BNCA & THE AMERICAN DREAM

BUSINESS CENTER FOR NEW AMERICANS

120 Broadway, suite 230

New York, NY 10271

AN ENDLESS PURSUIT...

Ms Sonnie Selma

M

s Sonnie Selma stood up, and then walked to the front of a conference room packed with more than one hundred participants. That was at the 3nd annual conference of BCNA, aka Business center for New Americans. Ms Selma runs a nation wide imported items : the Sonnie Selma African Foods; an ongoing business specialized in selling imported African crops. According to what we heard  at this meeting, Ms Selma manages a booming enterprise. A post said about her in the web “When she first started the business, she had to travel to Africa to purchase all her products in person but over the years she's built such a good relationship with suppliers that they now ship directly to her, streamlining her operations and costs.  Her highest grossing item is African palm oil, and other popular products include frozen specialty fishes and cassava leaves.” Ms Selma lives on Staten island.

We knew few about Ms Selma and her business. But, as a West African native, fleeing probably  a torn-war Nigeria,  some years ago, Ms Selma didn’t have to put her feet on the Elis Island’s pier where so many used to take a deep breath across this huge ocean at the end of which lay countries and continents with their families. However, wherever from they arrived, America, a land of opportunities, still has the magic to help these immigrants achieve the faceless American dream.

BCNA, the Manhattan based office for such an adventure, under the leadership of MsYanki Tshering,a very efficient executive director, offers through an organization called IDA (Individual Development Account) that opportunity. This program for refugees and asylees helps any participant achieve their financial dreams, thanks to a kind of micro-capitalization joint ventures.

Funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, U.S Department of Health and Human Services, BCNA is open to the wind of the high seas, so to speak. As so, it welcomes Russians, West Africans, Asians and so forth. On this Thursday April 24, it was a delight to watch youngsters from Nepal, India and Africa sharing with the audience their experiences in a search of a new life in America. Their eyes sparkling, these new Americans or refugees, some of them still at college or high school,   were telling their own stories, those that make you smile and fight back your tears. Really smart people are those who dream, and America wants to remind everybody that it is America because of those dreams.

Anytime you are on Manhattan by Broadway, take a few of your spare time to pay a visit at BNCA, 120 Broadway, suite 230, New York, NY 10271 or call 212-898-7850 and ask for Frances Smith. If you fall into this category of immigrants, you hold the key of your own future.

A Ζimbabwey glancing at the wildlife