Culture

Kurdish Professionals provide COVID-19 relief to Nashville Kurds

"The National Immigration Law Center has awarded the Kurdish Professionals a grant to aid in the COVID-19 rapid response in support of low income immigrant community members."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2020/05/23 17:20

world US Nashville Kurdistan Little Kurdistan

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A US-based group known as the Kurdish Professionals has announced it would be offering financial assistance to members of the Kurdish community in Nashville that are affected by the current pandemic and financial crisis.

“The Kurdish community in Nashville is very tight-knit. When one family is burdened, it affects all of us,” said Dr. Zaid Brifkani, the President of Kurdish Professionals, in an interview with Kurdistan 24. “We noticed that there were increased numbers of Kurds being affected directly and indirectly by COVID-19, so we did our research.”

The Kurdish Professionals group was started in Nashville, Tennessee, which has been home to North America’s largest Kurdish constituency since the mid-1970s and boasts an estimated 18,000 Kurdish residents, a fact that has earned it the nickname “Little Kurdistan.” The group was registered as a nonprofit organization in 2016 with the goal of creating a global network to support Kurds with education and career opportunities.

As the impacts of the global pandemic worsened, the group appealed for support with the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), a legal advocacy organization, which awarded the Kurdish Professionals group a grant to aid in the COVID-19 response targeting low-income immigrant Nashville community members.

With the group’s nonprofit status and past work in the community, Dr. Brifkani said he is confident they will be “able to use that grant to provide financial assistance to those in need.”

“We have many Kurds who, not only work in healthcare where they are essential workers, but also who work in retail, [restauranting], and other front line positions,” Brifkani added.

He also warned that recent heat maps provided by the local health authorities indicated increased rates of infections in areas where many Kurds live, “thus increasing their exposure.”

These considerations have led many to make tough decisions regarding their employment situation. Several Kurdish families in Nashville have been directly impacted by COVID-19, such as the loss of work or wages, while others in frontline jobs continue to risk exposure.

The financial assistance is designed to help individuals who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 or are infected by the virus and suffering from economic hardship as a result.

Dilman Yasin, Director of Community Outreach for the Kurdish Professionals, told Kurdistan 24 “that the Little Kurdistan COVID relief will provide financial assistance to members of the community who have been diagnosed or cared for a diagnosed family member and suffered financial hardship.”

“Awards will be based on eligibility and need. We are very fortunate to be able to provide these resources to our community.”

Other support to the Kurdish community in Nashville includes the city’s government website providing information on its COVID-19 response in Kurdish, as well as a nod from Nashville Mayor John Cooper wearing a Kurdistan flag facemask during his daily televised press briefing on COVID-19 updates on May 5, 2020.

According to the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, there is a total of 4,596 confirmed coronavirus cases in Nashville, including 52 deaths.

Local media reports suggest that the number of coronavirus cases has been slowly decreasing. Therefore, Nashville authorities are reportedly planning to reopen in four distinct phases to put “Nashvillians back to work.”

Editing by Khrush Najari