One of our newly arrived refugee client families need extra support after a two-alarm fire forced them to evacuate their home this past weekend. After an arduous journey that brought them to Western New York, community support will help them through this recent setback. The following items are urgently needed to help this family back on their feet: One Stroller Cookware:…
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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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Photo Credit: NASA “I don't think anyone in my family really believed that this was a possibility for me, and I really wasn't expecting anybody to believe in my dream. The chances of becoming an astronaut were very low. But it was never impossible.“ –Franklin Chang-Diaz In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we recognize the scientific, economic, cultural, political,…
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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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We welcomed 31 New Americans from 15 countries this week. They took their citizenship oaths at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services Naturalization Ceremony, held at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in downtown Buffalo on Wednesday, September 13. The countries from which these new American citizens traveled are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy,…
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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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BreadHive Bakery & Cafe wants to help our newest neighbors settle in Western New York. Through September, the cafe and bakery is donating 5% of sales on cafe products to the International Institute of Buffalo. These donations will boost our important work of resettling refugees as they start their new lives, supporting survivors, regional education, translation, and interpreting in local…
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We welcomed 51 New Americans from 26 countries this morning while they took their citizenship oaths at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services Naturalization Ceremony in Buffalo this morning. The countries from which these new American citizens traveled are: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Burma, Canada. Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Eritrea, Guyana, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Philippines, Rwanda, Syria,…
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