Hello BES and friends, I received the below email from our member Laura, who works with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services. Their sister organization Human Rights First has come in contact with an asylum seeker from the Ivory Coast who has become homeless after several unfortunate circumstances that beset him in the U.S. Details below.
If you know anyplace we could refer him to for temporary housing, or would like to offer to have him as a guest in your home, *please reply to katherine.lacl...@gmail.com and ally...@humanrightsfirst.org, ASAP*. * * Please pass on as well to anyone that might know of resources to help. In Gratitude and Fellowship, Kate LaClair *From:* Vanessa Allyn [mailto:ally...@humanrightsfirst.org<ally...@humanrightsfirst.org> ] *Sent:* Tuesday, April 02, 2013 11:42 AM *To:* Vanessa Allyn *Subject:* Need help for homeless asylum seeker**** ** Dear All, ** ** I know this is a somewhat inappropriate request for some of the lists I’m sending this to, but we have a potential client in need of help. We just met him today for an emergency meeting (he showed up at the asylum office without an interpreter so they cancelled his interview and asked us to help him). In the course of this meeting, we found out that he has been sleeping under a bridge outside of Baltimore and hasn’t had regular access to food. Before we can even begin to help him with his immigration case, we need to try and stabilize his living situation. ** ** A short bio on him: he is a 32 year old male from Ivory Coast. He is Catholic, a French speaker, but has some minimal English. He is quiet, well-mannered, and from what we have been able to learn thus far, he lost most of his family to the ongoing violence in his country. He does not have any family in the US. He arrived here in September 2012 and unscrupulous people took the last of his money ($1500) to “help” him file for asylum. They have since disappeared. ** ** If there is anyone out there who might have ideas on where we might be able to place him for temporary housing, we would really appreciate hearing from you. Please email me directly if you can. ** For tonight, we are hoping to place him at the Gospel Rescue Ministries. ** ** ** Many Thanks,**** Vanessa**** ** ** *Vanessa Allyn* *Managing Attorney, Refugee Protection Program **Human Rights First *American ideals. Universal values.**** Tel: 202.370.3303 | Fax: 202.543.5999 | *all...@humanrightsfirst.org* humanrightsfirst.org <http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/> | Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/humanrightsfirst> | @HumanRights1st <https://twitter.com/humanrights1st> | *@HR1stRefugees ***** *We moved! * *As of January 1, 2013, our D.C. office is located at: 805 15th Street, NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20005* ** ** -- Katherine LaClair PhD Candidate, Cellular and Molecular Medicine Phil Wong's Laboratory, JHMI
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