face="Times, serif"><font size="3">We REFUSE to live in a society that has no better fate for millions of its people than segregation, harassment, brutalization, incarceration and outright murder at the hands of its enforcers—and we will not rest until this is STOPPED. We refuse to make our peace with this “new Jim Crow” – a social system which targets communities of color, immigrants and the&nbsp;</font></font></font><font face="Times, serif">undocumented, disabled people, youth, elders, transgender and queer people, women, the poor, the homeless, and others. This system of correctional control, injustice, and domination is nothing but a slow, structural genocide. We will not tolerate this. WE RESIST!</font></b></div><div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;">&nbsp;</div><div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"><p><strong>Related Articles in the Flying Squirrel's stop mass incarceration programming:&nbsp; </strong><a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104213">"They think it's a game, they think it's a joke!" Ferguson organizers speak! </a>|<a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104203"> U.S. out of my living room: The case of Leslie James Pickering, the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, &amp; Burning Books</a> | <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104192">The impact of mass incarceration on families</a> | <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104177">Vulnerable Populations/Critical Populations: The criminalization of poverty, homelessness, and dissent</a> | <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104123">Keith LaMar AKA Bomani Shakur: Live from death row</a> | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMYzmydHopw">Partial Q &amp; A from "The Whole Damn System is Guilty"</a></p></div><p>[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"drupalimc_large","fid":"10491","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]</p>

<p><style type="text/css"> <!--/*--><![CDATA[/* ><!--*/ P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } /*--><!]]>*/ </style></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in">On Sunday, October 26, 2014, members of Africans United Organization held a special event titled "Refugees and Immigrants: Chanllenges in the U.S.A." <span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">Faziri Ndahiro, Girma Erena, Zamda <span class="_5yl5" data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0"><span data-reactid=".3o.$mid=11415191714739=2a8b5d9a505df1b28.2:0.0.0.0.0.0.$end:0:$0:0">Kamikazi</span></span></span>, Gerard Ndacayisenga, &amp; 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.</span></span></span> The event was apart of the <a href="http://thesquirrel.org">Flying Squirrel Community Space</a>'s stop mass incarceration programming for the month of October.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><div class="media media-element-container media-drupalimc_large"><div id="file-10489" class="file file-video file-video-youtube"> <h2 class="element-invisible"><a href="/file/10489">Refugees and Immigrants: Challenges in the U.S.A.</a></h2> <div class="content"> <div class="media-youtube-video media-image media-youtube-1"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" width="620" height="480" title="Refugees and Immigrants: Challenges in the U.S.A." src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IuZwptttl4I?wmode=opaque&controls=" name="Refugees and Immigrants: Challenges in the U.S.A." frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of Refugees and Immigrants: Challenges in the U.S.A.</iframe> </div> </div> </div> </div></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> <!--break--></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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 </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">gone through untold sufferings in their motherland, ranging from war trauma, poverty, persecution and rape.</font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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 </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">that there is a new set of challenges waiting for </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">them, such as securing a job, finding a place to live, buying food, and enrolling their children in school.</font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">As a result of the aforementioned challenges, a few of our founding members, who also came through </font><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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.</font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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.</font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"><br /><font style="font-size: 10pt" size="2">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.</font></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> </p> <p><strong>Statement from the Flying Squirrel collective on stop mass incarceration programming:</strong></p> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;"><font style="font-family: Times, serif; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" size="3">The Flying Squirrel Community Space joins in the call-out for a month of mobilizing against mass incarceration! We demand an end to m</font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font size="3">ass incarceration, police terror, repression and the criminalization of a generation! Our month of action and education against mass incarceration is a scream against the societal </font></font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font face="Times, serif"><font size="3">effort</font></font></font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font size="3"> to cover up, white out, ignore, neutralize and suppress the reality of the prison industrial complex. The PIC imprisons over 2.2 million people, and monitors another 8 million people through parole, probation, ankle monitoring, general surveillance and other measures of state control. If the prison population in the U.S. were put together in one city, it would be the 4</font></font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000">^{<font size="3">th</font>}</font><font style="font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" color="#000000"><font size="3"> largest city in the country.</font></font></div> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 13.3333330154419px;" align="LEFT"> </div> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"><b><font color="#000000"><font face="Times, serif"><font size="3">We REFUSE to live in a society that has no better fate for millions of its people than segregation, harassment, brutalization, incarceration and outright murder at the hands of its enforcers—and we will not rest until this is STOPPED. We refuse to make our peace with this “new Jim Crow” – a social system which targets communities of color, immigrants and the </font></font></font><font face="Times, serif">undocumented, disabled people, youth, elders, transgender and queer people, women, the poor, the homeless, and others. This system of correctional control, injustice, and domination is nothing but a slow, structural genocide. We will not tolerate this. WE RESIST!</font></b></div> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"> </div> <div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333330154419px;"> <p><strong>Related Articles in the Flying Squirrel's stop mass incarceration programming:  </strong><a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104213">"They think it's a game, they think it's a joke!" Ferguson organizers speak! </a>|<a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104203"> U.S. out of my living room: The case of Leslie James Pickering, the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, &amp; Burning Books</a> | <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104192">The impact of mass incarceration on families</a> | <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104177">Vulnerable Populations/Critical Populations: The criminalization of poverty, homelessness, and dissent</a> | <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/node/104123">Keith LaMar AKA Bomani Shakur: Live from death row</a> | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMYzmydHopw">Partial Q &amp; A from "The Whole Damn System is Guilty"</a></p> </div> <p><div class="media media-element-container media-drupalimc_large"><div id="file-10491" class="file file-image file-image-png"> <h2 class="element-invisible"><a href="/file/10491">AUO.png</a></h2> <div class="content"> <a href="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/AUO.png?width=500&amp;height=500" class="colorbox-load" alt=""><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/styles/drupalimc_large/public/AUO.png?itok=-dnwrURs" alt="" title="" /></a> </div> </div> </div></p>