Fayetteville nonprofit will use $50,000 Gannett grant to help immigrants in NC
At just 17 years old, Ceci’s life has been a journey — one that early on included danger and difficulty.
She is grateful that Fayetteville Justice For Our Neighbors, a pro-immigration nonprofit, has helped her ultimately find a better, more stable situation.
The organization, called JFON for short, assists between 15 and 20 immigrants like Ceci each week.
Now Fayetteville JFON is itself receiving a big boost. The small organization located in downtown Fayetteville is a national recipient of a $50,000 grant from A Community Thrives, a program through the Gannett Foundation that awards funds to nonprofits and service projects across the country. The Fayetteville Observer is part of the Gannett/USA TODAY network, the country’s largest newspaper publisher.
Brandy McPherson, executive director of Fayetteville JFON, said the grant would help the organization reach more people. She said the need is evident.
“We always have people knocking at the door. We always have people that are sending emails and getting a hold of the services we have.”
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Donna Akuamoah, the staff attorney, said the total population in southeastern North Carolina, which JFON serves, is more than 1 million people.
“Of this population, a lot of people are agricultural workers, farm workers, meat processing plant workers” and factory workers, she said. “So that’s the majority of our clients. I would say 99% of our clients.
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“When I got here I was pretty much the only nonprofit, immigration attorney at that time,” she said. “So basically we are in an immigration legal desert.”
Fayetteville JFON, which opened its doors in 2020, helps people like Ceci, whose full name is being withheld to protect her privacy. She was 3 years old when she came with her mother from Guatemala.
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“My mom wanted me to have greater opportunities for success because here in the United States, anyone can make their dreams come true,” Ceci shares in her story at the National JFON website.
In her journey north, she remembers camping out and hearing the rattle of snakes in the desert; they would put garlic in their socks to keep them away.
“The worst experience that I can remember happened when we first entered the desert. As soon as we were 10-15 minutes into our travels, the ‘zetas,’ a group of ‘bad people,’ as I was later told, came up to us with guns. They took all of our food and money.”
Ceci’s mom had worked in the fields of North Carolina picking tobacco for 14 years. Her mom obtained a better, more stable job thanks to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Ceci says.
Ceci meanwhile, thanks to Fayetteville JFON, is working on a new form of immigration status, a process she says has been “fast and easy.”
She praised the nonprofit: “I give them all my thanks, but I especially want to thank my JFON attorney Donna! She was always very patient and loveable. She made me feel as if we had already met and known each other for a long time.”
‘It was a moment of joy’
Akuamoah said JFON works on several different case types, including cases related to renewal for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals); the Violence Against Women Act, citizenship, permanent residency and “U visas” for victims of criminal activity.
Many of their clients hail from El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. But over the years, JFON, which offers free or low-cost services, has assisted people from many nations, including Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
And the JFON team is always looking for new avenues to help. Especially when some avenues close — such as the pause on first-time DACA applications imposed last summer by a federal judge.
Viviana Quiles, the paralegal and assistant for Fayetteville JFON, works in the Lee County school system, is bilingual and connects with clients through that work — the parents of some of her students. She reached out to National Guard recruiters who come on school campus about a certain kind of visa (Parole in Place) connected to military service that could apply to service members or their families.
Quiles said JFON will often go out to meet clients where they are. She describes one of their many success stories — a married woman from Mexico who spoke no English, which can be a significant barrier to obtaining citizenship. But the woman studied and persevered.
JFON staff went with her to the interview with immigration officials, said Quiles: “She was very nervous, I remember. She did amazing. She did great.”
“She was excited. It was a moment of joy.”
Personal work
Fayetteville JFON is a second-time recipient of A Community Thrives grant. The nonprofit won $15,000 as a recipient of a regional grant in 2021.
To be eligible for a grant, local organizations submitted an application and did their own fundraising. Organizations that reached a certain threshold were placed into consideration for a regional grant. National grant recipients were chosen from among the top regional finalists.
Fayetteville JFON is affiliated with National JFON, which is a United Methodist Immigration Ministry.
For the Fayetteville team, the work is personal. Akuamoah is a first-generation immigrant from Ghana. McPherson’s father immigrated from Jamaica. Quiles is originally from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
Part of their mission is educating people on the value and contributions of immigrants in southeastern North Carolina.
That includes a fundraiser and Day of the Dead-themed Holiday Soiree scheduled for Thursday that is timed with National Immigrants Day on Friday.
“What COVID has taught us about is essential workers,” Akuamoah says. “It’s about farm workers. It’s about agricultural workers. We all wouldn’t be here without them.
“They could not take a break, even though they didn’t have health insurance, all of that. They still had to be out there, so we could eat.”
Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville immigration group lands $50K grant from Gannett Foundation
