A Bright Future Ahead
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2012 ANNUAL A BRIGHT REPORT FUTURE AHEAD 1 00588.indd 1 12/5/13 1:51 PM OUR MISSION African Services is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and self-sufficiency of the African community. We provide health, housing, legal, educational, and social services to over 10,000 newcomers each year in New York City with a focus on HIV prevention, care and support. We also work on the frontlines of the global AIDS epidemic; operating five clinics in Ethiopia and through advocacy and policy work in the U.S. and abroad. ON THE COVER AYOMIDE, CRYSTAL, AND LOLA “Because of DACA and the ASC attorneys, the doors are open and I will succeed” – Seydou, DACA Applicant Cover Photography by Stephanie Kaplan Cover and Report Design by Mackenzie Crone 00588.indd 2 12/5/13 1:51 PM OUR DEAR MISSION FRIENDS, Closing out the year by attending the African Services holiday party has become a ritual event for me – and a vivid reminder of the vibrant cloth that our city is cut from. And in one night, I am able to see, feel and talk to the incredible community that ASC has fostered in its three decades. I meet clients who have triumphed over incredible challenges and the ASC staff that helped secure those triumphs. I see old friends who come year after year to support the work that ASC does in providing crucial services to over 10,000 people in our city. I steal moments with the co-executive director, Kim Nichols, who has been instrumental in making ASC a go-to place for families affected by HIV while also being on the frontlines of international policy advocacy on behalf of our client base. And without fail, that night reconfirms how proud I am to serve on the board of the dynamic and grounded organization that ASC is today. The United States has recently seen a shift in the dialogue on immigration, with voices from both sides of the aisle clamoring for reform. ASC has been entrenched in the conversation not only on a policy level, but in providing direct legal services to thousands of immigrants and their families. You will learn as you read this Report about several outstanding young men and women, including Crystal, Ayomide and Lola, who were brought here as children and were forced to live in the shadows without legal status. The African Services legal team stepped in to offer free legal services when President Obama instituted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The attorneys were instrumental to these young people’s ability to gain the temporary status and step out from the shadows to pursue their futures. The ASC legal department is expanding its immigration practice, of which these cases are just a few examples of the life-changing victories ASC is able to obtain on behalf of its clients. I also wanted to highlight another example of ASC’s unique ability to respond to the specific needs of its client base. Seeing that many of its clients have been susceptible to deceptive and ineffective legal practices, ASC developed a nominal and sliding scale legal services clinic. This clinic reaches those who are willing and able to pay for quality legal services, but who are otherwise unable to find it. ASC now has staff that is able to take these cases with the dual benefit of generating income for the organization. From the breadth of services provided both in New York and Ethiopia, to the people that come through its doors to provide and receive these services, to the true compassion and leadership that ASC has shown over the past three decades, I hope the content of this Annual Report spurs your own pride in this dynamic organization. And I look forward to seeing you at this year’s ASC holiday party. All the best, NADYA SALCEDO | Secretary, Board Member 1 00588.indd 1 12/5/13 1:51 PM 2012 NYAF / GIRLS TESTING CENTER / EMPOWERMENT RESEARCH GRANTS CAMP & RELATIONSHIPS Teenage girls today face a tremendous amount of For over thirty years, African Services Committee pressure. Add in the difficulties that come with being has been serving the African immigrant population, an immigrant, and that can make the obstacles which puts the agency at a distinct advantage when seem insurmountable. African Services Committee outside organizations and institutions seek to reach recognized this issue, and has been working to help this target audience. Because of our unique position young immigrant girls cope. In April 2012, the New in the community, we have been able to partner with York City AIDS Fund provided a generous grant that many organizations to conduct demographic and made it possible to organize a girls’ empowerment health research and other studies within the African camp and support group. Working with Theater of the community. Oppressed, and staff in our case management program, ASC designed a program that gave the girls a platform For example, the United States Department of Defense to express themselves and have an open discussion and Genocea Biosciences have been conducting a about the unique obstacles they face as immigrant study in order to develop a vaccine for malaria, and teens in American schools. The girls of the camp African Services has contributed to the fight against have named themselves the NYC D.I.V.A.S (Daring, malaria by partnering with them in the search for new Independent, Vivacious, Amazing, and Sophisticated). malaria antigens. Although malaria is preventable and They have participated in the production of print curable, more than half a million people die of this material that discusses HIV prevention, reproductive debilitating disease each year – over 95% of them in health, and myths about sexuality, and they are sharing Sub-Saharan Africa. A malaria vaccine, the ultimate form the pamphlet with their friends in an effort to spread of prevention, would be revolutionary for the health of awareness and address misconceptions. people in Africa and all over the world. MAY 1981 NOV 1982 JULY 1987 MARCH DEC 1994 Asfasha Hadera We open our Our refugee 1991 Our name founds the first office at resettlement We launch our changes to Committee to the Community program begins HIV African Services Aid Ethiopian Church of New in NYC prevention Committee Refugees York outreach program for African 2 immigrants 00588.indd 2 12/5/13 1:51 PM HIGHLIGHTS 1 CASE MANAGEMENT – MENTAL HEALTH ETHIOPIA SUPPORT WORK Despite budget constraints, in collaboration with Castel Immigrants often face a unique set of challenges that Wineries and BGI Ethiopia, we were able to open a fifth can take an emotional toll. Whether facing poverty, be clinic in Hawassa Ethiopia. So far, 6,000 people have it in a home country or in the United States, an HIV been served at this clinic, over 2,000 have been tested diagnosis, prejudice, or a traumatic event, it can be a for HIV, and 42 are enrolled in the Positive Kids program retreat to talk to a professional about one’s problems. for children living with HIV. African Services has also Although the need is there, barriers related to language, partnered with other organizations to enhance services stigma, or finances often keep immigrants from that this clinic provides. Among our partners are Save developing countries from receiving the mental health the Children, who has supplied all of our clinics with care that they need. Plumpy’Nut, a ready-to-use packaged therapeutic food that supplements children at risk of malnutrition. We For this reason, African Services has begun offering continue our successful partnerships with Vitamin mental health services in French and English by Angels to supply vital multivitamins/minerals to children teaming up with licensed psychotherapist Natalie and pregnant and lactating mothers, and TOMS Shoes Weeks, who receives referrals from the legal and continues to donate 17,000 pairs of new childrens‘ and case management departments. Dozens of people adolescents’ shoes each year as part of our community have sought counseling, and the reception has been health intervention. incredibly positive. Now, African Services can help people to take care of their bodies and their minds. MARCH JULY 1998 JUNE 1999 APRIL JUNE 2001 1998 The UN Our HIV Housing 2000 We play a key We begin Economic and Progam begins African Services role in the first HIV legal Social Council moves to Harlem UN General services & case approves African Assembly Special management for Services special Session on AIDS immigrants and consultative their families status to the 3 United Nations 00588.indd 3 12/6/13 1:34 PM APRIL JAN 2003 JULY 2003 MARCH SEPT 2005 2002 African Services African Services 2005 African Services African Services becomes the Ethiopia is Our second clinic Ethiopia marks joins the NGO North American established, in Ethiopia opens, an important communities representative launching our a public-private milestone delegation to to the UNAIDS first testing partnership to – 25,000 HIV the board of the Coordinating center in Addis serve employees tests provided Global Fund to Board Ababa of BGI and Fight AIDS, TB greater Amhara and Malaria Region CRYSTAL >> Country: Jamaica Current Age: 22 Arrival Age: 7 IMMIGRATION CHAMPIONING THE NEXT GENERATION OF NEW AMERICANS ndocumented Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas remarked “[e]very social movement in the world is led by young people, and . [the youth] are the beating heart of this growing immigrant rights movement. Like generations of immigrants before them, they have insisted Uon a better life not just for themselves and their families but for the country they love.” It is largely because of the undocumented youths’ relentless, tireless activism and unyielding demand for change that a comprehensive, rights-based immigration reform policy has taken flight.