Search Results for: helping sifa

I’d like some help helping Sifa. She doesn’t need much.

Sifa lives on the very worst street in Albany, according to the police, Ali warned me it would be rough and he was right. The police have been to the house seven times in the last two weeks to break up fights and bust up drug deals. She has been living in her very dark and close-in apartment with her four children for two years, and her son is in jeopardy from the drug den that is operating right next to them.

There was drug detritus all over the street and Ali and I had to make our way through six or seven young men who wouldn’t move a muscle for either of us. The street was just seething with poverty, anger and hopelessness. And sullen young men with nothing to do.

I’ve seen streets like this in the poorer neighborhoods of Baltimore,  Washington and Philadelphia. They are almost literally seething.

Sifa is very sweet and kind. It astonishes me how these quiet and soft-spoken women relay their tales of horror with little emotion and no self-pity. When they come to a sad part, they just lower their eyes, or sometimes, smile sadly.

Sifa survived a lot of horror for a long time. I don’t know how these women survived what they had to endure. I suppose she is lucky in one way, she is alive, and so are her children, although the term hardly applies to her suffering. She is uncomplaining and grateful for what she has.

She seemed at ease with me from the first, and had no reservations about being photographed.

One of her four kids is her sister’s, she was killed during the horrifying Congo genocides of the 1990’s that saw the slaughter of  an estimated 10 million people. Those numbers included all of  Sifa’s family, and perhaps her husband, whose whereabouts she does not know. They were separated and she has not seen him or heard of him or from him in nearly ten years.

From the look in her eyes, she is not hopeful.

Sifa escaped the Congo and spent seven years in a refugee camp hoping to get to America.

She was chosen by the U.N. to come to the U.S. in a visa lottery the kind the government is seeking to abolish. She came here  in 2016 from what some people call a “shithole” country, she would not be admitted now.

Sifa has a good job in a good place – the Albany Medical Center. She pays her rent and feeds her children, including two of her sons – Rodger and Ushindi – two of the stars on the soccer team. She urgently needs to get them and herself out of that apartment, she greatly fears for her sons and her other two children.

Sifa has a radiant smile. She seems calm and accepting.

A couple of minutes on the street was convincing enough  for me, and I was a police reporter in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Atlantic City.

We can really help Sifa. It will not take much.

We have already found her a new and safe and spacious three bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood near the medical center, she could walk to work.  That would be amazing. We have found a compassionate Muslim landlord who is charging as reasonable a rent as is possible.

The new apartment is just a few blocks from where Ali and his family live. She loves it and is eager to move. It has plenty of room for them.  She did not actually ask for any help, Ali and I had to pull it out of her. Ali knew from her friends about her difficulty. Ali and the kids on the soccer team are ready to help her move, they have all volunteered to help Rodger and Ushindi, they hope to move her next week, with our help.

Sifa said she needs $600 for the deposit and may need some additional help for the first two or three months of the new rent, there is about $250 difference in rent between the new apartments. She is working extra hours and does not want or need any additional help beyond that.

She just needs a hand to get there.

This is right up our alley. I gave Sifa a check for the $600 today so she can reserve the apartment and move in anytime. I told her we would help her make up the difference in the rent for those three months next week, assuming I can raise the money.

Sifa is self-sufficient and resourceful, she is moving up in her job at the medical center – she works in the housecleaning department and has a rent subsidy from the county government. She said the frequency of the police visits and the violence and fighting are  frightening her, she is especially concerned for her sons. She works many hours each week and worries when she isn’t home.

Ali and I looked at one another. We told her she didn’t need to convince us.

At the new apartment, she will not have to worry about the street life, and we talked about her finances.

She can easily handle the new rent between the county subsidy and what she earns. She just needs some help in signing the contract for the new apartment, setting it up and paying for the things new apartments require, like cable and Internet, essential for her kids and their schoolwork, among other things.

Like most of the refugee women we have met, there is little cushion in their lives, no extra money, no net.

Like the other refugee women I have met, Sifa is uncomplaining. For all of the troubles in America, she says, she loves being here, despite the menacing neighborhood. There is good and water and shelter here, she says, and no one is starving or being slaughtered or trying to kill her or her family. Women can be free.

The children, she says, have a chance.

The refugee work has added a new dimension to the work Ali and I are doing.  And more expenses.  We will take it slowly. We are also supporting the soccer team, whose members also have great needs. We work hard to keep our ambitions and costs small and focused.

We are committed to staying small, and asking for as little money as possible. But it is a great gift to be helping the refugees so directly. I want to say that you are the ones helping these people, it is  your money, your generosity, your sense of justice and compassion that makes all of this work possible. I couldn’t do a fraction of this on my own.

Neither could Ali. We never forget that, and i hope you don’t either.

You are truly an Army Of Good. I  hope to give the soccer team some respite and entertainment during the school break that starts next week. I’m putting the animal park trek in the Adirondacks on hold until our fund is fatter. I think we can get to Invincibles 2. And the one hour boat ride around Lake George is set.

Yesterday, a female rushed up to Ali on the street weeping and begged him for money to repair her car. She demanded to speak to me and she was so distraught Ali said he would listen. We had helped her in a small way awhile ago, she said she owed a lot of money, she need more help.

Ali, rattled at the depth of her emotion,  dialed my number and handed his phone to me – Ali has a very big heart and hates to say no.

She begged me for help in the most emotional way. “Please help me,” she shouted into the phone. And I did not hesitate.

I said no, we could not help her, that was not what we were about. We had to make sure the money we took from other people was used for good and was dispensed thoughtfully. We had to make hard decisions. Ali asked if I wanted to know how much she needed, and I said no, not right now.

I was also concerned about the manner in which she asked for help, I told her she needed to speak with us when she could be calm and clear. I know she had good reasons for being traumatized.  But I told Ali we can’t give out money for things like car repairs. Once that word got around, it would drain us in a minute. And how could we say not to anyone else?

Sometimes, I said, saying no was more important than saying yes.

I told her no on the phone. It is as essential to say no without wavering. We need to stay small, thoughtful and focused. We can help SIfa and her children in a major and lasting way, just as we helped Hawah and Lisa and Shasheen. Sifa just needs some help getting to that open field, she is already more than halfway there.

Any help would be appreciated, I’d like to give her the additional rental help next week, and perhaps some money for new clothes for her children.

If you can or wish to help, please send your contribution to The Gus Fund, Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. And thanks much. You are changing lives.

i invited Sifa to come to Bedlam Farm along with the other women we have been helping. She would make a great member of the Refugee Women’s Support Group. It’s in the works.

Here is some news for anyone who wants or needs to feel good about themselves today.

Sifa now has the key to her new apartment. It will happen.

Last week, I asked for help in assisting Sifa to get out her apartment in a dangerous, drug-infested street in Albany. There were five or six men sitting on the stoop when Ali and I showed up last week, not a single one moved an inch as we tried to get up the stairs and around them.

When a police car drove by a few minutes later, they all vanished.

Sifa is a survivor of the horrible Congo genocide, which is believed to have claimed 10 million people.

She lost her husband, and her sister, whose child she is raising along with her own three, and all of her family. A drug den has moved right next to her and she was afraid for her sons. The apartment was small and dark and cramped.

We found her a new apartment on a safe and attractive street a few miles away, and today, the landlord came over to give her the key to her new apartment, which is clean and comfortable and spacious. She is moving on July 1, and Ali and the soccer team are moving her in – two of her sons are on the team.

She has a good job at the Albany Medical Center, she can afford the new rent, she just needed help with the deposit. She is not asking for any further assistance, she says she can take care of herself.

We are also giving her several hundred dollars to buy some new clothes for her children, and she has accepted that help.  Clothes is very important to the refugee children as they try to assimilate in American schools.

That is all the help she requires now, but it is a major step which will radically change her life.

Not only will she and her family be safe – the police were called to the apartment house  seven times in recent days, she was afraid for her sons  – but she can walk to her job. Sifa spent years in a refugee camp in Africa before being admitted to the United States two years ago.

The refugee mothers say they have lost many sons to the streets.

Sifa is hard-working, charming and just as nice as she looks.

This is just how we feel it should work. We choose carefully, raise and spend money thoughtfully and with boundaries. We can’t afford to give people money if it won’t really help them, we can’t take over people’s lives,  we look for people who just need help getting to an open field where they can take care of themselves.

We stay small and focused. We look for happy endings.

We are not seeking miracles, just offering a push to people who need it and can follow through. Our help counts. We say no a great deal, and yes when we can make a difference. That is difficult sometimes but necessary.

Ali has been my guide to this world, and to the people in great need, we are brothers in this work.

I am stunned and impressed by the strength and determination of these refugee women, most have literally been through Hell, lost their husbands and families, are single mothers with children in America. They are eager to work and driven to give their children better and safe lives.

What people often fail to realize about many of the refugees is that they had good loves in their original countries, they worked hard and lived comfortably. This poverty and challenge is new to them, the frequent byproduct of being a refugee. It is not their natural state or experience.

They bear this burden with grace and tolerance.

Thanks for helping us to help them. This is a huge gift to Sifa and her family – her apartment was a mess and her street was smoldering. She can take it from here. Next week I will be there when she moves into her new apartment.

I want you to see what  you did. And thanks. Sifa has the key!

Next week, we are also meeting with Lisa again, we want to help her get into that open field.

I wanted to pass along to some of you very good people various things about the refugees and our plans to support them. There’s a lot happening and i want to keep everyone informed, insofar as possible.

First, I ordered a new winter jacket for Sifa, and got her a sweater an scarf.  I didn’t find anything suitable in my thrift shops, and Rifa, who has eight children, has no good jacket to wear in this difficult winter. She’ll have it by Friday. I got a good one, a Columbia jacket.

Sifa has been in the United States for four or five months, she was in a U.N. refugee camp for 20 years, her first husband died in the camp, her second is trying to get a visa to come and join his family. It is an uphill struggle for him.

Sunday, at the refugee kids festival in Albany, I’m bringing Ali $200 so he can take three of Sifa’s kids out to buy snow boots. We thought that was better than buying them online.

We gave one of the RISSE kids $70 to buy a special white jacket and shoes so she can dance in the refugee festival on Sunday. Otherwise, she would have stood out as the only kid without the right outfit.

We are sponsoring a two-day retreat for the 14 members of the RISSE soccer team at Pompanuck Farm over the Martin Luther King weekend. I’m going to buy three sleds and a couple of sleeping bags.

Someone from Ohio sent a box of wood carving tools for Maulidi, I’ll see him this weekend, and he may have more carvings to sell. I got a huge box of waterproof socks from Kansas today in my P.O. Box, they’re on the way to RISSE.

Cheryl Lasher of RISSE asked me to try to contact Karen and Jodi, followers of my blog for many years, they sent a lot of much-needed winter clothing to RISSE, (including a pink jacket) and RISSE is eager to thank them.

I remember Karen, her beloved nephew Jenson died six years ago, and she and Jodi  gave this generous gift in his memory. Karen, if you see this please contact me at [email protected] or Cheryl Lasher at RISSE, 715 Morris Street, Albany, N.Y., 12208.

“This expression of love is what the Army Of Good and RISSE are all about,” said Cheryl in a message to me. “I don’t want these women to feel unappreciated or their nephew unrecognized….” I told Cheryl most members of the Army Of Good never tell me what they have done or given, they seem to want nothing more than the joy of being generous and helping.

I know or hear from very few of them directly, yet we seem to be very close to one another.

If you are comfortable doing so, Karen, let me or Cheryl know how to get in touch with you. You deserve some thanks.

On the Mansion side, we are sponsoring a Valentine’s Day lunch with lasagna and a cake and cookies. Our sleigh ride is postponed until warmer weather. For the moment, everyone has the clothes they need.

And we have finished the first leg of the indoor Geranium Garden. We’ll be putting together another tray next week.

Good stuff, and thanks for your support. Next month, we will bring groceries to another refugee family that needs support. The winter clothing drive was very successful, they always need socks and shoes and boots for kids – 714 Morris Street, Albany, N.Y., 12208.

If you wish to contribute to this work, you can do so by sending a donation to Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., or via Paypal, [email protected]. And thank you. All donations are sept in a separate bank account and overseen by a bookkeeper and a certified professional accountant.

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.

 

I’ve given my fund raising for the Gus Fund some rest over the past few weeks.

I hate to keep asking people for money, and I was also distracted by some personal obligations. I always try to give the Army Of Good a rest,  this is not a wealthy army, it consists of good people who share small amounts of money.

But if I don’t ask for help, then we can’t help anyone. That’s just the hard reality of it.

We have done a staggering amount of good since we started work in 216, it would take me all day to list everything. The Gus Fund supports my work with the Mansion residents and the refugees and immigrants living in New York State and struggling to survive.

We also support and sponsor the Albany Warriors, that wonderful group of young refugee men (and some women) who  play soccer in the Albany area and also build character and community. This money is very well spent, every member of the team is on their school Honor Roll, that is a profound achievement for them, and for Ali.

The fund is very low right now, $750 and I’d like to get it up to $2,000 or $3,000 again.  My philosophy is to get rid of the money  as quickly as it comes in, it should be going to good use, not sitting in its own special bank account.

I spent more than $1,000 getting Lisa and her two sons established (they have new clothes and toys)  and also helping Hawah and also helped  Sifa get to a safe and clean and decent apartment. I had to give Hawah’s landlord nearly $1,000 this week to secure her new apartment, the county welfare department hasn’t sent him a check yet.

The landlord promised me that that money will come back to me. He is a good and  honorable man, he has helped us more than once.

I promised to back her up, and I will keep my promise.

I also learned that one of the refugees that I helped – I gave her money for a down payment on an apartment – did not use the money to pay her landlord, but spent it instead for personal reasons. She came back to ask us for more, we said no.

I don’t intend to try to get the money back, I’m sure she doesn’t  have it, but it was disheartening to me, the first time that has happened.

It hurt the heart, our fund will be fine. I suppose this is inevitable.

We screen the people we are helping carefully. I’ve never had anyone use the money for anything other than what they asked for and needed. I also bought two more air conditioners for the Mansion residents this month, they suffered greatly in the heat wave.

Everyone who needs an air conditioner has one.

The Army Of Good has been more than  generous. My idea is large numbers of people sending small amounts of money. You all know precisely where it goes, I document everything I do in words and pictures.

When I get the funds, I use them and then pause and then ask for more help, and then use the money. I believe this is working well. We don’t work miracles, we don’t spend lots of money, we don’t take over lives.

We just offer a hand to the poor, the needy and the vulnerable.  Get them to some stability, give them hope and promise.

It was wonderful to help Said, the Iraqi gentlemen who had lost everything after the war and was nearly homeless. He loves his new apartment, his TV with Arabic channels,  has some clothes, loves his new cellphone. He has a part-time job, he is taking good care of himself, making friends, living an independent and safe life.

We are giving the soccer team some fun and healthy activities this summer – museums, animal parks, we would like to send them on a one day trip to New York City to ride a bus around town and have lunch. I would also like to get them to the Great   Adventure Amusement and Water Park in Lake George.

You did that for him. We are keeping good alive.

I am sorry to say there are not a lot of people out there doing this for the elderly and the refugees, you are quite special and you matter.

We don’t do big things, we commit small acts of great kindness. The money goes a long way, it changes lives.

The soccer team will need to pay for its new uniforms shortly and I am eager to continue to support refugees who need some short-term assistance in getting their feet on the ground, in getting to the open field that is America, or should be.

The Mansion residents all have summer clothes, and air conditioners for their hot rooms if needed or wanted.

The Mansion also needs a new wheelchair scale, the old one is too small and is falling apart, and that will cost close to $400.  This is important, the scale is the only way the residents can be weighed.

Some of the residents need underwear and shoes. I got a bunch of summer pajamas for them.

I want to shore up some summer activities for the soccer team when summer school gets out.

So this is the pitch I have been avoiding. I’d like your help in building the fund up for the summer.

Small donations are welcome, so are bigger ones. When I get some money, I stop asking for more until it runs out. So far, the Army Of Good has not failed to help.

If you can or wish, please send your contributions to “The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected]. And thank you.