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Nonprofit leaders, immigrants, refugees praise new OC agency
Orange County Apr 27, 2023
Supervisor Andrew Do speaks at the Orange County board's meeting where members approved the creation of an office to assist immigrants and refugees. | Photo courtesy of Orange County
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By Paul Anderson
When Iryyna Sobianina fled war-torn Ukraine with her 12-year-old daughter and found herself in Orange County, she worried her English-speaking ability would not be enough to get a job and didn’t know where to turn for help.
“We had no one waiting for us in this country,” Sobianina said Wednesday at a news conference to share more details about an office created by the county to help immigrants and refugees.
“But I was very much surprised by the people, by the government,” she said.
She found help from the Uplift Charity, which serves immigrants and refugees in the area.
“We had the power to continue,” she said. “And now I’m proud to say I am a part of the Uplift organization. … I am also happy to be very useful and can make a difference with others in need. … I want to grow, to help other people. We just need someone to show us the direction and where to go.”
That will be the central focus of the new Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs — to serve as a central hub coordinating already existing services for immigrants and refugees.
Owaiz M. Dadabhoy, president of the Uplift Charity, said he wishes there was a similar office around when he helped start the organization in 2006. The organization became more of a resettlement agency in 2021 to help Afghans who had to flee Afghanistan when the U.S. military withdrew from the country.
“The quicker (immigrants and refugees) get the access to resources … the quicker you can help them to be self-sufficient,” Dadabhoy said.
The more self-sufficient they are, the less likely they are to require government aid, he said.
Dadabhoy and Apolonio Morales of the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles organization called the unanimous vote of the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to create the office “historic.”
Morales, who was listening to the meeting while driving, said he was moved when he heard the roll call of the supervisors.
“The moment when I heard that 5-to-zero It really struck me,” Morales said.
He said the office will ensure that nonprofits and government officials will be “laser focused on helping” immigrants and refugees.
Masih Fouladi of the Council on American-Islamic Relations LA spoke about how his family fled the Iran-Iraq war, and he grew up and attended school in Orange County.
“This is a historic moment that will benefit so many people,” Fouladi said. “This county is one of the most diverse in the whole United States.”
He noted that 40% of the county’s business owners are immigrants.
Anna Nguyen, a Vietnam refugee, spoke about how Supervisor Andrew Do’s office helped her find services for her son, a U.S. Army veteran who was afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It was a very difficult time for me because my language was limited,” she said with help from an interpreter.
Do teamed up with Supervisor Doug Chaffee to propose the new office.
Chaffee preached “patience” to the nonprofit leaders.
“We want to do this office correctly,” he said. “We want it to be the best office in the nation of this sort.”
Chaffee used $500,000 in discretionary funds from his district’s budget as seed money for the office, which will initially be staffed with three workers. The county will also seek grants to help financially support it, he added.
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento spoke of his family’s emigration from Bolivia to Santa Ana when he was just a year old.
“It’s personal to me,” he said. “I am an immigrant.”
He said when his family came to Santa Ana it was a different county.
“When our family arrived there was no support,” he said.
Now, though, “Nearly a third of our county is foreign-born,” he said.
The new office “is just the beginning,” he said. “We don’t want this to be just another office that’s out there. … We want it to be active. So this is a great day, it’s exciting. But this is the first step.”
He encouraged the nonprofit organizers to throw themselves into boosting the office.
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