Grateful.
That’s the way Jai Subedi describes his feeling towards the Center for New Americans.
“They give our future,” Subedi said. “They did everything, whatever we need at the beginning because our English wasn’t enough to communicate with everybody.”
Subedi is originally from Bhutan but spent 18 years in a refugee camp in Nepal. He is among the hundreds of refugees that the Center for New Americans has helped to settle in Central New York since it was founded in 2005.
The Center is a program of Interfaith Works of Central New York, a non-profit group that educates communities about different faiths. In Syracuse, the Center is sponsored by the Interreligious Council of Central New York. It is funded by federal grants and by donations from local churches. It is located at 503 Prospect Ave. in Syracuse.
Among the Center’s services, according to its website, are English classes for adults and children; help getting medical care and finding a job; and guidance in understanding American culture.
The Center for New Americans also works closely with the local government to deal with issues that affect refugees, like housing and law enforcement.
In Syracuse, for example, the Center has worked with police and community groups to lessen tensions and potential violence against immigrants in a stressed economy.
Violence is more a result of economic problems in the community than it is of intolerance, said Helen Molina, Center for New Americans program director. “People are scared, people are hungry, people are out of work, and there is a lot of tension,” Molina said. “I don’t think that refugees are a particularly worrisome target.”
The Center works closely with the Community Wide Dialogue program to foster conversation and understanding between refugees and local residents, Molina said.
For his part, Nepalese refugee Subedi now volunteers at the Center to help other refugees. He arrived in New York on Nov. 14, 2008. He stayed in Syracuse because some of his family was already living here, including a 90-year-old grandmother.
When he left Nepal, he said, he wanted to come to the United States. “I choose United States because I heard that the United States is the land of opportunity,” Subedi said. “I thought that I can do something. I can grow myself.”
(Bianca Graulau is a junior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism and political science.)
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