May 2021 Monthly Newsletter

PACC may 2 0 2 1 Monthly newsletter

community engagEment Arab American Heritage Presentation for East Orange School District We were invited to present about Arab heritage month and Arab culture and traditions by the East Orange School District! We helped educate and highlight the entire K through 12 school district about the diversity and heritage of Arabs, and also debunked stereotypes that some students may have had about Arabs. The presentations went very well, and some Arab identifying teachers involved. We are hoping to make this presentation an annual occurrence.

Shout Out to 2021 College Graduates!

Graduation season is upon us! We created and have been circulating a form for people from the community to fill out to shoutout and highlight the 2021 college graduates from our community!

We have begun posting some of our graduates and will continue to do so during May as well.

Congratulations to all of our 2021 graduates.

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palestinian Advocacy

Press Conference and RallIES for Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza To bring awareness to the violence against Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza, we organized and supported a press conference and two rallys in Paterson that brought hundreds of people together in support of Palestine. NJ Democratic MuslimCaucus and other organizations helped co sponsor the rallies. It was the largest rally in Paterson’s history. We invited elected officials and community leaders to speak in solidarity, and chanted with the community to proudly send our love and support to Palestinians resisting on the ground. There were over 5 media agencies present to report the event and our press release was also shared by many organizations and news outlets.

Phone Banking and Vigil in Solidarity with the Palestinian General Strike and Gaza In response to the call for support of the Palestinian uprising and general strike, we held a phone banking session at our center where our community made calls to senators, congress members, and other representatives to urge them to take a stance against Israeli violence and agression and speak out in support of Palesitne.

We followed the phone banking session with a vigil in front of Congressman Pascrell’s office, to honor, center, and leave visible reminders of the Palestinians who have been murdered recently, and urge him to take a strong stance in support of Palestinians as well.

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Solidarity over Imperialism Rally We helped put together a rally in Morris County with various other organizations to showcase national and global solidarity with Palestine, and to spread awareness about the Palestinian struggle in an area that is less familiar with the cause.

Nakba Press Release We released an educational press release that was also made into graphics to share on social media that explained the historic Nakba, and showcased how what we are witnessing in the village of Sheikh Jarrah today is the Nakba in real time.

We shared the press release with our email listserv and posted the info graphics on Instagram and Facebook, which were re-shared by over 400 people.

Ramadan We held our fourth and final Ramadan fundraising Iftar this month! With the generous support of all more than 400 donors and community members, we were able to raise over $215,000 for PACC. We want to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to this and all our other campaigns and continues to support all the work PACC does!

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events

Palestine Monday Given that May is both the month we honor the Nakba and mental health awareness month, we invited members from the Gaza Mental Health federation to discuss the effects of the Pandemic and the Nakba on the mental health of Palestinian communities. All our panelists shared the work they’ve been involved with on the ground to support and uplift Palestinians. Since two of our panelists are based in Gaza, the panelists were also able to focus on what was taking place currently in Gaza as Israel began its attack early May. The conversation was extremely timely and necessary, and we had 15 attendees on Zoom and 705 views on Facebook.

Falastin Magazine Launch We officially launched Volume 5, Issue 2 of Falastin Magazine and heard from the writers of this issue themselves! Our theme for this issue was Traditions: What traditions exist in our culture? What is the power of tradition? How do you reconcile traditions and living in the diaspora? All the pieces in this issue were beautiful and we had 20 people join via zoom and 1,700 views on facebook. Check out our latest issue at https://www. paccusa.org/falastin.html

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Women’s brunch Our Women’s Brunch this month focused on Mental Health! Rajaa Bourhani, Wafa House’s very own Mental Health Counselor, gave a presentation on the importance of therapy and mental health for women during COVID. We also had an Art Therapist, Jessica Heller, lead the women in an exercise and activity that gave the women a chance to relieve their stress through art. We had a total of 12 women join and all enjoyed the event greatly and appreciated the opportunity to have this conversation and support one another.

How To Tuesday

Workshop Wednesday

To help the community celebrate Eid this month, and to educate the public about traditional ways to celebrate Eid, we posted a video on Instagram titled “How to make Ma’amoul” that provided a step by step guide on how people can make their own ma’amoul.

In light of the growing conversations and interest in the Palestinian struggle and history, we went live on Instgram to answer any questions people may have about Palestine and how to advocate for Palestine, specifically how to debunk Zionist myths. Over 15 joined the live and asked insightful questions.

sunday series To continue honoring the Nakba, we invited Ayman Odeh, Palestinian Lawyer and leader of the Joint List, to speak to us about the history of the Nakba and to share the correlation between the past and what’s happening today still in Palestine. Moderated by Abed Awad, the conversation also touched on Odeh’s current work in Palestine’s politics and shared some plans to move forward. We had 48 people join via zoom, and 722 views on Facebook.

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social service Mutual Aid Event Our community truly showed up for one another again this month! We hosted another mutual aid event where people donated new or slightly used clothing, toys, household items, baby formula and products, and more! After PACC volunteers and staff carefully screened all used clothing, about 130 families who are most in need came and picked up items that they and their loved ones benefited from for Eid. Special shoutout to three of our dedicated volunteers, Tara Unal, Feda Hassan, and Hussein Hamed! We were humbled by the power of community support, and thank everyone who took part in the event!

eid vouchers Penny Appeal Eid Partnership With funds from a Penny Appeal grant and the generosity of Jerusalem Supermarket, we were able to distribute $65 vouchers to 100 families that consisted of 132 women, 109 men, and 173 children.

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Programs

Successful Students Program Our tutoring program is for students who are in danger of failing or struggling in school. This program is one of the appreciated programs by parents who are struggling to help their children with school!

For this month, we would like to highlight one of our great students, Abdulrahman! Abdulrahman enrolled in our Successful Student Program 3 weeks ago. Abdulrahman was struggling with math because he recently moved to a new school from Chicago. With the help of our group tutoring sessions, we were able to get him caught up with all his work, and he is now getting great grades. This program is on of the most appreciated programs.

Computer Class We re-started our in person, intermediate computer class last week, and we currently have 6 students enrolled that consist of older community members. The goal of this class is to give the students a fundamental and working knowledge of Microsoft Office 2010 or newer. Students started creating large and more detailed projects, and they will hopefully complete the class having learned everything related to Microsoft Office.

Summer Registration Registration for our summer programs is still open with limited space left for PACC Summer Fun, Holding onto Palestinian Existance (HOPE), Arabic for Kids, Dabka, and more! Sign up now so you don’t miss out!

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