American Persian organisation donates to aid Iranian gay refugees

Image by Joe Dsilva via Flickr

The PARSA Community Foundation, an American based Persian community foundation, has made a major grant donation to aid LGBTI Iranian refugees.

PARSA has given a $100,000 grant to the Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM) to help in three key areas over the next two years:

• Legal representation in Turkey, 
• direct and emergency assistance in Turkey, and 
• resettlement in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Through this program the Iranian LGBTI asylum seekers in Turkey will receive counseling and legal representation. Individuals with exceptional and urgent needs awaiting adjudication will receive clothing, utilities, food, and medical care. The SF Bay Area pilot resettlement program will provide language and vocational training, housing and carrier assistance, community orientation, and trauma counseling. ORAM publishes reports on the issues LGBTI asylum seeker have to deal with in order to raise awareness and build long term programs.

PARSA say:

"[We] recognizes the urgent humanitarian issues that Iranian LGBTI community members who seek refugee and asylum status have to deal with. Due to cultural, religious, and government sensitivities many members of this minority group travel to Turkey and have to live under very hard conditions while trying to immigrate to another part of the world. ORAM has been helping Iranian LGBTI refugees both in Turkey and in the US. They deal with many different issues, from assistance for food, housing, and emergency medical care, to legal representation and resettlement process."

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