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December 30th, 2013
Dear Friends,
Your support over the recent few months has been incredibly important and humbling to me as the Associate Director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), the organization to which I have dedicated the past 10 years of my life.
I am also the coordinator of our Arab Women's Committee (AWC), and I want to remind you that its members, mostly working class and urban poor immigrant women and mothers, dug deep into their own pockets to donate $2,020 to the AAAN this month.
Two people have matched the donation since we first announced it, and now I'm asking for 3 more of you to do the same. If you give before midnight on December 31st, you will still receive a 2013 tax deduction.
We all know that our community continues to struggle against systemic discrimination and repression, and the AAAN and AWC has always been at the forefront, defending and supporting individuals, organizations, and the community at large.
Donating to the AAAN is supporting me and the others across Chicagoland who are facing these challenges.
Read more about our 2013 accomplishments below. I with you all a healthy and happy New Year.
Sincerely,
Rasmea Odeh
AAAN Associate Director
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Dear Friends and Supporters,
We thank you all for your generosity, and ask you to reach into your pockets once again before the end of the year, to make a tax deductible donation to Rahhil Beiti ("Move My Home" in Arabic), the Arab American Action Network's (AAAN's) relocation campaign.
In 2013, my colleagues at the AAAN, as well as our members, accomplished some incredible things. Associate Director Rasmea Odeh was honored with
the Outstanding Community Leader award by the Chicago Cultural Alliance (CCA) in May, and had a video about her work produced by WBEZ's Steve Bynum.
She also built the membership of our Arab Women's Committee to over 600, while leading them to mobilize for numerous immigrant rights, civil liberties, and other social justice actions across the city and state.
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AAAN Arab Women's Committee members and youth mobilize against racial profiling in August 2013
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Youth Services Program Coordinator Halima Bahri and her associate Yasmeen Affaneh have seen almost every one of the close to 40 children and youth in the program reach the A/B Honor Roll, a testament to their background in education and passion for working with young people. The program is the only
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AAAN Youth Services Program team building exercise at historic Marquette Park, summer 2013
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one in Chicago where Arab, Black, and Latino elementary school aged children together receive academic enhancement and multi-cultural education.
Youth Organizers Muhammad Sankari and Nesreen Hasan rebuilt the Youth Leadership Team (YLT),
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AAAN's Youth Leadership Team planning for the
2013 summer program
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an advisory committee of high schoolers whose members participate in program planning; facilitate workshops, meetings, and activities; and work closely with Sankari and Hasan to provide political leadership for their peers.
The YLT was instrumental in leading the AAAN's law enforcement survey project, in which 400 community members provided information about their relationship with local, state, and federal law enforcement. We anticipate that the survey findings will be used in 2014 to continue our anti-racial profiling campaign. The YLT and 25 additional
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AAAN youth organizers make plans for anti-racial profiling march and rally that attracted 100 people to downtown Chicago in August 2013
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youth program participants led in the organizing of the first action of the campaign in August of 2013, demanding that the FBI end its profiling of Arabs and Muslims, and that the Department of Homeland Security suspend a deportation policy that separates immigrant families.
Our social services and adult education departments, collectively organized under the Family Empowerment Program, provided comprehensive safety net services to thousands of families still affected by the economic downturn and unable to access government institutions because of the lack of culturally and linguistically competent staff.
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AAAN staff and leaders joined the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights at an immigrant rights action in Springfield
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Hanan Ghanayem and Rowaida Nofal assist community members in applying for the Affordable Care Act; Lead Case Manager Samira Ahmad and Fatmah Tabally support and advocate for public aid benefits recipients; and Citizenship Project Coordinator Muna Hammad, along with Amal Alsayed and Ayeda Alwan, now teach over 100 immigrant women in three levels of English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, the most students we have ever instructed concurrently.
And finally, Youth Organizing Program Coordinator Gihad Ali was one of five winners of the prestigious Impact Award from the Chicago Foundation for Women, as well as being the primary author of an important case study of the AAAN's domestic violence prevention work with youth, a project she designed and implemented over a 3-year period in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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Gihad Ali, second from left, with her fellow CFW awardees in March 2013
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It is obvious that the AAAN has incredibly talented staff who run important programs for our community. And although we have always been, and will always be, an urban organization, the majority of Arabs do not live on the southwest side of Chicago anymore, so we need your support to expand this great programming and find additional facilities in the southwest suburbs. The Arab American Action Network is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization (tax ID number 36-4034958), so make your tax deductible donation now, or send a check paid to the order of AAAN to: AAAN Attn: 2013 Rahhil Beiti Appeal 3148 W. 63rd Street, 2nd Floor Chicago, IL 60629 Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and a Happy New Year to all! Sincerely,  Hatem Abudayyeh
Executive Director
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AAAN's Rahhil Beiti promo
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