March is Women’s History Month. At the International Institute of Buffalo, we use it to celebrate the notable accomplishments of naturalized immigrants and refugees who also happen to be women.

Among others, we celebrated Hinke Boot, who served IIB as executive director for 20 years. Another was Mother Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants and a woman who, by sheer force of will, made life better for Italian immigrants in America at the turn of the last century. 

Because of our century-long history of helping foreign-born people, IIB had the honor of participating in the pre-release celebration of the Cabrini movie. By the way, it was a great film filmed primarily in Buffalo!

This month is a time to recognize the large and small contributions of women that are often overlooked. It’s unlikely they will have a biopic made of their lives, but we all need to recognize that women often manage home life and mother children on top of having a job. This is frequently true in “traditional” families, where women don’t swap one list of duties for another; instead, they add their jobs/careers on top of the responsibilities they still continue to do. It’s undoubtedly true for one-parent families, which are overwhelmingly led by women— 80 percent, according to the US Census. It is also true for those who don't have spouses or children or families to manage. Yet, they all contribute to the fabric of America— even if they were not born here.   

So, while we recognize those with a “high profile,” that doesn’t lessen the importance of the hard work and sacrifice of the millions of women in America who keep our society together and moving forward. 

Join the Good Neighbor Society for

A Taste of the Middle East Reception

Thursday, March 28, 2024, 6:00 pm-7:30 pm

864 Delaware Ave. Buffalo NY 14209 

For members of the Good Neighbor Society, this event is FREE! Just make sure to use this link to RSVP!

For non-members to attend this event (and be invited to others), join by clicking here. It will also entitle you to bring a guest!

You can only be admitted to this special event if you are a Good Neighbor Society member, so please donate $100 or more to our annual fund! 

Coming Soon! Community World Trivia!

Become a Sponsor or Join the Fun!

Coming soon! Community World Trivia on Thursday, May 9, is both fun and educational. Gather your team and sign up or become a sponsor for one of the most exciting fundraisers in WNY! Click here for details.

Community Outreach

We did five home setups this month. Thanks to the 18 volunteers who helped turn the living spaces into homes!

We received about $2,000 worth of physical goods—everything from furniture to toys to toothpaste and soap. Every contribution helps to ease the burden on our New American neighbors as they start to live their American dreams.  

At the Cabrini premiere, we met many people who were very interested in supporting our mission through financial donations, physical donations, and volunteering.

Learn more about volunteer and intern opportunities at IIB and if you want to donate in-kind items or cash, please let us know!

Welcome New Americans!

Every month, we join the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services for its Naturalization Ceremony in Buffalo. In March, we helped welcome 52 New Americans from 25 countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, Congo, Eritrea, Guinea, Iraq, Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Somalia, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Yemen.

In the Media!

Our 2024 Model UN was a great success! WGRZ did a story about it and the student diplomats who learned so many things from participating in it.

Women's History Month

During March, we’ve been highlighting the stories of women immigrants and refugees to celebrate their accomplishments. The list includes:

Employment Services

This month, 19 newly arrived clients graduated from our Job Club, which teaches about the American workspace, such as entry-level jobs, resume building, interview skills, worker rights, safety, and success at work.

Our new Career Club offers help for higher-skilled employees with open drop-in hours, including resume workshops and mock interviews. Over 20 clients have attended these sessions so far!

The Professional Pathways team continues connecting with new employers and education providers in the community! We established a new partnership with the SUNY Erie Pathways English program, which provides college-prep ESL classes. We also continue to partner with other community organizations to recruit more New Americans so we can set them up for career success. Learn more about how we connect workers with potential employers.

Meet the Linguist

Jenna Reiner is an English, French, Haitian Creole, and Latin translator for IIB. Her love of languages started in her middle school French class and continues today! Learn more about Jenna.

International Exchanges and Education

With over 800 high school students from 40 local public and private schools, 30 college students, and community volunteers participating in this year’s Model UN conference, the competition was fierce! Model UN gives students an opportunity to build on their research, public speaking, and conflict resolution skills by acting as diplomats for a day. Here is the complete list of winners.

We were also honored to jointly host four visitors from France with Rochester Global Connections as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). Focused on Promoting Education and Empowerment of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, this group connected with organizations such as Deaf Access Services, RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and Buffalo’s ADA Advocate.

We conducted health sessions for immigrants and refugees centered on navigating a pharmacy and understanding medication labels with UB Pharmacy students. We also offered Cultural Competency sessions for UB Master of Public Health students and UB Pediatric residents.

Learn more about how our International Exchanges and Education team increases knowledge and understanding in our community.   

Interpreting & Translation

The Interpreting team provided 1,954 interpreting services in 48 different languages while the translation team processed 109 individual projects, many of which we simultaneously translated into several of the region’s top languages: Arabic, Bengali, Burmese, Dari, Pashto, Somali, Spanish, and Swahili.

Some work included translation for Spanish 2024 grant applications to “provide equitable arts support to all regions across New York State” for a local non-profit to supplement the limited funding for independent artists in Buffalo.

The team also worked on a Spanish consent form for research studying the impacts of poor air quality and household energy transitions related to stove use, which was sponsored by an independent research organization from California partnering with a Buffalo non-profit focusing on fair housing issues.

Our Interpreting team provided Portuguese and Swahili interpretation for an independent film company producing a new documentary about refugees and asylum seekers in Buffalo.

We’re currently recruiting interpreting and translation professionals in the following languages: Farsi, Karen, Karenni (Kayah), Kinyarwanda, Nepali, Pashto, Russian, Pulaar, and Vietnamese. 

Learn about our Interpreting & Translation team's efforts to bridge the language access gap in our community. Click here if you'd like to learn more about the language services we offer.

New American Integration

This month, we resettled seven families, totaling 34 New Americans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Iraq, Rohingya from Myanmar (Burma), and Syria. Five families arrived over two days!

A Rohingya family fled to Malaysia in 2013 and has lived in a refugee camp since then. Ten years later, they finally got permission to come to the USA in December. Before fleeing, the husband was a shopkeeper. He, his wife, and five kids are eager to see what opportunities await them now that they are in their new home.

An Eritrean family fled to Israel in 2022 and has been waiting at a camp since then. Before fleeing, they had busy lives, with the husband working as a butcher and his wife as a seamstress and raising their four children.

Our Preferred Communities program helps New Americans with disabilities or other special needs. We are helping 20 New Americans from Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Malaysia, Somalia, and Syria.

Some good news is that we helped two children with handicaps get approved for SSI, which will significantly enhance their lives. Another two clients have been approved for motorized wheelchairs, which will help them get around. Learn more about the great work done by our New American Integration team. 

Survivor Support

April will be both National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and National Child Abuse Awareness Month. It’s a reminder that we must all be vigilant and work together to know the signs of these abuses and be a resource for survivors. 

We offer safe, free, and confidential services for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. Aside from the daily work that they do, our Survivor Support Services team does outreach and education in the community so they know how we can help people who Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking impact.

If you or someone you know needs help, contact us.

Come Work with Us!

You can get a job, or you can embark on a promising career; the choice is yours. If you want to do good in our community, consider a career helping immigrants and refugees, please take a look at our careers page.