AMIS Cultural Connections 5.0 Fundraiser

About The Event

Experience a night of cultural exchange through food, music, and community. Savor culinary traditions from diverse regions at global food stations. Enjoy music and food showcasing the rich cultures of AMIS families. And most importantly, connect with one another in a spirit of community and fellowship.

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AMIS is the only local nonprofit with an emphasis on assisting asylum seekers. Because asylum seekers have a long wait between when they apply for asylum and can legally work, we provide assistance with housing/rent, moving expenses, utilities, food, clothing, medical expenses, furniture, household supplies, mental health counseling, legal representation and more.

To which of the Matthew 25 goals does AMIS align and how?

• Dismantling Structural Racism
• Eradicating Systemic Poverty

The work of welcoming and supporting immigrant newcomers to NE Ohio clearly addresses both Matthew 25 goals, but if we must select just one goal, then we choose “Dismantling Structural Racism.” As the immigration crisis has worsened and become more dangerous in our country, it has become abundantly clear that those most at risk are immigrant newcomers from countries with the darkest skin colors. Prior protections put in place to provide asylum relief to newcomers from conflict torn regions like the Congo and Haiti, even if only temporarily, now find that their protective status has evaporated with the stroke of a pen. Other innocent but unwelcome Black and Brown newcomers from Mexico, Central and South America are being summarily labeled as “gang members” and deported en masse without benefit of due process. Meanwhile, White Afrikaners from South Africa based on their false allegations of oppression and white victimhood at the hands of their Black countrymen are being welcomed with open arms. Those who understand racism know that it is based on a lie—the superiority of one race over another—and must be maintained by an avalanche of supporting lies. Structurally, the staff and policy infrastructure of the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (US-CRI) is being revamped to serve white Afrikaners as the federal agency turns its back on high need dark-skinned populations.

Of course, the connection between structural racism and systemic poverty is well documented and clearly understood by AMIS. For example, one needs only to consider the cynical design of our country’s asylum process which holds that an asylum seeker cannot even apply for a work permit and social security card until six months has elapsed between when an asylum request is submitted and when they can legally pursue a work permit, to recognize this interplay. For a newcomer to attempt to house, feed and care for their family over the 6-month limbo period in their new land assures that they must violate the law and accept “under the table” labor opportunities at the risk of providing a future basis for deportation.

Few secular organizations fulfill Matthew 25:35’s directive’s more concretely than AMIS does: “For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.” While food and drink are critical, we also understand that Jesus’s directives extended far further, emphasizing that acts of compassion toward the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned are ultimately acts of compassion toward him. AMIS’s founding, in fact, can be traced to a successful effort to free a wrongly held asylum-seeker from the Geauga County Jail, someone both imprisoned and a stranger. AMIS volunteers help with activities that often do not require funds, but do require time and assistance such as finding safe, affordable housing; furniture and household goods; and needed clothing. They register children for school, take families to food pantries or ethnic shops, help them register for free/low-cost medical/dental care, transport them to medical appointments and school, and build supportive relationships. Our goal in providing direct assistance for basic needs and volunteers support is to help move immigrants on the pathway from survival to stability to independence and self-sufficiency. AMIS is the only local nonprofit with an emphasis on assisting asylum seekers. Because asylum seekers have such a long wait between when they apply for asylum and can legally seek employment (i.e., six months), we assist with housing/rent, moving expenses, utilities, food, clothing, medical expenses, furniture, household supplies, mental health counseling, legal representation and more.