“This weekend transformed my life.” Heads nodded in agreement as Deogratias Kawunde, a Ugandan organizer from Maryland, shared how he felt after FCNL’s Second Diaspora Organizer Gathering.
From Saturday, September 21 through Monday, September 23, eleven organizers from different diaspora country backgrounds across the United States gathered at Friends Place in Washington D.C. for an important convening.
From Laos to South Sudan, Lebanon to Haiti, Cameroon to Uganda to Ethiopia, this year’s cohort of diaspora organizers all hailed from nations affected by U.S. militarism, which motivated them to pursue peace and justice here in D.C. now. All experts in their own fields, our diaspora organizers came together to build connections with each other, sharpen their strong advocacy skills, and share their stories with decision makers on Capitol Hill.
Throughout the weekend, the cohort heard from advocacy and grassroots organizing experts on how important solidarity is to effective advocacy. FCNL lobbyists and staff also joined our organizers to talk one-on-one about how to amplify the advocacy work they already do, leading to over 20 effective lobby visits on Monday, September 23.
On lobby day, our diaspora organizers felt excited & empowered walking into Congressional offices after preparing with FCNL’s step-by-step Lobby Roadmap and strategizing with FCNL staff. Organizer Gabrielle Apollon, from New York, shared first-hand stories of Haitian immigrants impacted by racist, xenophobic rhetoric to persuade her senator’s office to issue a public statement of defense, and Laos-born Anna Phommachanthone successfully lobbied her representative to support funding for removing cluster munitions from the ground in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Other diaspora organizers worked together to create unified legislative asks on shared issues. A particularly successful example was with Yrvy Frenel, a Haitian organizer from Florida, who met with her senator’s office on ending arms trafficking to her home country, and found they were open to joining legislative efforts to address the issue. She then passed that information along to Wolf Pamphile, a Maryland-based Haitian advocate who met with his senator’s team later and connected the two offices on the shared issue to coordinate a strong bipartisan response letter.
Solidarity and advocacy aren’t abstract nouns. They are grounded in the material and lived experiences of our organizers, our communities, and our world. As everyone gathered their suitcases to leave on the last day, Lebanese-Palestinian organizer Omar Kurdi from Cleveland reflected, “What’s been happening in my community over the past year has been incredibly hard – but for the first time in a long time, I haven’t felt alone here.”
