ABOUT AUAF
In spring 1975
when the fight between the Iraqi Kurds and the central
government intensified in the Northern region of Iraq, a
great numbers of refugees fled to the surrounding
countries, among them some 90 thousands Assyrians who
found refuge in Iran.
Iran was not a
country to accept refugees for a long sojourns, this is
why the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) which is a
global organization to oversee the Assyrians human
rights all over the world, moved in to find a safe haven
for these unfortunate displaced refugees. Utilizing the
effort of the UNHCR, a large number of these refugees
were accepted in the USA.
They started
coming to this blessed country through an organized
airlift program in 1976. Most of them stayed in Chicago
where a large Assyrian Community resided and there were
more job opportunities.
These refugees,
who did not know English, had a hard time to adjust in
the community or find jobs, rent a house for living or
register their children in the schools. To tackle this
problem with the help of the US government, in 1978, a
charitable service organization was founded and
established in Chicago under the name of the Assyrian
Universal Alliance Foundation, Inc.
For so many
years, this humanitarian organization has taken care of
the new refugees; processed their papers, taught them
basic English, run job placement programs for them, and
filled out all necessary forms for adjustment of status,
helped them to get social security and alien
registration cards.
After a while,
when most of the new refugees were settled down and
taken care of , and after the number of new refugees
subsided, the AUA Foundation stopped receiving help from
the government and was left alone to be taken care of by
the Assyrian community itself.
HELEN JAMES
SCHWARTEN & JOHN JOSEPH NIMROD.
The Board of
Directors started to solicit help from the Assyrian
community. Two strong supporters, Helen James Schwarten, a
financially successful benevolent and her brother,
Senator John J. Nimrod, a state senator from Chicago,
joined the Board. Beside the social services offered
indiscriminately by the organization to the Assyrian and
other residents of Chicago, Helen established a
scholarship program in the AUA Foundation, helping
Assyrian students to pursue higher education. Both Helen
and John have passed away, leaving the organization to a
hard working Board look for any kind of help to
perpetuate the valuable services this organization
offers. The AUA supports the Assyrian needy groups in
the Middle East and those living in Armenia, Georgia and
elsewhere.
At present the
AUA Foundation is running the following projects and
activities:
-
Community Care Program (CCP): a program
under IDOA which helps the elderly
disabled and sick people at their home.
Under this program the elderly are able
to stay at their homes with their family
and receive a helping hand to provide
the services they need, without having
to go and remain at nursing homes. This
way, they will not be separated from
their family and beloved ones, and be
happy without being a great financial
burden to the government. Through this
program, the AUA Foundation services
some 1600 clients from diverse ethnic
groups like Assyrians refugees from
Middle East, Russians, Jewish people
from Europe and elsewhere, Indians,
Pakistanis, Arabs, Persians, Americans
and etc. These elderly clients are being
helped by trained caregivers employed by
the AUA Foundation.
-
Social Services is another program run
by this organization to help the
refugees and people with limited English
language to fill out the forms they need
in immigration, social security, public
help or change their status, getting
passports and other necessities. AUA
Foundation also helps the Assyrian
refugees who are staying in the refugee
camps and residential areas in Syria,
Lebanon, Northern Iraq and other Middle
Eastern countries. Our annual
scholarship program offers financial
help to the Assyrian students to pursue
their higher education. To reach the
Assyrian community in Chicago, we run a
20 hours radio program that reaches not
only the community here in Chicago, but
is broadcast via internet to the
countries where Assyrians live.
-
The AUA Foundation reaches out the
Assyrians in the poorest countries in
the world like Armenia, Georgia, Iran,
Syria and etc, to help the youth
programs run by the regional community
centers. They are being supported by
gifts of clothes, food, school materials
like books, pens, sports needs, etc.
Selected teams who participate in
regional sports competitions are
supported with their needs of travel and
accommodation in the hosting countries.
-
Running cultural programs is another
extended field of our activities. We
have established Ashurbanipal library
which collects all kinds of books and
publications in Assyrian language or
about the Assyrian history, language and
literature in the languages other than
Assyrian. This library is also an
archive center to collect and preserve
the documents and picture about the
Assyrian people all over the world. At
the Ashurbanipal library we also produce
documentary films and DVDs about the
Assyrian history and lifestyle in the
Middle Eastern countries and elsewhere.
This is to capture information about the
Assyrians in the region where they are
gradually abandoning. We have so far
produced seven documentaries including
the Assyrian of Iran, Syria, Armenia,
Georgia, Russia, Lebanon and the
Assyrians living in Ottoman territory
before and during the WWI. We have also
made a set of CDs and MP3 and a book of
notes of the religious liturgy used by
the Assyrian Church of the East. Some
educational films and animations or
cartoons are in the process of
development. Beside the films and
documentaries we are doing interviews
with the elderly who experienced the
living history of the people and gone
through hardships and ordeals at
Assyrians endured in the last several
decades.
-
We
have started publishing a
newsletter to reach the Assyrians and
other interested people within or
outside the community.
