November 07, 2003

CAO Executive Members Present: 

Dr. Bakary Sonko, President
Pastor Jeneth Davis, Vice President
Alioune Sogue, Projects Coordinator
Kenday S. Kamara, Public Relations Coordinator
Njeri, Social Welfare Coordinator
Andrew Wamukoya, Alternate Secretary
Anna Manega, Ex-Officio Member

The CAO president, Dr. Bakary Sonko introduced executive members of CAO to Paul Stein, the RMSC executive director.  He went on to outline what was expected of the director to talk to members about which included micro credit issues, seed grants to start small businesses and training.

  From left going clockwise: Jean-Pierre (CAO Treasurer), Dr. Bakary Sonko (CAO President), Alioune Sogue (CAO Projects Coordinator), Paul Stein (RMSC Executive)

The director talked about the Grameen Bank micro credit model which gives out small amounts of money to start small businesses. The bank’s strategy is by having recipients of loans to be members of a group with each group supporting each of its members to succeed and to pay back loans to the bank.  The RMSC director specified that the bank today enjoys extraordinary success with its micro credit program.

The director also talked about the micro credit organization around the Five-Points area in Denver that is working on a grant for refugees in Colorado.  He bemoaned the fact that over the years most assistance have been directed to the African American and the Latino communities, neglecting African immigrants.

He also talked about a new Mayor’s Office program that is open to minorities, especially the African immigrant community. He suggested to the CAO executive to make contact with the chief financial officer in the Mayor’s Office for information about various programs that would be funded by the Mayor’s Office.  He talked about CAO members to be active in advocating for general amnesty for African immigrants. He said he would be happy to provide any advise and to help with whatever that could be done to advance any programs of the CAO.

On the issue of job placement and training, the RMSC director said there are many opportunities and educational programs.  He talked about the Mayor’s Workforce Development Office as an available resource Africans seeking jobs could make use of.  

  From L-R:  CAO President Sonko, CAO Projects Coordinator Alioune Sogue, CAO Public Relations Coordinator Kenday S. Kamara, and RMSC Executive Director Paul Stein.

The director went on to talk about the RMSC agency.  He said refugees and asylum seekers should get in touch with the RMSC agency for assistance in various ways.  The RMSC deals with victims of rape, torture, and all kinds of shameful things that are strange and hard to talk about.  He said the RMSC deals with many interpreters for which the agency has sought a grant for additional training to be provided to the interpreters to prepare and make them more composed in interpreting the horrifying stories of human violations they would have to be interpreting.  He also talked about a program called the Interpreter Network of Colorado which provides additional training for interpreters.  The program is training interpreters how not to become re-traumatized  by the disturbing stories from victims of rape, torture and violations the interpreters have to listen to. The director explained that the training helps how a person as an interpreter could avoid being disturbed by what he or she has heard.  The RMSC director therefore urged the CAO to introduce clients who are afraid and ashamed to come out and seek help.  He said the agency has the experience to provide counseling on what they went through on a one-on-one basis.  He made references to spiritual leaders who are within the agency who are very helpful to victims of such gross violations.  He explained that the agency provides orientations to help provide some form of normalcy to victims of horrifying experiences, as well as providing counseling to families.  The director told members that the RMSC agency is moving to a bigger space where they could be in a position to provide more opportunities for spiritual counseling.  The RMSC director however commended Africans for the strengths they have in dealing with their various horrifying experiences 

  RMSC Executive Director Paul Stein and CAO Ex-Officio Member Anna Manega.

The director also talked about an interesting meeting he had with someone from the Denver District Attorney’s Office.  The meeting was about protecting the African immigrant community from being taken advantage of by financial institutions, the police, etc. He said the DA’s office currently has openings for community advocates who would be employed and further trained to reach out to communities that are not well served, i.e. communities like the Muslim women in Colorado and the African immigrant community.

Anna Manega interjected that after September 11 many Africans were rounded up at the airport and detained. Some were even deported. She asked whether immigration excesses could be some of the issues this new DA’s component would cover. 

The RMSC director responded he was not sure.  He talked about areas he was sure the component would cover including police excessive force against immigrants, people afraid of speaking out even when being victimized, domestic violence, etc.

The executive director referred to the University of Denver’s office of internalization, that, many students in the faculty are all committed to Africa and CAO has a chance to cooperate with the faculty and to lead the cause of Africa in Colorado.

On grant writing the CAO president Sonko asked about available opportunities.  He wanted to learn from the RMSC director how the CAO could source funds to support start up activities and to develop the infrastructure of the CAO.

The director spoke about the Schnook Foundation overseen by Mayor Hickenlooper.  He said he would be happy to help the CAO apply for funds to the foundation.

The director also mentioned the project the RMSC is working on pertaining to victims of crime with a maximum available grant of $5000.  The director said he would be happy to share the grant amount with the CAO.  He asked the CAO to prepare a letter of recommendation and interest in working with the RMSC on this project.  The RMSC director also talked about helping the CAO write the HOPE grant and that he would help the CAO in many ways for funding opportunities.

The CAO president, Dr. Bakary Sonko said he was very excited to have Paul Stein share his experience with CAO executive. The CAO president assured the RMSC director that the CAO could act as a bridge between the RMSC and the African immigrant community in Colorado.  He reiterated the point that the CAO would not be like the Center for African Affairs run by one man and his wife with nothing to present to the African community.  President Sonko went on to say that people are urging the CAO to organize a big African meeting of the African immigrant community in Colorado, but said the CAO is holding back till the organization has a clear focus that all Africans can understand and accept.

President Sonko further explained that all CAO members are from Africa and from countries in Africa that are poor and deprived.  He said there are institutions in Africa which do not have necessities like office supplies, computers and medical equipment.  He asked the RMSC director how he could help CAO to get donations of these items the organization could send to countries in Africa.

The RMSC director suggested that the community has to be strong enough economically to facilitate this.  He said the CAO has to make its voice heard to areas where the Ethiopians are making their voices heard.  He talked about the Ethiopians who have a strong and stable organization, that the Ethiopian advocacy succeeded to do that. He urged the CAO to do the same thing.

The RMSC director extended an invitation to Pastor Jeneth, the CAO vice president to visit the RMSC spiritual counseling group. 

Anna Manega asked about HIV  and AIDS.  She is very interested in this area, she thus asked the RMSC director how much information he has to give to Africans.  The director suggested that Anna should talk to Sarah about this.

President Sonko thanked the RMSC executive director for his effort to come to talk to his executive.  He reiterated the main focus of the CAO—to benefit the Africa, and her immigrant community.