For Lynn, doing the doable is her bread and butter. She's the Accounts Payable & Payroll Accountant at the Alight Minneapolis office, but when she's not making sure everyone gets their pay check, she's going the extra mile to make refugees families feel at home in her home town. We put out a call to staff and volunteers to help welcome refugee families to the Twin Cities. And that very same day Lynn was on the case. She set about shopping, filling her car with items for the next family to arrive. Next she roped her family in, making it a family activity to scour Facebook marketplace to find used options, and went shopping to find new ones. They picked up a set of bunk beds, two full sized beds, a microwave, a kitchen table and chairs, a coffee table, backpacks, kids' supplies, insulated lunch boxes, and cleaning supplies. But Lynn didn't stop there...but she offered to let us use her flatbed trailer to move items, and came to help move the items inside the family's new … [Read more...] about Everyday People, Extraordinary Kindness
Campaigns
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
There's a reason your mom always told you to hand write your thank you notes. There's something warm and fuzzy about opening up a message written by a friend or loved one, something personal about a letter just for you. Here in Minneapolis, we've been partnering with the International Institute of Minnesota to help welcome newly arrived refugees families to the Twin Cities. And one of the very best ways we could think of showering those families with love and support is with messages of welcome - waiting for them when they get home. When resettling the last group of incoming families, we recruited volunteers to help. Together we created a visual welcome for each family in their new home, made up of messages and written with care. Each note is handwritten and in the family's native language, adding a note of something familiar in a new place. So far we've written notes in French, Kiswahili, Thai, and English! A note of welcome adds a human touch to a process that can … [Read more...] about Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Filled with Generosity
Abbe and her seven year old daughter, Lucia, saw a message from us about needing help resettling a family in Minneapolis. Moved and wanting to lend a hand, Abbe took a day off from her job as a pediatrician - and she and Lucia came down to our Alight offices in Minneapolis to learn more. We were so excited to see them, and were floored when we realized their incredible willingness to jump right in. So we put our heads together and came up with a plan... We needed some things at Costco that could be purchased in bulk, and that could be placed in the new family's home before they arrived. So Abbe and Lucia got right to it - and off they went with shopping list in hand. Lucia had brought her pad of paper and pen along, and she diligently recorded each item that was needed, taking her time to put a box next to each one to check off when they got to the store. So organized! Later that day, they delivered a car load of supplies to the office. Everything from toilet paper, … [Read more...] about Filled with Generosity
Coming Home
It's been 30 years since Aanne and her family, Oromo refugees from Ethiopia, were resettled in the U.S. They never forgot the experience - or their gratitude toward the people who welcomed them in those first few days. Today, more Oromo families are coming to the Twin Cities. And Aanne and her mom wanted to welcome them in the same way they had been welcomed - warmly and with generosity. They decided to get together and cook homemade, traditional meals for a newly arriving family. All of the meals were ready and waiting for them, with labels showing what each item was. Along with fresh fruit, veggies, and injera bread, every meal was halal - made by Oromo women for an Oromo family! The pair also brought in a traditional table cloth to really make the kitchen feel familiar, a signal that although they've come a long way, they're really coming home. … [Read more...] about Coming Home
Staying Well
You may remember the Refugee Coalition on East Africa (RefCEA), the umbrella organization in Nairobi that unites and supports LGBTIQ refugees regionally through advocacy, strategy, fundraising and research. Jacob heads up RefCEA, dedicating his waking hours lifting up the voices of other LGBTIQ refugees and help them transition from surviving to thriving. Because Kenya is a country where being LGBTIQ is criminalized, it is often a a place of transit for the refugee community. Finding a persecution and discrimination-free world through resettlement in a third country is a common dream for any refugee, but especially LGBTIQ refugees who face double persecution and discrimination. Unfortunately, the percentage of people who are granted resettlement is very low. And earlier this summer, Jacob was one of the lucky ones to receive a notice of his resettlement hearing, the process by which you appear before a judge to be granted permission to leave the country and be resettled … [Read more...] about Staying Well
Unleashing Creativity
We’re back with Vanilla at the Refugee Trans Initiative, sitting in her cozy safe house for trans refugees. As she gives us the tour, we can’t help but notice books on every surface. Vanilla explains that for her, reading is an escape into another world. When things get tough, books provide a place where we can retreat away from our current problems, if only for a minute, and enter into a world of possibility, where we can be whoever we want to be and go wherever we want to go. We can learn new skills and see the world through another’s eyes. We often take for granted just how powerful reading can be, but Vanilla doesn’t. Vanilla reads whatever she can find. Unable to go out and buy books she really wants to read Vanilla picks up any and every book she comes across and reads it hungrily just for those few hours. As we sit together, Vanilla explains how the members of the house long for stolen moments of escape. We at Alight know that creativity is a beacon of hope just … [Read more...] about Unleashing Creativity
Closing the Gap
Unable to hide from the discrimination, violence and abuse which has followed them from their home countries to Kenya, Refugee Trans Initiative (RTI) is a safe haven for 15 trans asylum seekers from across East Africa and the Great Lakes Region. When we visited their safe house just outside the urban sprawl in August, Vanilla, their Executive Director, greeted us with a hug as she ushered us through the gates and into the house. “This is a place where we can just be ourselves – we can dress how we want, act how we want, and we know that we are safe inside the house,” she explains. “It’s not just a place where trans people can stay, but we also have held a few parties and events here – we want to start training programs for other LGBTQI refugees soon.” RTI’s safe house was nearly perfect. The price was affordable, and it was surrounded by a high security gate and tall bushes which ensured near total privacy from the ever-too-real dangers of the outside world. The only problem … [Read more...] about Closing the Gap
Reigniting Hope, Finding Solidarity
Life can be tough for LGBTQI refugees living in Kenya. With abuse and violence from family members and the surrounding community being their primary reason for flight, most LGBTQI refugees find themselves alone in Nairobi facing renewed discrimination, abuse, and violence. On top of this, fear and negative attitudes towards them result in many support programs being inaccessible to the community, compounding feelings of isolation, and for some, bringing their mental health to breaking point. While changing attitudes towards LGBTQIs among service providers is an endeavor that Alight is embarking on to ensure all are included in humanitarian programs, training sessions are costly and time consuming. During our visit we heard stories of suffering in the community and the desperate need for quick and accessible mental health support. so we kept thinking - there must be something that we can do now. We were desperate to find some quick relief for the suffering that we were … [Read more...] about Reigniting Hope, Finding Solidarity
Have Faith
Faith plays a central role in all our lives – whether it's faith in religion, a higher energy, or having faith in the people around us, there is something that gives us hope that hardships are transitory and that good times will be coming around again. This is no different for LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees in Kenya - during our visit in August, we kept hearing how their religion was one thing which assured them that they will be okay. Like in any other community, faith leaders are key figures of comfort and compassion, providing support and advice to community members who often are unable to access traditional Kenyan religious spaces. We spoke to Jacob, a Ugandan pastor living in Nairobi, who discussed his role and mentioned how the community used to organize interfaith prayer sessions to provide support and solace for those struggling with displacement. These sessions stopped around a year ago due to a lack of funding, and the community were desperate to find a way to … [Read more...] about Have Faith
Focus on Training
Finding support is tricky for all humanitarians who are passionate about getting their dream off the ground, especially for those just starting out. This is particularly true for the eight community-led organizations that we’ve been working with in Nairobi. Through numerous conversations we’ve had about their needs, one topic keeps coming up – the need for training. While community leaders have tried to access private training programs on fundraising, they have proved too expensive, leaving them struggling against well-trained competition. We at Alight have seen this injustice too many times. Refugee-led organizations are often excluded from funding simply because, unlike us, they haven’t had the privilege to be carefully trained on the intricacies of grant proposal writing. We see capacity building as our obligation, employing our own privilege to equip our customers with the skills and tools that they need to take full charge of their destinies, working for autonomy and agency … [Read more...] about Focus on Training