NahWeYone

Our regular therapeutic outings have played an important role in the lives of many of our clients.  The primary purpose of these therapeutic outings is to reduce the isolation and distress that many of our clients have reported experiencing.  Once a month, NWY organizes and provides the funds for our clients to meet people within the community over meals in a relaxed family style setting.   To share the different parts of New York with our clients, we have held these brunches in every borough of New York City. Over 20 people attend each time. 

Our last Brunch was at Jamah Restaurant in the Bronx on June 7, 2007.  Our next Brunch is scheduled after the summer.  Dates will be announced via e-mail and posted to this Website.

Detention Services.  NWY volunteers, under the leadership of Detention Coordinator, John Wilkinson, make regular visits to asylum seekers who have been detained in Immigration and Naturalization Services Detention Center  in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  Along with the moral support  these visits provide for detainees, NWY offers resources to the detainees in the form of phone cards, magazines, and stationery and maintains regular correspondence with the detainees.  We assist asylees in finding pro bono legal representation, professionals to provide legal testimonies (e.g. psychologists) and language interpreters to assist in asylum hearings.    In January 2005, NWY held its first forum on the topic of asylum seekers in the U.S.  Three former detainees, now clients of NWY, volunteered to present their stories along with other panel members.

Women’s Wellness Group.  As our clients are reunited with their families we have seen the need to reach out to the women.  While the men are working and acculturating to the new environment, we find the women are often at home, isolated and hampered by language difficulties.  Many of the women have children and do not know the New York school system and other systems well enough to provide the kind of support they need as parents.  Marital and other family problems abound in reunited families and women often do not have a place to address these issues.  To respond to these needs we started a Women’s Wellness Group in 2004.  The group met bi-weekly for the duration of the grant from Open Meadows Foundation but has continued monthly with volunteer leadership and little funding.  The group alternates between workshop sessions on various topics and outings with the children.  The children are entertained by volunteers while mothers attend the group.  The women have bonded, so much so that when one member had her first baby, another took her into her home to assist her.  We have applied for additional funding for continued support of this program.