African Services Committee Update
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Dear friend of ASC,
African Services Committee is at the frontlines of health and human rights justice in providing screening and access to treatment for some of the most devastating diseases, and for rising to battle legal immigration challenges, affecting generations of immigrants who’ve entered our country.
Now more than ever, ASC needs your support to meet the demand for services to immigrants struggling to find their way in the U.S.
Warm regards,
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Kim Nichols
Co-Executive Director
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Protecting the Rights of Asylum Seekers
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ASC /ICLC Attorneys Assist Detainees at Remote ICE Detention Facility
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As the current administration continues its assault on immigrants, detention centers are over capacity and asylum seekers are being sent to remote detention centers around the U.S. Places where there are no attorneys who can help them. They have no rights and they are treated as less than human. ASC and ICLC attorneys recently went the extra mile, literally, by traveling to provide pro bono legal counsel to help asylum seekers.
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Sophia (pictured above from left), Associate at Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners PLLC (and 2016 ASC legal intern), African Services Committee Staff attorney Deirdre, ASC
Immigrant Community Law Center (ICLC
)
attorney Jessica, and ASC’s indispensable multilingual volunteer Lucia, volunteered for a week with the
Southern Poverty Law Center
's Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative where they assisted individuals held at the Folkston, Georgia ICE Processing Center, which is a civil detention facility that houses 1,200 detainees. The detainees are mostly Central American and were apprehended at the southern border when fleeing to the promises of safety, security, and peace in the United States.
Click
here
to read the full story about their experience.
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ASC Attorney Volunteers at Mexico/U.S. Border to Counsel to Asylum Seekers
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ASC Spotlight: Housing and Case Management Programs
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ASC's Housing Placement Assistance Team
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“We really could not go home and just leave them.” African Services Housing Placement Assistance program team from left — ASC’s HOPWA Housing Director, Aida, Housing Placement Assistants Mariama and Nataliah — provides a critical foundation to health, delivering services to clients affected by HIV/AIDS — clients who often face discrimination and rejection from family, friends and roommates, and loss of income before starting treatment because they are too sick to work.
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Finding stable housing is a demonstrated first step to commitment to treatment and improved health. It takes rapport with landlords and brokers, an ability to creatively multitask in the face of emergencies, and experience to convince a landlord in the competitive NYC housing market to rent to a person affected by HIV/ AIDS, who cannot demonstrate how much he or she earns because they lack documentation and a credit score, according to Aida — who has been helping newcomers find homes in New York City for more than 15 years. “This is not your typical nine-to-five,” she says.
Click
here
to learn more about ASC's Housing Program.
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ASC Case Management: Advocacy on an Individual Level
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“When people come to us, we don't say client. We say brothers, sisters. They feel at home” - African Services Case Manager and Policy Advocate
Bakary Tandia
. African Services Committee’s Case Management Department’s multilingual, licensed social workers are the heart of ASC’s care services — providing caring, intensive case-management support to thousands of newcomers affected by HIV — immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and their families — since the program was launched in 1994. ASC’s Case Managers provide compassionate support to maximize the health outcomes of clients and their families navigating the social service system in New York City.
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The team guides clients to care, provides interpretation, hospital navigation, HIV/AIDS treatment education and adherence support as needed, and assists in applications for ADAP and Medicaid. Navigators, case managers, and health educators also collaborate as a team to help each client self manage their health. Clients are also frequently referred to ASC’s support groups, along with ASC’s Legal and Housing Programs, Food Pantry, Nutrition Program and English as a Second Language classes.
Click
here
to learn more about ASC's Case Management Program.
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ASC's dedicated staff will continue to fight for our clients. We need you to join the fight, too, by
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ASC's clients in Ethiopia represent the most marginalized segments of the community, who find it difficult to get medical and social support, particularly integrated support, from larger institutions. ASC Ethiopia has not received expected support this year from international donors while the health status of large segments of the Ethiopian population remains poor. The population suffers from a huge burden of potentially preventable diseases such as HIV, TB, viral hepatitis; and over 40 percent of the population are living on less one dollar per day. Take a look at these videos spotlighting African Services Committee's Health and Community Development Centers in
Mek’ele
and
Ziwey
as well as ASC Ethiopia client Alemitu (left)
.
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ASC Ethiopia
provides a true community-based response to community need, and
support
is needed now more than ever to keep our Ethiopia clinics open.
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A look at African Services Committee's Health and Community Development Center in Mek’ele, Ethiopia.
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African Services Committee's Health and Community Development Center in Ziway, Ethiopia.
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Health Screening Event in
Harlem
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ASC Testing Team Holds Health Screening at Senegalese Assoc.
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Thanks to the Senegalese Association of America for hosting an all-day health screening event for the Harlem community. ASC’s Testing Center team and partners (pictured right) provided free and confidential testing for hepatitis B and C, blood glucose, blood pressure, as well as info on ASC’s navigation to care and maternal infant health programs and more.
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Public Charge Ruling Looms
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ASC OpEd in TheBody.com
Drastic Impact of Proposed New 'Public Charge' Rule on HIV-Positive Immigrants
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New rules would force eligible immigrants to choose between vital lifesaving services or preserving their path to citizenship.
Click
here
to read the full ASC OpEd featured on TheBody.com.
Photo: ASC Advocacy Director Amanda Lugg.
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ASC bids a fond farewell to brilliant ASC Summer 2018 Legal interns Holly, Elizabeth, Alexis, and Chidi. Thank you for all your hard work!
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“The challenges that face immigrants are challenges that face all of us. We all want to find a home for ourselves and our families where we are part of a community.”
-Holly, ASC/ICLC intern.
Thank you CUNY Law for sharing Holly with us.
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“I want to be a lawyer because I believe it puts me in the best position to work with people to fight the injustices in their lives, and this is especially true in immigration law. Immigration law allows me to challenge those injustices alongside my clients to fight for the future they envision for their lives. Specifically, LGBT asylum cases combine several areas of injustice I'm passionate about - from dramatically different levels of safety for LGBT people in different areas of the world to the lack of competent and compassionate services for survivors of trauma to racism in the U.S. legal system.”
-Elizabeth, ICLC/ASC Intern
Thanks to NYU Law for sharing Elizabeth with us.
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“Working at
African Services Committee
/ICLC has taught me dedication. It has taught me that case law may change, that regulations are revised, but at the end of the day, the people bringing the cases and their stories do not. Despite all of the issues around immigration, the attorneys and staff at ASC work diligently and carefully to support their clients.”
-Alexis, ASC/ICLC Intern
Thanks to Cardozo Law School for sharing Alexis with us.
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ASC's Advocacy Director Amanda Lugg in Yahoo News illustrating the "life and death" impact of looming changes to Public Charge.
“It’s not whether you can get a
school lunch or not,” said Lugg. “The fear, the absolute real fear is coming from HIV positive
immigrants. Everything we fought for about overturning the HIV ban — this is a back
door to a reinstatement.”
Click
here
for the full story:
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