SEEKING AN “ABUNDANT LIFE” FOR MAINE’S IMMIGRANTS

An Interview with Dr. Norbert Runyambo
By Christina Feller-- published in the July 2009 Munjoy Hill Observer newspaper, Portland, Maine
About sixty nonprofits have been formed in the past 20 years by and for immigrant groups in Maine, serving populations that range from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Over the coming months, we will begin to review the mission and activities of these organizations in these pages, in order to bring attention to the continuing needs of our burgeoning immigrant population, and to the important organizations that exist to meet those needs. All the organizations we cover want you to know what they do and who they serve. These are public organizations with which mainstream organizations and governmental units can and do partner to achieve common goals.
The Abundant Life Institute (ALI) was formed to empower disadvantaged or marginalized communities to create opportunities and envision ways to construct integrated social and economic structures in which they can transform the quality of their lives. ALI is a “shared space” for creative action—a shared space means a platform governed by values of inclusiveness, integrity, dialogue, consultation, acceptance, participation and accountability with the aim to render service with creativity and excellence. We took time to interview Dr. Norbert Runyambo, who is a member of the ALI executive team.
Dr. Runyambo, why did you create this organization?
We believe that we are the primary resource for change within the community, and our core values of service, integrity, accountability, excellence, relationships, creativity, inclusiveness and participation are represented in the people who are part of the Institute. Our members abide by these core values of a shared space with the commitment to model and instill these values in the communities we serve.
What is the primary focus of your work?
We work in six primary areas.
1. Family health education: while the focus has been reproductive health education about “risky” behaviors among our youth, we feel just now that the primary concern in this area is nutrition counseling. We see our brothers and sisters come from foreign countries with a cultural norm about nutrition and good eating but when they come here, there are so many choices for fast food that our teen-agers and young people, especially, make wrong choices on a regular basis. The food here is easy to buy, fast to get, and well-marketed for maximum social and economic integration purposes. We plan to train immigrants about the American food system, and how to make choices and prioritize those choices.
2. Social and economic integration: we train immigrants about American social and economic systems and we encourage immigrants to develop saving habits, understand financial systems (how to open and maintain a bank account for instance), and explore entrepreneurial opportunities by connecting them to resources for capacity building and funding.
3. Trauma healing: this is very important today when so many of our immigrants come to Maine with memories of torture, abuse and loss. We try to promote creative arts among the youth to express painful memories as well as present their visions and aspirations for peace.
4. Reconciliation: trauma healing is only good in the long term if we also teach people how to reconcile with each other to promote tolerance and coexistence between and among communities. In this work, we hold forums for dialogues on family, inter-ethnic and clan conflicts.
5. Advocacy and human rights: we advocate and help the rights of immigrants to acquire their legal residence documents and to find jobs, housing and health care. We build solidarity and capacity to advocate for good governance and socio-economic justice.
6. Documentation & overcoming the language barrier: We document our work by collecting data and analyzing the situation for immigrants on a regular basis. But, we have a language barrier problem. This reads and sounds like perfect English and I assure you I do not speak like this—you have done a wonderful job of editing my sentences. But, the reader should know we have a problem documenting our work because of these kinds of language barriers.
What do you want people to know about your organization?
I want people to understand that our immigrant population in Portland (in all of Maine) is growing—and will continue to grow—as we accept more people into our community from war-torn and politically abusive countries. We recognize how different we all are from each other, yet there are commonalities in all immigrant experiences that we draw upon to bring reconciliation and peace and improve their quality of life. I want people, both Americans and immigrants, to know that we exist to help improve the overall quality of life for people, whether from Asia, Africa, Central or South America, or the Middle East.
Where do you meet and how can we find you?
There is so little common meeting space in Portland! We meet in our homes generally. We cannot afford to rent out space for our trainings. We hope that people reading this will step forward and offer space for us to meet and to train. We really want to begin our nutrition training (Making Choices & Living Healthy) and we need space for about fifty people on a regular basis. If you have ideas for us, we welcome you!
Please contact me, Norbert Runyambo, at nyabuhanga@yahoo.fr. I live in the Parkside neighborhood. Other members of our executive team live in the North Deering, the Riverton, and the West End neighborhoods. We welcome more collaboration with neighborhood groups.
Finally, what is your advice for newly arriving immigrants?
My advice is to find a group that already exists to help you find your way. City, county and state resources are scattered across town and across the state and their requirements can be confusing and sometimes, even at cross purposes. We are working with a number of other groups to develop a website in all languages for folks to access and use right away when they arrive. I suggest that people go to the one site that lists all of these groups at http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/oma/MulticulturalResource/community-religious.html. I see that our organization is not listed—I will have to do something about that!
Thank you Dr. Runyambo.
Next month: INTORE CLUB-Maine’s Immigrants and Refugees Association—Uniting, Strengthening, Advancing and Serving Underserved Immigrants & Refugees. Intore Club is an immigrant and refugee community-based nonprofit organization working for economic and social development. If you want to highlight your immigrant organization, please contact Christina Feller at cfeller@maine.rr.com.