Founder & Executive Director
AsylumWorks
A Mother’s Day “Gift of Goodness” that Supports Asylum-Seeking Moms
For an entire year, COVID-19 has disrupted work and home life and moms have been stretched so thin – acting as caregivers, teachers, and earners, often all at the same time.
Asylum-seeking moms have been particularly impacted. After overcoming tremendous obstacles to be reunited with their children or to bring their families to safety, these women are now forced to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic without the support network of extended family or friends. With the rise of xenophobia and the slumping of the U.S. economy, many asylum-seeking mothers and families have been forced into isolation and destitution – ineligible to receive government assistance while they wait for the backlog of asylum claims to be processed.
As many of us know, when asylum seekers are unable to meet their basic needs, they often struggle to retain or work with legal representation. It can be hard to focus on writing a personal statement or gathering evidence when you don’t know where your next paycheck will come from or how you will put food on the table for your children.
That is where nonprofit organizations, like AsylumWorks, come in. Founded in 2016 by a frustrated social worker who saw underlying gaps in assistance for asylum seekers, AsylumWorks provides asylum seekers and their families with holistic services and support to complement the work of legal representation. In 2020 alone, AsylumWorks served over 370 asylum seekers – providing trauma-informed social services, employment assistance, and community building to help asylum seekers rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose. Because they work to connect asylum seekers to a network of support, their clients are dramatically more likely to win their asylum cases.
This year, AsylumWorks wants to celebrate and support mothers and caregivers in the asylum-seeking community who have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. That’s why they’ve recently launched a Mother’s Day Campaign in collaboration with Immigrant Food (a cause-casual restaurant in DC). Their “gifts of goodness” can be purchased and sent to a mother in your life or donated to one of the hundreds of asylum-seeking moms they work with.
Funds raised will go directly to supporting holistic, trauma-informed programs for asylum-seekers like Berhanu, a 38-year-old Ethiopian mother and political activist. After being beaten within inches of her life, a pregnant Berhanu fled her country to seek asylum in the United States. Upon arrival, she found herself alone with a newborn son, struggling to navigate a new country, a global pandemic, and a complicated legal system. Working together, AsylumWorks brought Berhanu into their employment program to re-enter the workforce, connected her with a doctor to treat her son’s medical condition, and referred her to a private immigration firm that agreed to give her a generous client discount. Berhanu and her son are now stable and live in Virginia. Despite COVID-19, they continue to attend AsylumWorks’s virtual community-building events to meet new friends as they await their pending cases.
Berahu is one of the hundreds of thousands of asylum-seeking mothers who deserve to feel seen and appreciated this Mother’s Day. If you are moved by the work of AsylumWorks, consider purchasing one of these unique gifts of goodness. Pre-orders are available throughout the month of April. For more information, or to purchase a gift of goodness, please visit https: //www.mothersday.asylumworks.org/
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Great organization; great cause!
And, speaking of “women who move us forward and inspire us,” Joan Hodges Wu and her friend and colleague Professor Lindsay Muir Harris of UDC are certainly two of the most notable in that category! Thanks for all you do, my friends!
UDC Law
Due Process Forever!🇺🇸⚖️🗽
PWS
04-14-21