7 January

Ali And Ungwa

by Jon Katz
Ali O. and Ungwa

In a family of eight, the children learn to take care of one another, and Ungwa, a courteous and sensitive  young woman, is almost always holding Ali. She is quiet and shy, but her sister told me she needs winter boots to navigate the snow and ice. We’re on it.

7 January

The Two Alis

by Jon Katz
The Two Ali’s

Sifa is so grateful to Ali for the support he has given to her and her family that she named her new baby after him, his name is Ali.O.

Ali’s calling seems to me to be helping people, he does it intuitively and lovingly and completely. I think the two Alis will be spending a lot of time together.

7 January

Portrait, Sifa, A Refugee In America

by Jon Katz
Porstrait: Sifa

Sifa has been in America for only a few months, she speaks little English and is hoping her  husband, back in a refugee camp in Tanzania, will receive a visa to America. It is proving difficult. So she is alone in America with eight children, four from a previous marriage. Her first husband died in the camp.

One thing I have noticed about many of the refugees that I have met is this: their stories are often blood-curdling. They faces murder, rape and starvation. They never mention their nightmares unless ask, and they say little.

They don’t seek pity and are almost astonishingly forgiving and forward-looking. They are eager to work hard and prove themselves. They are no threat to anyone here.

Sifa was in a camp for 20 years, and quite often the refugee camps are just another kind of nightmare. But it does not show in  her face, which is gentle and loving. She is very nice, and she has every right to be not so nice.

We learned today that she did not have a winter jacket, so we gave her a beautiful sweater I found in a Thrift Shop and was  saving for someone who needed a sweater. We also gave her a scarf, she has been walking around Albany in this cold with no jacket.

She spends what aid money she gets on her children, there is nothing left for her. We will be visiting her again. She greeted me with a big hug, and said goodbye with another. There is a lot of heart there.

She is a wonderful choice to be the first recipient of our food and necessities program for the refugees who come to New York State.

7 January

See What You Did: The Monthly Refugee Food Project

by Jon Katz
See What We Did

For nearly a year, I have been working to meet and understand the refugees and immigrants coming to America, it has been a difficult and sometimes frustrating process, with many ups and downs. This community functions out of sight,  and away from the public consciousness. Refugees, who be definition have lost everything, struggle very hard to adjust and acclimate, and increasingly live in some fear and concern.

Since they came with nothing, they need many things.

They do not open up easily to outsiders, especially those with cameras and blogs and questions.

The few bureaucracies and institutions that help them are understandably protective and secretive, especially in the past year.

Many have friends and relatives back in their home countries that can be in great peril if they do or say the wrong thing. Many are shy and withdrawn by culture and do not ever ask for help or call attention to themselves.

They don’t care for charity, they seek work.

I almost gave up a number of times, if I had not been an obsessive and determined reporter, I probably would have.  And if it had not been for Ali, I couldn’t  have gotten this far.

My deepening friendship with Ali (Amjad Abdulla) was the breakthrough I have been looking for. Ali is a heroic figure to me, he is a brother, he has devoted his life to these vulnerable and often needy people and their children, even as our government and many of our people have turned away and accepted the awful lie that the refugees are not good for America, don’t belong here, or are somehow dangerous.

My goal has always been to present them as real people, and show them the true spirit of America, and the Army Of Good has risen up in support of this idea. Just look what we did today.

Maria and Ali and I went to a supermarket in Albany, N.Y. and bought $259 worth of fresh fruit and diapers and soaps and sanitary napkins and clothes. We got them for Sifa. She has eight children, including twins and a new baby. Our budget was for $159, but with nine people in the family, we agreed to go over.

Each month Ali and I will choose a different refugee family in need, but we expect to see this family more than once. Sifa is a wonderful mother, gentle and loving, and her children are polite and beautiful and well cared for  shy. The children are devoted to their mother and one another.

Maria and I both loved meeting them and talking to them.

in this video, I recorded a few seconds of Ali’s thorough talk about using the things we brought. The family had never seen some of these things that Ali knew they needed. We took everything out of the bags and set them out on the table so Ali could describe each one.

Ali has been helping Sifa for months, and she is so grateful to him that she named her new son after him.

SIfa’s first husband, the father of four of her children, died in Tanzania, in the refugee camps. Her second husband, the father of her youngest children, is stranded in the refugee camp in Tanzania and is struggling to get a visa to enter the United States.

Sifa fled the Congo to escape the genocide there and spent the last 20 years of her life in a refugee camp. She has been in America for seven months. Her need, said Ali,  was for necessities – diapers, soap, deodorants, baby lotion, toilet paper, dishwashing detergent, as well as fresh fruit.

The children’s names are Matembo, Bahelanya, Ungwa, Mlondani, Ababelle,Mmunga, Asukulu, and Ali O.

Ali gently and carefully explained each of the things we bought, many of which Sifa and the kids had never seen. His manner with the family, as with the soccer and other kids at RISSE is gentle and loving. Kids adore him, and he has devoted his life to helping them.

Sifa said Ali had been a father to her children while their father was away.

Ali and I brainstormed a couple of weeks ago how to help the refugees still coming to America. We hit upon the Grocery And Necessities idea, we are doing it monthly. A drop in the bucket, but you have to start somewhere.

It was a brutally cold day here, but one of the warmest in my heart.

I am meeting a wide range of refugee and immigrant children and families now, Ali is working with the soccer team, and is also getting ready to coach the new girls basketball team. Only one of the girls at RISSE wanted to play soccer.

Maria was with me, and will be working with me and Ali on the food project. We both found the day inspiring and heartwarming, these people were so lovely and polite and appreciative. The apartment was clean and warm, and I asked the family what they need.

SIfa was shy about asking for anything, as many of the refugees are. We asked her children, and one said they needed more chairs to sit on – we could see this was so – and three of the children said they needed boots that they could wear in the cold and snow.

They have no winter shoes are boots. So I will see if I can buy the three pairs of boots that they need, I wrote down their foot sizes. One of Sifa’s daughters said her mother needed a winter jacket. I can do that. We went back out to the door and fished out a beautiful sweater Sifa loved, and a scarf. I’ll put up a separate photo.

Next Sunday, I’ve been invited to attended a festival at a local school that the refugee kids are sponsoring, their parents are coming, and they plan to show dances and sing songs from back home. I’m looking forward to meeting more of them and getting to know what they are like and what they need. I’ve got a bunch of dinner invitations and Maria and I are excited to be going to some dinners.

This is an important and gratifying project for me. These people need to be known and remembered. To abandon them is to make the refugees again, and once is enough. Maria wants to do this project with me and Ali, and I am so happy to have her. Her way with the refugee children was beautiful to see.

The lives of the refugees will touch even the hardest heart. They lost everything, suffered almost unimaginable horrors and sacrifice, they come her to work  hard and give their children betters lives.

To me nothing is more patriotic or American than supporting them, they are all immensely grateful to be in America. I thank the Army Of Good for making this possible, and I wanted you to see what you did. I’ll post a few additional photos.

 

7 January

First Day: The Refugee Food Project. Hugs And Tears.

by Jon Katz
The Do-Gooders: Photo By Maria Wulf

My father was a do-gooder, and as a reporter, I was always a little wary of do-gooders, I thought the idea was a bit sappy. I squirm a bit now to realize that I have become a do-gooder, and I love it, it is one of the most important things in my life, it means the world to me.

Today, Ali (Amjad Abdulla) and Maria and I launched a new project, the Refugee Food Project. Once a month, Ali and I will go shopping and bring food, toiletries and groceries to a refugee family in need.

Today, we were buying supplies for Siefa, a wife and mother from the Congo who spent more than 20 years in a refugee camp in Tanzania. She was fleeing the genocide there. Her first husband died in the camps, her second husband and the father of four of her eight children, was left behind in Tanzania, he is trying to get a visa to come join his family.

The government is seeking to cancel the visa program that would allow him to come here. So Siefa, who has been in the United States for eight months, is living in a small apartment in Albany with her eight children.

Ali and Maria and I bought more than $200 worth of groceries and we went to Siefa’s apartment to meet with her and her family and distribute the food and diapers and bananas and oranges and some of the other things the family .

The visit was warm and powerful and I a eager to write about it more. We will be doing this every month, as well as supporting the RISSE soccer team and the new RISSE women’s basketball team and other refugees and immigrants in need.

This was a very meaningful day and  am so grateful to Maria for sharing this and coming with me and Ali. I hope we will continue this project together, she was moved by it. Me too, I just got home and will write more later.

We will have a frigid farm to deal with.

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