Note: I began this post on Friday, but I only just now got around to finishing and posting it.

This has been a challenging week for me. The Summer Enrichment Camp began this week, and with it came a flood of things to be done, sites to be visited, and a Youth Summit to be planned. Walking into the office this morning, it was quiet. Many of my coworkers are celebrating Eid, at field trip sites, or, as I overheard one person in the office say, “Everyone’s energy is drained by Friday.”

More and more, I understand the sometimes hard realities of running a non-profit organization like Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS). When I attend meetings, my coworkers discuss budgets stretched thin, fewer numbers of new refugee families being settled to Columbus due to new immigration policies, and the need to appear worthy of being funded to grant donors and private entities.

When I visit sites, I see need greater than the resources given to ETSS via grants, donations, and other gifts. I see children, many who are first generation immigrants and refugees, living in poorly maintained public housing, wearing the same clothes everyday, and reporting instances of child abuse. I see the ways in which our current world is trying to reproduce itself in the lives of the children ETSS serve, and I see the ways in which ETSS work with New American families to produce better outcomes for both adults and children in their programs.

While non-profit work is stressful, I see hope. ETSS’s core leadership is almost — if not entirely — run by community leaders and elders who intimately know the struggles New American communities face in Columbus. I admire ETSS’s abilities to work cross-culturally, advocate for the needs of their communities, and find ways to continue serving New Americans in Columbus in the midst of frightening times for immigrants and refugees resettled in the United States.