Stories
New Hampshire’s housing shortage has slowed the process of resettling Afghan evacuees, according to two local organizations. Of the 150 Afghan evacuees who have arrived to New Hampshire since November, about half of them remain in hotels. “The housing market in New Hampshire has made it very difficult to find affordable and safe housing,” said Donna…
Read More
Undocumented farmworkers face many barriers when seeking health care. The pandemic has widened this disparity and now many workers are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, including in western Massachusetts. The air is cold and farmworkers in the region have to work through it. One undocumented worker, known as Flori, has dried leaves crunched beneath…
Read More
Deqa Dhalac was sworn in Monday as the new mayor of South Portland, Maine, making her one of the first Somali-American mayors in the country. Dhalac was first elected to the South Portland City Council three years ago, but has long worked in community-building roles: as an activist, social worker, and currently, as the family…
Read More
As a civil war rages in Ethiopia, many Ethiopian immigrants in Maine have been cut off from loved ones back home. While one Portland resident was able to get her mother out of the country this fall, many others are struggling just to get in contact with family members in the war zone. On a…
Read More
In a first-grade classroom in Burlington, Vermont, Janelle Gendimenico guides her students through a lesson focusing on the importance of getting every word in a sentence, especially when you’re talking about animal teeth. “Show me with your fingers. What does the naked mole-rat’s teeth do?” Gendimenico asked the class. “They go back left and right,…
Read More
Glenda Cardenas is worried about her kids. Seated in their living room in Waterbury, she said her son and daughter, 10 and 14 years old, are afraid she’ll leave them. Again. Speaking in Spanish, Cardenas said the children ask if they’ll be separated next April. Right now, that’s as late as Cardenas can legally stay…
Read More
Maine is home to several dozen immigrants from Zambia, a country of about 18 million people in southern Africa. While it’s one of the state’s smaller immigrant communities, many Zambians have deep roots here, and they’ve launched a community organization aimed at building cohesion, offering support and attracting more Zambians to Maine. The Zambian Community…
Read More
As a military coup unfolds in Sudan, some Sudanese immigrants in Maine said they are concerned about the safety of their loved ones, and about the future of democracy in their home country. Some are calling for greater diplomatic intervention – while others take a measure of hope in the pro-democracy movement in Sudan. Sudan’s…
Read More
Gustavo Quiñe, un peruano que vive en Derry, celebró su primer Thanksgiving en el 2016, justo después de mudarse desde Lima junto a su esposa Aurelia. Él cuenta que se quedó encantado con la mesa, especialmente, con el pie de pecanas. Pero, pensó que a la comida le faltaba sabor de casa y no se…
Read More
In an office at Burlington High School, just off Lake Champlain in northern Vermont, Chacha Ngunga made a phone call. “Jambo jambo,” he said, greeting a student’s father in their shared language, Swahili. Ngunga is a multilingual liaison — one of 12 employed by the Burlington district. A few feet away, Noor Bulle, another liaison,…
Read More