New Funding Will Help Welcome Afghan Newcomers to San Antonio

CONTACT: Tino Gallegos, (210) 207-8993, tino.gallegos@sanantonio.gov

Nadia Mavrakis, (972) 832-2986, nadia@culturingua.com

SAN ANTONIO (May 11, 2022) — The City of San Antonio is pleased to announce that local nonprofit Culturingua will receive a new grant of $150,000 from the Open Society Foundations, to partner with the City of San Antonio to support efforts to enable upward economic mobility of new Afghan refugee arrivals who want to settle into their lives in San Antonio.

Culturingua will support economic opportunities for new Afghan arrivals through workforce development and entrepreneurship training programs, by forming partnerships with the City of San Antonio’s Workforce Development Office and SA: Ready to Work, the World Heritage Office, the Economic Development Department, and the City’s Faith Based and Immigration Liaisons. Culturingua will additionally partner with the Adult Education and Literacy Alamo Consortium at Education Service Center, Region 20 and Workforce Solutions Alamo.

“These funds enable our City to welcome our newest Afghan neighbors and support their long-term success in San Antonio by enabling them to gain skills to obtain living-wage jobs or start and grow small businesses -- all supporting inclusive economic growth for our community,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg.

“Our Afghan neighbors bring with them skills and cultural assets from their home countries in areas such as cooking, fabric arts, skilled trades, childcare, and agriculture,” said Nadia Mavrakis, Culturingua Chief Executive Officer. “We are working with the City of San Antonio and other local partners to harness those skills to enable them to apply them in the local economy, contribute to the local cultural diversity, and achieve the American Dream.”

There are currently an estimated 4,000 Afghan refugees who have arrived in San Antonio since September 2021. The funds, supplied by the Open Society Foundations, are meant to augment limited federal resources to help those communities that are particularly invested in welcoming Afghans and seed future investments to support Afghan integration into San Antonio.

“Local government leaders are playing a critical role in welcoming Afghans and helping them to settle into new communities,” said Laleh Ispahani, Co-Director, Open Society-U.S. “We are proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with them in welcoming these newcomers. In making this grant and others like it we recognize that partnerships between local government and community groups are essential in building inclusive communities and contributing to a growing welcoming movement across the country.”

"This grant recognizes the longstanding efforts of San Antonio to create a welcoming community for all, work that we know will be vital to not only supporting new Afghan neighbors but to strengthening our collective response to the displacement of people across the globe, and our ability to ensure that everyone can belong and thrive in the place we call home, no matter where we come from,” said Rachel Peric, Executive Director, Welcoming America.

More Background on the Open Society Foundations

Founded by George Soros, the Open Society Foundations are the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. Part of the organization’s focus includes efforts to improve protections for refugees and vulnerable migrants, to stop the exploitation of migrant workers, and to build stronger ties between host communities and newcomers. For more information, visit www.opensocietyfoundations.org.

More Background on Culturingua

Culturingua is a nonprofit that celebrates the people and heritage of the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) in San Antonio, Texas. Culturingua brings education opportunities to K-12 students to improve their global competencies and connectedness to the MENASA region, community development programs to the immigrants and refugees living in Northwest San Antonio neighborhoods to enable all residents to reach their full potential and lead prosperous lives, and arts and culture programs to San Antonio residents that build bridges and cross-cultural understanding through the arts.. For more information, visit www.culturingua.com.