It�s a long way from Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, to Syracuse�s North Side. But the members of the fledgling Sudanese community have made that journey to establish them selves as a new force for community development. Tapping into a tradition as old as immigration to America, the Sudanese have organized a new mutual assistance association.

For three years, members and community leaders have worked tirelessly to help ease the transition to American life for Sudanese immigrants. Having fled an untenable situation in Southern Sudan, where 20 years of civil war and ethnic cleansing have cast the Dinka people adrift, over 300 new Americans are building a new life. When they come, they need work, housing, language classes, and orientation to a culture that is vastly different in every way, from their own ancient culture.

Petero Afet spends his days juggling the needs of his community, acting as social worker, accountant, and transportation coordinator, with his responsibilities as husband & father, factory worker, and college student.  Afet is the acting treasurer of the Sudanese Community Association of Central New York Inc. Until recently, Afet and fellow association officers conducted the organizations business out of their homes, using their own resources, and donated resources from other community organizations they have networked with.

Last November, Afet put on yet a new hat- that of program developer for the Association, in partnering with the IRC-CNY Refugee Resettlement Program, in a nationwide capacity building program sponsored by Episcopal Migration Ministries and the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. Last week, the IRC�s technical assistant to the four ethnic mutual assistance associations involved in the project, handed Afet a check, for $3,000 in startup money. This is the first of many grants the Sudanese Association will apply for, but it is unique in that it marks the Sudanese community�s entry into the formal not for profit community organizing arena. The Sudanese Association is the first of four communities to complete the application process.

No longer a home based organization on a shoe string, the Association has cut a deal with the Franciscans of Assumption Church to rent the second floor of the Assisi Center at North Salina and Catawba, for their home base. The grant will pay for the first year�s rent and educational supplies, as the association builds an ambitious programming agenda. The long narrow meeting hall with polished pinewood floors has recently been refurbished with a bank of tall windows overlooking North Salina street and downtown.

The community center, opened last march, provides office and classroom space as well as a hall to hold events and meetings. �We were holding meetings in our homes, but after we had 50 members attending, we couldn�t do it any more,� said Afet. The official opening ceremony, held on Leap Year Day, drew close to 200 Sudanese community members and friends of the community.

Now the association is planning to move forward, and has a long list of programs to plan and fund. A series of ongoing literacy programs will provide instruction in English for Adults, in Dinka for children, and Arabic for the youth who missed their formal education in Sudan, but have finished their first years of college here, at OCC. The next grant the Association will apply for, will be to fund a driving program.

�People have 48 days, after they get here, before they have to start working. If they don�t drive, they won�t be able to get good work,� said Afet. Programming will grow and change as the community does likewise, but for now, the Sudanese Community Association of Central New York, Inc. is off to a solid start.

For more information, contact
Kathleen Gilligan
IRC-CNY Refugee Resettlement
Programecbos@twcny.rr.com471-2995

Petero Afet
423-8194
sudacomass@usadatanet.net