Item Photo By OWEN O’ROURKE
Khara Pokhrel, right, teaches English to students at the New American Center in Lynn. Here he is teaching Fatna Mahamod, Liberata Mahangaiko and Ahara Rezai.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN — Refugees are able to finally find a home with the New American Center, an organization dedicated to assisting newly arrived refugees transition into a self-sufficient lifestyle in the United States.
The New American Center (NAC), located at 20 Wheeler St. on the fourth floor of the JB Blood Building, was created in 2002 by the Mutual Assistance Association Coalition in order to meet the needs of the growing number of increasingly diverse newcomers resettling in Lynn, according to a company brochure.
The NAC is an umbrella name for a community-based organization, according to Natasha Soolkin, director of the New American Center. NAC agencies include the Bosnian Community Center for Resource Development, Congolese Development Center, Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center, Russian Community Association of Massachusetts, Southern Sudanese Solidarity Organization and International Institute of Boston.
Soolkin said the NAC was created based on an idea by its founder, the Office for Refugees and Immigrants, a state department. She said that office also provides the funding for NAC.
“They understand the needs and demands of our population and do the same kind of job,” Soolkin said of the state office.
Soolkin said the NAC helps about 350 to 400 people annually, which includes those who come from previous years and new clients. She said the number of new people helped annually is 100 to 150 immigrants. She said the NAC works with clients for five years after they come to the country.
Lynn Economic Development and Industrial Corporation Director James Cowdell said the NAC is a good tenant.
“They’ve been with us for several years,” Cowdell said. “They’re a good tenant. They provide a lot of jobs and a lot of services to people in the city.”
Soolkin said some of those social services provided by the NAC include help with a job search, English classes for those who don’t know the language, social support, how to utilize resources and how to better communicate.
According to a company brochure, services include adult ESL classes, employment assistance, cultural orientations, health workshops, case management, green card applications, citizenship program, an after-school youth program and a summer youth and children program. There is also interpretation provided for certain languages such as Arabic, Denka, Nepali, Karen, Burmese, Somali, French, Swahili, Tigrinya, Bosnian, Croatian and Russian.
Mohammad Atiyah, 45, a Lynn resident and Iraqi refugee, said he’s been in the U.S. since February 2014. He was born in Iraq and had to leave the country for Jordan in 2000, where he remained until 2014. In Jordan, he met his wife, with whom he has four children. The family came over to the U.S. together and his children attend Lynn Public Schools.
Atiyah said he was able to find a job through the NAC. His first job he found was with Mystic Cleaners & Tailors, a business in Somerville. He has been with his current job, Men’s Wearhouse, in Peabody, for almost nine months. He said he is involved with different aspects of the business including cleaning, cutting and making clothing. He hopes to open a similar business in the future.
Atiyah said he struggled with the language and culture when he first came to America. When he first came over, he said his language was so bad and he could not understand anything before he came to the NAC. He was able to learn through ESL classes.
“Without the New American Center, I would not have learned the language,” Atiyah said.
Khara Pokhrel, 44, Lynn resident and Bhutanese refugee, said he was kicked out of Bhutan because of ethnic cleansing. He was living in Nepal for 18 years, arriving there in 1992, but was not given residency. He said the UNHCR helped he and his family — a wife and two children — come to the U.S., where he arrived in 2011.
Pokhrel said he already knew English before coming to the U.S. and works as a literacy teacher with the NAC. His full-time job is as a maintainer at Salem State University. He said he dreams of going further with his studies, as he needs to go to college for a year to complete his bachelor’s degree.
Although he knew the language, Pokhrel said he had to learn about American culture. He had a tough time going shopping. He said the NAC helped with culture and finding a job. He came to the country with a lot of anxiety and the NAC helped him settle in.
“Now I can easily survive in America,” Pokhrel said.
Ramy Mahdi, 29, Lynn resident and Syrian refugee, said he came to the U.S. in April 2015. Before coming over, he was in Jordan for three years. He remembers being nervous about starting a new life. He came over alone, which he said was very difficult.
Mahdi said he already knew English, as he has a bachelor’s degree in English literature in Syria. He said the NAC helped him find a job and he works at Midtronics as a production associate. He said the NAC was also supportive when he couldn’t work right away due to his Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Mahdi said his parents are in the midst of interviews to join him in the U.S. but with the political tension surrounding Syrian refugees, he is unsure if they will be able to.
“Reading the news made me sad because they blame the victims — the Syrian people,” Mahdi said. “I feel like maybe they [my parents] won’t be able to come with all that is happening.”
Although Soolkin said the process is much more complicated and lengthy, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) grants certain people refugee status and decides where they go. Other countries that accept refugees include Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. If the U.S. is granted refugee status, she said a determination is made about what state is chosen. If Massachusetts is chosen, refugees are connected with voluntary agencies (volags), who resettle refugees to make a decision on where in the state they’ll go.
Soolkin said there are certain trends with where refugees come from. She said refugees come from parts of the world where the most violence is. Often, she said refugees have gone through traumatic experiences and “do have this luggage of hardships.”
“Most understand they come here for safety,” Soolkin said. “That’s what they get and expect.”
Recently over the last quarter of the fiscal year, Soolkin said she has seen most of the refugees at the NAC come from Afghanistan, Somalia, Conga and Eritrea. Before that, she said it was mostly Iraq. She said the trends are more about the demographics.
“We don’t see as many families anymore,” Soolkin said.
Soolkin said more refugees are single adults for practical reasons. She said it is more difficult for families to make it in the state and on the North Shore, particularly with housing costs. She added that it’s easier to survive when a person is independent, but she misses seeing the families and witnessing the children grow up.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected].