Planting New Roots

• Asociación Tepeyac de Nueva York, a social service group for newly arrived Mexican immigrants, suspended its after-school, English, and computer classes as well as its volunteer community organizer training for a month following September 11. The new focus: helping its member families and employees--largely undocumented immigrants--who lost jobs or loved ones in the attacks get the financial and emotional support they need. Its staff posted photos and traveled to hospitals and morgues to assist members searching for missing family. “This is kind of a harvest,” says Executive Director Joel Magallán Reyes about the large numbers of people who have come to them for assistance. To continue its efforts, and increase its staff and phone line capacity, the group applied to the September 11 Fund and other foundations for support, but at press time had yet to receive word. Meanwhile, the Asociación has changed the theme of its annual Día del Muerte celebration, scheduled for November 1, to “invisible people.”

• Jews for Racial and Economic Justice had been lobbying the state legislature for a year to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws when the events of September 11 bumped the issue aside and thwarted, at least temporarily, a three-year campaign to get more state money for public schools. Now, the group has put off its biggest annual fundraiser until March to devote “125 percent” of its energies to peace rallies and outreach to mainstream Jewish communities, says Executive Director Andrew Stettner. The long-term base-building efforts to draw Jews of color have been dropped for now, as has JFREJ’s role in the unionizing efforts at a kosher food factory in Williamsburg. Instead, a new partnership is growing with Muslims Against Terrorism, a group formed after September 11, and issues affecting Arab and Muslim Americans have quickly become a centerpiece. Unlike many other small groups, JFREJ’s cash flow seems to be solid for the year: The Tides Foundation recently gave them a $10,000 emergency grant.

• SAKHI for South Asian Women connects victims of domestic violence from New Jersey and the five boroughs with trained caseworker volunteers and offers services like English and computer classes and legal aid. Now, in addition to offering needs assessment to its members, SAKHI is collaborating with the six-month-old nonprofit Women for Afghan Women to develop a high-school curriculum on feminism and violence in South Asian and Afghan communities. To fund these new endeavors, the Third Wave Foundation has chipped in $1,500. Urgent Action donated $3,000, and persuaded the Ms. Foundation to give SAKHI a $5,000 grant. A scholarship program is also in the works, to be established in the name of a longtime volunteer, Swarna Chalasani, who has not been heard from since September 11.

Hilary Russ is a Manhattan-based freelance writer.