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IIB in the News!
If you are a journalist working on a story, and would like information on the Institute's work, we invite you to contact us at 617-695-9990 x107, or
beacon@iiboston.org.
First Iraqi War Refugees Heading for NH This Week
by Michael Cousineau, New Hampshire UnionLeader, January 27, 2008
Article begins:
Eight Iraqi refugees, including two physicians, will fly from Turkey to New Hampshire this week to rebuild their lives nearly 6,000 miles from their war-battered homeland.
They will receive medical check-ups, tuberculosis tests, English training and food stamps to help get them started in their new world. In return, they are expected to get a job within 4 1/2 months and eventually pay back their airfare to America.
They are part of the first wave of Iraqi refugees fleeing the war to land in New Hampshire.
Iraqis Adjust to Life in N.H.
Refugees Face Challenges, Uncertainty in New Home
by Maria Sacchetti, Boston Globe, January 22, 2008
Article begins:
MANCHESTER, N.H. - It has been two months since the new refugees from Iraq arrived in this former mill city - alone, relieved, and too dazed to even register the snow piled high on the streets.
Only their nightmares are familiar: the thunder of bombing outside their little yellow house in Baghdad, the shattering of windows, and the echo of their children's screams. The family is grateful to be safely out of Iraq, but they are anxious in their new home, unsure whether to even call on their neighbors, anxious over how those neighbors might greet them.
"I am afraid that they will close the door in my face," said Almas Zaya, 33, a warm woman with a wide smile, who arrived with her husband, Yousif Toma, 36, and their two children, Andy, 12, and Linda, 9.
As the US military continues to battle insurgents in Iraq, the Toma family finds itself in a most unusual spot. They are among little more than 1,000 Iraqi refugee families who have trickled into the country that is occupying their native land, and, as such, they are left to not only adapt to a new culture but to worry about the increasing unpopularity of the war in the United States.
So far, they've been cloistered, rarely venturing out into the city on their own, and no anger has been directed at them. But uncertainty accompanies them wherever they go - uncertainty over their new land, the reception they'll get, whether they'll ever be embraced given the war back home.
Avon's Calling Immigrants: Company Teams Up With Aid Agency to Help Refugees, Expand Sales
by Robert Preer, Boston Globe, November 23, 2008
Article begins:
Wherever she goes, Isatu Peters is on the lookout for a sale.
more stories like thisThe 22-year-old native of Sierra Leone, who works as a housekeeper at the Marriott hotel in Cambridge and braids hair at a Lynn salon, keeps Avon catalogs with her to give to people she meets. The Lynn resident also hands out catalogs to neighbors, some of whom are from her West African homeland.
"I always dreamed of having my own business when I was in my country," said Peters, whose glowing skin and bright smile make her something of a walking advertisement for the beauty products she sells. "When I see Avon, I see this is a good chance for me."
Peters came to the United States four years ago, soon after Sierra Leone's long-running civil war ended. Today, she sells hundreds of dollars worth of products every two weeks as an "Avon lady," as she is called by those who remember the door-to-door cosmetics saleswomen of a half-century ago and the company's catchy "ding-dong, Avon calling" commercials.
She landed her all-American job with the help of the International Institute of Boston, an aid agency that helps immigrants settle in the United States. About a year ago, the institute and Avon Products Inc. decided to work together to prepare refugees to be Avon sales representatives. Today, about 15 of the institute's clients - from Afghanistan, the Congo, Haiti, Uganda, and other trouble spots around the world - have their own Avon businesses.
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