Name: Sabina Kovach

Social Justice Group: 2023-2024, NYC Refugees/Immigrants

Date of Fieldwork: February 8, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Little Shop of Kindness

Type of Fieldwork: [69]

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:

On February 8th me and my social justice group went to the Little Shop of Kindness which is a volunteer organization that helps provide all kinds of things for refugees. While we were there we started off by organizing and sorting out different articles of clothing. After that we then washed fruit and placed them in baskets for the refugees and or migrants who came in to just take whenever. The majority of people who came in while we were there only spoke Spanish so there were translators there to help out. Ilze, the head of the Little Shop of Kindness mentioned to us how one of the customers that used to come in all the time recently got asylum after a year. That really put into perspective for us how hard it can be for people to gain asylum.

We were able to help out one person, she was a mother of 2 shopping for her children and husband. She only spoke Spanish so we occasionally had to get help from other volunteers who spoke Spanish. It felt very fulfilling to help out someone else and we all plan to go back again to help others.