Immigrant Solidarity Team

The Immigrant Solidarity Team is concerned with helping immigrants and refugees to adjust to life in the United States. We work with local organizations to achieve this goal, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and RefugeeOne. We also engage in legislative advocacy and learning opportunities for the congregation. The IST welcomes all who are interested in working to build a better world for immigrants in the United States. We meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month at 4:00pm. At present we are meeting on ZOOM. Contact Maggie Wilson or Michelle Novak through REALM or at admin@ucevanston.org.

The Immigrant Solidarity Team (IST) works to establish and nurture long-term partnerships with local immigrant communities and organizations. UCE seeks to:

Provide appropriate resources for their unmet needs,
Be a useful connector among organizations, and
Educate and mobilize UCE members about immigration related events, projects and actions.

The IST has recently expanded its work to include the support of refugees as well. Here are some of our most recent projects:

In the summer of 2021 the IST encouraged UCE members to donate backpacks and gym shoes for refugee children by partnering with Refugee One.
In the fall of 2021 we sponsored a film viewing and discussion of La Bestia, a film about the dangers refugees face trying to travel from southern Mexico to the US border.
In the fall of 2021 and winter of 2022 our refugee team has raised over $10,000 to help a Syrian refugee family pay their rent. Some of the rent money was funded from the UCE Endowment.
In the winter of 2022 we have also begun to help out a family from Afghanistan as well.
Prior to the pandemic, members assisted with voter registration after citizenship swearing-in ceremonies in Chicago

Updates from Immigrant Solidarity Team

Update – Syrian Refugee Family: September 24, 2021

Thank you UCE! We have raised $4,845 so far of our $5000 goal.

Over the past month we’ve told you about the Syrian refugee family—the Bakirs, who we are trying to help. They arrived in the U.S. in early September and are living in Skokie. The kids are very excited to start school in October. The family includes: Ghufran Bakir and her three children Ryaan, 13; Hatty, 12; and Talib, 8. Ghufran was widowed in the war. They have spent the last eight years in a refugee camp/temporary housing in Turkey. They are delighted to be reunited with their relatives from the Haj Khalaf family (a refugee family that UCE sponsored in 2016).

The Immigrant Solidarity Team asks you to contribute to our fund for the family’s rent and school clothes. We want to pay their rent for 3 months ($1300/month) and we are buying some school clothes now.

To donate to the refugee family:

Send a check made out to UCE to the church and write Refugee Family Fund in the memo line.
You can (donate here). Follow the directions and put the amount in the Refugee Family Fund box.
Contact Jeanne Kerl (figkerl@gmail.com) if you are having any trouble donating.

If you are interested in volunteering to help the family, please contact Jane Kenamore (jk enamore@ameritech.net) or Jeanne Kerl (figkerl@gmail.com). In the past volunteers helped the refugee family by providing rides to appointments, tutoring family members, or helping in other ways. We will keep you updated about their needs.

Thank you in advance for your generosity. May it bring joy to you.

September 23rd, 2021|Categories: Immigrant Solidarity|

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