April Newsletter 2022

April

Palestinian American Community Center

April Newsletter #SupportTheMission

2022

April 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

If you like anything we are doing, please donate at paccusa.org/donate Every dollar helps keep us going!

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April 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

With the month of Ramadan, we took a break from our programs. Yet, we are excited to welcome you back for our spring session and introduce you to our new program: Cooking Club! Registration is now open, and you can take a look at our spring session program booklet HERE. Click HERE to be directed to our registration page.

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April 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

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PACC Young Adults Iftar

Events

We hosted an iftar co-sponsored by Islamic Relief for our young adult community members as an opportunity to build a sense of community, bonding, and networking. We had 41 people attend and were able to fundraise $10,010 to help ten vulnerable children in Palestine. Such generous donations will provide them with educational supplies, psychosocial support, medical devices and recreational activities.

PACC Fundraising Iftar With Ramadan as a month of community building and generosity, we hosted a fundraising iftar to showcase the work our center has accomplished. We also took a moment to reflect on the ongoing atrocities our community in Palestine has faced while attempting to practice their right to a peaceful Ramadan. A total of 100 guests attended. To date, we were able to raise $73,395 through pledges and donations. If you haven’t given yet, consider donating HERE.

April 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

Blood Drive

We hosted another blood drive this month at our center in collaboration with the American Red Cross with a turnout of 20 donors, equaling 22 pints that saved 66 lives.

Book Talk We hosted a moderated conversation with Dr. Hani Khoury about his book, Giving Up Is Not an Option, Memoirs of a Palestinian American, where he elaborates on the complexities of his life as a disabled Palestinian American immigrant who is now a faculty member at Mercer University. We had 7 people engaged in a powerful discussion via Zoom with 199 views on Facebook.

PACC Conference Videos To ensure all of our community members are able to benefit from the enriching conversations during our PACC conference, some of our conference sessions have been uploaded on our YouTube and Facebook account. We thank all our attendees and sponsors for contributing to a successful event and we hope to see you next year.

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April 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

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Arab American Heritage Month

M a r ke ting

The month of April is Arab American Heritage Month, which pays tribute to the local, national, and global contributions of Arab Americans. We highlighted six local community members across our social media platforms to recognize their accomplishments: Dr. Hani Awadallah, Nadia Kahf, Diab Mustafa, Khaldiya Mustafa, Farhanna Sayegh, and Farag Siyam. We thank them and all of our Arab American leaders for their invaluable contributions to our growing community!

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

In an effort to raise awareness about sexual assault, PACC joined Wafa House’s Denim Day Campaign on April 27. Denim Day is a day of action and awareness in which people are encouraged to wear denim to combat victim blaming and educate their community about sexual violence. A few members of our staff participated in this action by posting photos on Instagram wearing denim while holding signs that had statistics, quotes and facts on sexual violence. We also participated in Wafa House’s walkathon against sexual assault at Garrett Mountain later in the week on April 30.

Palestinian American Community Center

Ramadan Relief

April 2022

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Ramadan Food Box Distribution

Before Ramadan, we worked with ICNA Relief USA to provide 200 families with a food box in preparation for the month. Throughout Ramadan and in collaboration with Al-Mustafa Center and Life for Relief and Development, we were able to distribute 44 additional boxes for families in need.

Food Trolley Truck Event Financial Assistance In collaboration with Embrace Relief and the Clifton Boys and Girls Club, food, household necessities and PPE was distributed for community members in need. A total of 250 families were able to shop from the trolley and benefit from this initiative.

We received a Zakat grant of $5,000 from Penny Appeal USA to provide financial assistance to 11 needy families, many of whom were undocumented and/or disabled.

Ramadan Meat Vouchers

We provided 45 families with $50 meat vouchers from Al-Hilal Meat & Fish Market using a grant of $2,000 from Penny Appeal USA. Thank you, Al-Hilal, for donating some additional amount of vouchers!

Eid Toy Drive

We hosted a toy drive where community members donated new and lightly used toys to give to children in celebration of Eid, bringing smiles to many faces. We were able to provide over 80 families with Eid gifts for their child(ren).

Community Engagement

April 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

Students for Justice in Palestine Presentation As part of Israeli Apartheid Week, we hosted a workshop titled Reclaiming Palestine: Culture, Land, and History for the SJPs at Drew University and RutgersNew Brunswick. Through the workshop, we highlighted the vibrancy and richness of Palestinian culture and traditions, while showcasing how holding onto Palestinian heritage is a form of active resistance in the face of erasure. Seventy people attended and enjoyed a live dabka tutorial afterwards led by Ayman Shabib from Al-Baydar Dabka Group!

Rutgers Protest for Al-Aqsa In light of recent attacks on Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa specifically, we attended and spoke at a protest hosted by the Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers University- New Brunswick.

Around 40 people attended, and we helped spread awareness about the oppression, eviction, and violence Palestinians are subjected to.

Ladies Henna Night We co-sponsored a Ladies’ Henna Night and Iftar with Wafa House. We had 60 women attend for a celebration of tradition and community.

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April 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

Clifton Community Resource Expo PACC hosted a table at Clifton’s Community Resource Expo, which brought together vital organizations and services that the Clifton area offers for all ages living in the Passaic County area.

We showcased our literary magazines (Falastin), annual reports, program booklets, Palestine education guides, and civic engagement efforts.

Voter Registration/Get Out the Vote Team With the upcoming Paterson mayoral election, PACC’s interns have been active in making our community aware of what they need to know by tabling at mosques and community events, presenting at fundraising iftars and creating video content. We helped 54 people register to vote.

“State of Immigration” Briefing to the Asian American Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus We were invited by the NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice to join a briefing call as representatives of the Arab community to talk about the diversity of experiences within the immigrant community, especially when it comes to language access, visibility on data, hesitancy, system avoidance, or racial profiling for the Values Act.

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April

Palestinian American Community Center

PACC_USA

2022