Executive Director Jennifer Rizzo-Choi Speaks with WBFO's Jay Moran on our work of assisting new people to the region, dispelling the myths and perceptions regarding refugees and discusses the work conducted by the institute. In case you missed it, IIB Executive Director Jennifer Rizzo-Choi recently spoke with WBFO's Jay Moran on the program, What's Next? In the wide-ranging interview, Rizzo-Choi…
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For the second year IIB staff and volunteers teamed up with Parkside Lutheran Church to provide a Thanksgiving-style dinner for 50 newly arrived Americans and survivor clients. The guests hail from Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ecuador, Iraq, Myanmar, Syria, and Venezuela. For many, it was their first-ever Thanksgiving meal. "We serve foreign-born people who…
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In case you missed it, WGRZ TV featured our winter weather preparation instructions, now offered in 13 languages. Last winter we first debuted our increased language access to assist our newly arrived neighbors in nine languages. You can click here to watch WGRZ's full feature. The City of Good Neighbors is well known for its penchant for helping each other…
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Ten Thousand Villages, Buffalo, wants to help welcome our newest neighbors in Western New York by accepting donations to support our important work of resettling local refugees as they start their new lives. Ten Thousand Villages will accept donations of basic household items and winter clothing, including jackets, gloves, and hats. Other items needed include bathroom cleaner, 13-gallon trash bags,…
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We were honored to have welcomed 50 New Americans from 26 countries while they took their citizenship oaths at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services Naturalization Ceremony in Buffalo this week. The countries from which these new American citizens traveled are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Congo, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mauritania, Moldova, Netherlands, Peru, Philippines, Russia,…
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Thom Tran In July 1980, Thom Tran and his family came to the United States as refugees from Vietnam when he was an infant. His father was a South Vietnamese Air Force pilot who escaped a POW camp. After Saigon fell, the Tran family made it to a refugee camp in Thailand. Soon after that, St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church in…
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Anita Butera says she came to America by accident. In the 1990s, as a university student in Italy, she planned to travel to England to improve her English skills. An unexpected visit from an aunt wanting to visit the town where her parents were born changed that. She offered Butera a place to stay so she could immerse herself…
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Nadin Yousef and her family endured life in Bagdad, Iraq, under American occupation. After the United States pulled out of her country, a civil war ensued, and it became too dangerous. “Civil war is bad; you don’t know who the enemy is or who will knock on your door in the middle of the night,” said Yousef. Yousef took her…
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When Rubens Mukunzi was a journalist in his home country of Rwanda, all was fine until officials wanted him to publish more favorable stories about the government in his newspaper, Oasis Gazette. They ignored his protests that it was not a journalist's job to publish only good things about a government at its insistence. He reminded them that his publication…
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Welcoming Week is a national campaign and celebration to showcase communities that strive to "be more welcoming places for all, including immigrants." Since Buffalo's nickname is "The City of Good Neighbors," our theme is Being a Good Neighbor Starts with a Welcome! Here are profiles of local foreign-born people describing their journeys and how Western New York welcomed them,…
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