A large poster-sized photo of a Cambodian youth harvesting cabbages sits on Seynabou Sarr’s desk in the Harlem satellite office of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) 9/11 Disaster Response Program in New York City. The young woman in the photo beams with pride as she shows the photographer the harvest, the results of a development program made possible by an UMCOR grant. The photo is the largest thing in the office, besides the desk, and is out of proportion as a decorative piece of art. A visitor can’t help but wonder what it has to do with UMCOR’s 9/11 Disaster Response in Harlem.

 

“This is here for a purpose,” says Ms. Sarr, the case manager at the Harlem satellite. “I tell my clients, this agency doesn’t just serve people here in New York City. It didn’t open overnight because of the World Trade Center attacks. This agency is all over the world, and it doesn’t care who you are; if you are in need, it will help you. Some of the clients that come may be undocumented. I tell them it doesn’t matter. It helps people like this girl, far away, with simple basic needs, like food. Then they are less fearful, and they think, ‘Maybe this agency can help me too.’”

 

From All Walks of Life

Since opening its doors in June 2002, the UMCOR 9/11 Disaster Response office has handled 300 cases representing people from all walks of life—from well-off employees who worked in the World Trade Center to business owners in lower Manhattan whose businesses have collapsed. From hotel and restaurant workers who were barely getting by on part-time work to Chinatown’s garment workers, who, in addition to losing their piece-work jobs when the garment factories closed, struggle with respiratory disorders related to the World Trade Center fallout. All of them face the same challenge: how to survive the post-9/11 economy.

 

Representatives from UMCOR meet regularly for roundtable discussions with representatives from other relief agencies such as the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and Safe Horizons. The various relief programs work together to provide for New York’s unmet needs stemming from the 9/11 tragedy.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs in New York City over the last two years since the 9/11 attacks. Some of the clients worked in the towers and escaped with their lives. Their compensation from the 9/11 federal funds, however, is based on what they were making at the time, which means those who earned the least receive the least. The largest grants, the millions of dollars reported by the media, go to the survivors whose loved ones perished. Many of those who escaped with their lives struggle in disbelief as they find themselves jobless and without income 18 months after the attack.

 

One client, recalls UMCOR caseworker Vanessa Encarnación, was a single mother who had been working as a maid with the Marriott Hotel in the World Trade Center. Her manager had made sure that all the housekeeping staff was out of the tower before him. He died in the tower as it collapsed. Ms. Encarnación’s client cried as she retold her story. She was still grieving for the loss of her manager, and she has not found another job. She laid all her bills out, covering the surface of the caseworker’s desk. “What can you do?” she asked Ms. Encarnación. Her refrigerator at home was empty; she had run out of food for her daughter and herself.

 

At the Harlem satellite, Ms. Sarr counsels Uriel Gilot about his bills and finding a way to return to school. Mr. Gilot, a Haitian immigrant, had a maintenance job in the Wall Street district. He lost that job on September 11, 2001. He has a wife and children to support. He says he has gone to hundreds of job interviews. He was enrolled in a technical school program, but when he was laid off, he could no longer afford tuition. Unskilled labor has been hit hard in New York. “They need special certification papers I don’t have,” he said. Ms. Sarr urged him to take the negative energy he is feeling and make it work toward the positive in his life. For now, UMCOR can pay his electric and telephone bills, and FEMA is picking up his rent. When asked what his current income is, he said, “Zero.” But he had two more job interviews that same day. “Let us hope...” said Ms. Sarr.

 

In Chinatown, Jenny Crystal Ip is meeting with clients at another UMCOR satellite location, the Chinese Staff and Workers Association. To get to this satellite location, one has to enter at street level, walk up a flight of stairs, go out onto the fire escape, and cross a short bridge through the back of another building into a large room, which appears to have no other entrance but the fire escape. Ms. Ip, who is known as “J.C.,” grew up in Chinatown.

 

Her client Lee, a second-generation Chinese American, has been looking for a job for over 18 months. He is fluent in English, has a college degree, and had a job that required computer skills. His problem? He’s overqualified for many jobs. “With my experience and education level, they won’t hire me as a receptionist. I’d work as a receptionist because I need a job, but they won’t even consider me. Sometimes there are so many applicants for the kind of job I was doing, I send in my résumé, but I don’t even get an interview.”

 

Ms. Ip says Lee is a little unusual. Most of the workers she meets through the Chinese Staff and Workers Association and the other Chinatown satellite, the Chinese Methodist Church, are laid-off garment workers. They do not understand much English and they are both documented (in the United States with legal visas or green cards) and undocumented (entered the country without proper documentation). The factory sweatshop work is all they know. They are paid by the piece, not by the hour, and often make just 10 cents a piece. In at least one case, a factory shut down overnight without even notifying its workers. The owner locked the doors and left town, owing weeks of back wages to the workers.

 

In Manhattan, Peter Spano owned a small business that dealt with job recruitment in the financial district. After 9/11, many businesses in the Wall Street area laid off workers, so recruitment services were no longer needed. Mr. Spano thought he could weather the situation. He had over $45,000 in savings to wait out the economy.

 

“I was an owner, not an employee, an employer. I was not eligible for the same reimbursements as the employees who were directly affected. I did not jump for assistance because I was not desperate. But my savings only lasted so long. By the time I realized I needed assistance, I had missed the application deadline. Safe Horizons said I could file an appeal. I explained my extenuating circumstances, but they said trying to make it on my own was not a good reason for late filing. They denied my appeal. Since 9/11, I have received $150 in food vouchers from UMCOR, I have had two phone bills and electric bills paid, and that’s it. Apparently, people like me are not a target for relief efforts. UMCOR was the only agency that treated me humanely, like a person. Vanessa Encarnación was a godsend, and she listened when no one else would. Safe Horizons has helped 50,000 people in New York, but not me. I have lost my entire life’s savings.”

 

The Unmet Needs

Dr. Ramon Nieves, director of the UMCOR 9/11 Disaster Response, stresses that UMCOR participates as part of the roundtable to supplement, rather than duplicate, the services that are offered to those affected by the 9/11 attacks. UMCOR case workers listen to their clients and assess their needs. At times they act as counselors, listening and offering advice. But they also recognize the need for professional involvement, and at times they refer clients for psychiatric help or credit-counseling services.

 

UMCOR now has satellite offices in nine locations in New York City. The main office is in the GBGM mission headquarters located in the Interchurch Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The satellites are in the Chinese United Methodist Church and the Chinese Staff and Workers Association in Chinatown; Metro- politan-Duane United Methodist Church in Greenwich Village; a United Methodist City Society-owned building on Fifth Avenue in Harlem; The Women’s Muslim Institute for Research and Development in the Bronx; Community United Methodist Church in Jackson Heights, Queens; the United Methodist Center for Pastoral Leadership in the Bronx; Astoria Community Services in Astoria, Queens; and Heavenly Vision Christian Center in the Bronx.

 

Clients are referred to UMCOR by the other participating agencies of the roundtable and also by participating community organizations such as the Chinese Staff and Workers Association. United Methodist churches in the five boroughs, the New York Annual Conference, and the United Methodist City Society have referred clients and given support to serve them. Other clients are walk-ins off the street who have heard about the program through word of mouth or seen one of its fliers. One of the advantages of having the satellite locations in local neighborhoods is the ability to reach people where they live.

 

While other relief and recovery agencies, such as FEMA or Safe Horizons, have established deadlines and cut funding to latecomers, UMCOR’s program is relatively fresh, operating on the street for less than a year. Although the relief agency has received some criticism for the length of time it has taken to set up the program, it is following a time-honored tradition born out of experience. Take time, assess, and find the unmet needs. An influx of money without planning and careful assessment can lead to more problems than it solves. UMCOR, with a good funding base, is in a position to aid those who are just starting their recovery process.

 

The five-year program will undergird New Yorkers over a long-term commitment.

 

Starting Over in New York

One of the hardest realities for New Yorkers to accept about the 9/11 disaster has been the way it reached beyond the World Trade Center site into every neighborhood and street and changed the way people live. They have had to stop life as they knew it and start over. This kind of recovery is difficult because it is not as simple as repairing the damage and rebuilding what was torn down. Recovery requires a switch in life’s midstream.

 

Seynabou Sarr, a devout Muslim, is originally from Senegal. She’s learned the hard way about switching course midstream. In Senegal, she pursued a college education; but, once married, according to custom, she deferred to her husband’s wishes and stayed home to raise their family. After her family immigrated to the United States, she volunteered time at her children’s preschool. Then her husband died. What started as a volunteer position became full-time work. She remained in the United States, raised her four children, and went back to school, starting her education “over from scratch,” she says, because the US schools would not give credit for the four years of college in Senegal. She worked up to her master’s degree in business. Her four children are all presently attending college.

 

At the Harlem office, she counsels Jeffrey Jones, a Harlem native, to get his GED through a college program and then to continue his education toward a college degree. First, he will start with a 13-week training course through Safe Horizons, so that while he attends school he may also find a new job in a new venue to support himself. He had been working in maintenance in a downtown firm where his two brothers still work. Lately, he has acquired support by going back and forth to the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, Safe Horizons—any agency that could help him pay his bills, acquire the necessities, and get by.

 

“Safe Horizons will pay a stipend of $300 per week while I’m training. That’s good, but the real jobs want diplomas,” he said. Ms. Sarr, who tends to get down to business right away, was already calling a college, setting him up for an interview, and assuring him about tuition grants that would pay his way. “Yes,” Mr. Jones agrees by the end of his session, “I want to do this. I want to start over.”

 

Before he was out the door, Ms. Sarr had already told him about extracurricular activities at the college. “Don’t burn yourself out,” she admonished. “College is not only work, work, work. Take advantage of those sports programs. Play something, like basketball. That’s where you meet people and make good friends, and that’s what gets you through the hard times. You take it from me, I learned the hard way.”

 

By the time Mr. Jones was on the street again, he could see himself on that basketball court, in the school library studying, juggling work, study, and recreation. What he could imagine, he could make real, and he left the Harlem satellite with something he’d been looking for throughout his 18-month journey—hope.

 

What the UMCOR 9/11 Program Offers to Clients   UMCOR helps clients through casework in a number of different ways. It provides clients with very basic steps to take toward their own recovery, such as bill payment, job referral, and counseling. All clients must be able to prove that they were directly or indirectly affected by the 9/11 attacks. Some bring pay stubs, a World Trade Center building pass, or a pink slip from a downtown business. Cases are opened on a three-month term of service. After three months, a case may be reopened for up to a year for further referral and consultation.   1.         UMCOR can pay the basic bills of living, such as food, electricity,             and phone service. It can pay a client’s rent if he or she has been             denied FEMA assistance or if a client has been approved by FEMA             and awaits the grant. UMCOR will pay clients’ service bills, such as             bills for hospital, school, and childcare.   2.         Caseworkers provide vouchers for goods and transportation             services. Programs with Pathmark, K-mart, and Old Navy allow             UMCOR clients to buy groceries, replace smoked-damaged             furniture, and obtain clothing for the family. Metrocards for subway             and bus service are also provided.   3.         Basic counseling is part of the service, but more serious problems,             such as post-traumatic stress disorder, are referred for ongoing             professional help.   4.         Referrals for jobs, food pantries, clothing, and training programs             are given to clients as needed.   5.         UMCOR provides school kits and health kits for distribution at the             satellite offices and at other points in the neighborhoods affected by             the 9/11 attacks.

 

• For more information about the UMCOR 9/11 Disaster Response Program, call 1-212-870-3988

 

• UMCOR Advance #901125-3, “Love in the Midst of Tragedy,” is still accepting donations for 9/11 recovery work. Contributors may designate their gift for a particular area of response, including: New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, or Afghanistan. Contributions may be sent through local United Methodist churches by making a check out to the church and designating the check in the memo line with the Advance number. Call 1-800-554-8583 to make a credit-card donation.
  
• Health Kits and School Kits may be assembled and sent to the UMCOR Depot for distribution in the United States and around the world. Call the depot, 1-800-814-8765 for more information, or visit the website at: http://gbgm-umc.org/UMCOR/kits.cfm

 

* Christie R. House is the editor of New World Outlook.