Zareen Kamal is an AFSC co-trainer for Communities Against Islamophobia and part of the StopCVE Chicago coalition in Chicago. She is a former Head Start teacher with a Master’s in Early Childhood Education.

When I was a preschool teacher at a community-based center last year, we began serving a growing number of refugee and immigrant children and families, some of whom were Muslim. As the only Muslim teacher there, I noticed how other adults at the school made assumptions about cultural differences in a genuine attempt to understand why some students behaved the way they did: “In their culture, they aren’t allowed to...” 

Debt cancellation is critical to build peace and alleviate poverty in Somalia. 

When you think of Somalia, some of the most severe humanitarian challenges in the world may come to mind. The country continues to endure violence, extreme poverty, acute food shortages, political instability, economic underdevelopment, human rights abuses, and recurring natural disasters, such as droughts and floods that lead to famine.  

But that is not the whole story.