Giving Tuesday Featured Story – Stand with AIDNW as we provide vital services to immigrants like Hanan who escaped an abusive situation in her home country.

Hanan reached the U.S. earlier this year, was detained and then released from the NW ICE Processing [detention] Center after a judge agreed to hear her case. With no family or friends in United States, she was received at the AIDNW Welcome Center and stayed at our Hospitality House for six months.

Our volunteers created a community for Hanan, and she regularly expressed her thanks. Just one week ago, many of these volunteers accompanied Hanan to Seattle for her court hearing, where she was granted asylum!

We can’t know what the future may hold for every asylum seeker we assist, many of whom risk their lives to reach the US and who may face terrible consequences if they are forced to return. All we can know is that as long as AIDNW has the resources, we will continue to serve detainees and those released from detention with dignity and respect.

Your support helps us provide these critical resources, including our staff’s daily coordination of visits in detention, of our pen-pal letter writers, with the acquisition of warm coats, food and backpacks for those who are released, with help in making onward travel plans, with short-term housing assistance, and with the genuine kindness from our heart-led volunteers.

Please help us to continue this important work. Donate Today! Tomorrow we will announce some new ways to give, including Employer Matches like the Washington State Combined Fund Drive, and Qualified Charitable Distributions for seniors over 70 which can benefit you or your parents if done correctly. Watch for our upcoming announcement on the special info session we’re sponsoring this Saturday on that very option!

“I left Kenya because I was involved in the August 2022 presidential election; the political party I supported didn’t win. Some people from the party that won made threats against people in my political party. I did not feel safe.”

On a cold and windy November day, as the light was fading, Rama, an eighteen-year-old man from Nepal, walked out of the Northwest Ice Processing Center in Tacoma, WA, with no jacket on, wearing only a T-shirt.