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Iraqi refugee-turned-Bay Ridgite helps
others make new homes in Kings County
An Iraqi refugee who fl ed death
threats in his homeland now helps
other refugees begin their new
lives in Kings County.
Amed Alfaraji said his own experience
as a refugee in America motivates
him to help other people resettle in his
role as the director of community outreach
for the Downtown Arab American
Family Support Center.
“I am a proud refugee, and a proud
American, so I want to pay back it
back, to help other people,” said Alfaraji,
who lives in Bay Ridge and said
he received his American citizenship
this past March.
The selfl ess program director was
named a Brooklyn Ambassador by
Borough President Adams this year
— a role in which he acts as a liaison
between Borough Hall and local Arab
communities.
According to Brooklyn Borough
Hall, “Brooklyn Ambassadors are residents
with strong ties and understanding
of their cultural community. They
work within their designated community
and neighborhoods to assist
Borough President Adams in promoting
his mission and the wellbeing of
the communities in which they serve.
Brooklyn Ambassadors notify the Borough
President on issues and concerns
of residents, local meetings, and events
held within the community.”
Alfaraji currently works with about
70 refugee families and 300 refugees
in total, most of whom are from Syria
and settled throughout Kings County,
as well as other parts of the tri-state
area and upstate New York. He helps
them secure green cards, work authorizations,
and jobs, along with helping
them navigate the linguistic and cultural
challenges that come with living
in a new country, he said.
“I try to educate them, because it’s
a different culture — some families
have culture shock,” he said. “Life
here is free — they have to understand
that. You have the right to speech, you
have the right to everything.”
The refugee-turned-Ridgite originally
hails from Baghdad, where, in
2004, he worked with the U.S. Army
as an Arabic interpreter, he said. But
Alfaraji abandoned his post after he
received three death threats in one
month, adding that the last threat came
in the form of a bullet he received in the
mail accompanied by verses from the
Quran, the Islamic holy book. Three
of his friends who worked as interpreters
were killed the following year,
and one went missing, he said, adding
that Iraqi insurgents were murdering
translators, whom they viewed as collaborating
ONE BROOKLYN | W 14 INTER 2018–2019
with the U.S.
“They were targeting interpreters,”
he said.
Alfaraji quit his job and fl ed to
Syria with his pregnant wife, Bana al-
Ani, in 2006, he said. The pair set up a
business translating legal documents
from Arabic to English in Syria’s capital
city of Damascus, where al-Ani
gave birth to the couple’s daughter,
Asal, Alfaraji said.
The family fl ed to Egypt in 2008,
and Alfaraji applied for asylum in the
U.S. the following year, he said.
In 2012, the family fi nally arrived
in the U.S., where they stayed with a
host in Manhattan until fi nding their
Ridge home, according to Alfaraji,
who added that he spent the next three
months working 14-hour shifts as a
dishwasher six days a week. He earned
only $250 a week, he said, and considered
bringing his family back to Iraq,
but decided to stay when he realized he
could use his English-speaking skills
to help other refugees.
“I wanted to go back, but I knew the
language. I was thinking of the other
refugees who don’t know the language,
and they are isolated,” he said. “How
do they feel? That convinced me more
to help people and to do my best.”
By the end of his fi rst year in the
U.S., however, Alfaraji got a job at the
Arab American Family Support Center,
working as a front desk administrator.
The following year, the couple
welcomed a newborn son, Adam, and
Alfaraji was promoted to operations
offi cer and then operations manager,
helping to plan events and oversee
administrative tasks. And last year,
he was promoted to his current post,
where he began working directly with
refugees, he said.
One Syrian refugee who fl ed persecution
for being gay said Alfaraji
helped him fi nd a job and apply for
medical insurance and food stamps,
adding that the outreach director’s
accepting nature and experience as a
refugee help make him an invaluable
resource for others fl eeing their homelands
for Kings County.
“As a caseworker, he has an open
mind, so he accepts that I’m gay and
started to help me,” said Lutfi Alhasani,
who arrived in the U.S. in 2016
and now lives in the Bronx. “He tells
me a lot about life here … he knows the
experience, how you come from war to
another war. He knows your question
and he already has an answer.”
Alfaraji said he hopes to continue
helping refugees and representing the
Arab communities throughout the borough,
both in his Brooklyn Ambassador
role and as a member of the newly
formed Brooklyn Complete Count
Committee, which encourages greater
participation in the 2020 census.
The Ridgite said he cares most
about improving others’ lives — in
Brooklyn and beyond.
“I love helping people,” he said.
Amed Alfaraji uses his own experience as an Iraqi refugee-turned-
U.S. citizen to help resettle refugees throughout Kings County as
the director of community outreach at the Downtown Arab American
Family Support Center. Photo by Julianne McShane
Director of community outreach
for the Downtown Arab American
Family Support Center Amed
Alfaraji is one of Borough President
Adams’s Brooklyn ambassadors,
charged with acting as
a liaison between the borough’s
Arab communities and Borough
Hall. Amed Alfaraji