I support the Center for New Americans' mission of providing English language support and other resources to immigrant and newly arrived refugee and migrant populations in western Massachusetts because of my friendships with arriving immigrants who have risked their lives to travel to America to escape torture and death.
My friends, who were born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were forced to leave their homeland with their 6-month-old child when they became caught in a local conflict between two factions that threatened to burn down their home. They marched for 17 months through South and Central America, seeking a safer, more predictable future. Today, twelve years later, they both have full-time jobs, and their three children are enrolled in public schools where they have good prospects for their future. They are also free to practice their religion without fear. They risked everything for the opportunity to live in freedom without imminent threats to their lives. America is still an empire of liberty and opportunity in a world fraught with deadly divides.
