Celebrate with us!
When the Arab Spring turned into civil war in Syria in 2012, SCM Medical Missions stepped up to help provide medical and humanitarian aid to the thousands of refugees fleeing across the border into Jordan. Since that time, we have evolved with the changing times and have gone from providing emergency medical care to more sustained assistance in Jordan and Lebanon, to helping refugees resettled in Washington state.
The refugees that came here with just a suitcase of clothes and maybe a few personal items have made new lives for themselves. Many have been able to find jobs in our tech industry or other growing industries or trades, children are attending and excelling in school, others have started their own businesses. SCM has been there to help make sure they don’t fall through the cracks, and we have been so proud of their many successes.
Now, we are going to celebrate another success: citizenship. Many of the resettled Syrian refugees have worked hard and gained their US citizenship and we want to showcase their achievement.
We invite you to help us celebrate and highlight the positive impact the refugees have had on Washington and Washingtonians. The event is October 9, 2022, at 3 pm at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle. We will have several presentations, Arabic sweets, tea and coffee, and time for people to mingle and have an opportunity to talk to the refugees.
Please join us!
Program
Our program is still being worked out and we will add to it here as events are confirmed.
3:00 Welcome
3:10 Judge Damon Shadid – MC
3:20 Sarah Peterson, DSHS CHIEF / Washington Office of Refugee & Immigrant Assistance
3:30 Husni Al Jamali, new US Citizen
3:40 Elfatih Abdelnabi – Immigration Coordinator at IRC
3:50 Nour Al Mseift, new US Citizen
4:00 Rami Al-Kabra, Council Member/Deputy Mayor of Bothell
4:10 Shireen Al Nabelsi, new US Citizen
4:20 Rita Zawaideh, Director of SCM
Free time to mingle, meet our newest citizens
Event ends at 5:00pm
More about our esteemed MC, the Honorable Damon Shadid
Judge Damon Shadid joined the Seattle Municipal Court bench in January 2014, the first popularly elected judge of Middle Eastern descent in the State of Washington. Prior to being elected, Judge Shadid worked as a private practitioner in the areas of immigration and criminal defense, specializing in representing non-citizen defendants in criminal court. Judge Shadid’s practice has been varied over the years, practicing in the areas of criminal defense, immigration, civil liability, family law, and bankruptcy.
Before taking the bench, Judge Shadid was committed to serving the public through engagement with community groups including the Race and Social Justice Community Roundtable, the Racial Justice Report Card, and the Task Force on Race and the Criminal Justice System. Since taking the bench, Judge Shadid has continued to serve the legal community including serving on the District and Municipal Judges’ Association Board of Directors, The Washington State Legal Financial Obligations Stakeholder Consortium, and engaging with school age children in educating about the criminal justice system.
The event will be held at St. Marks’s Episcopal Cathedral in the Bloedel Hall. The address is 1245 10th Ave E. Seattle WA 98102.
