Speaker Bio for May 12th: Basma Alawee

Basma Alawee is a wife, a mother, a humanitarian, a Muslim, an engineer, a teacher, a writer and an activist who arrived in the United States as a refugee from Iraq.  Upon arriving in the US she realized that she came with significant advantages: a college education and a fluency in English.  It became her passion to help others like her succeed.  She has volunteered with Lutheran Social Services and World Relief to help translate and adjust new refugees to this country.  She has helped create online classes for Arabic speakers to get their GED, and she worked as the secretary of the local Iraq Family Organization.  She is now director of the We Are All America campaign in Florida advocating for refugee rights.  And, as a result of all her hard work she was selected as the Florida delegate for the United Nations Human Rights Council Refugee Congress.