New American youth at empowerment workshop discuss how to improve Concord

When Heshima Mulinde immigrated to the United States from Namibia in 2014, he spoke six languages. Now, he speaks only English.

At 15 years old, he focused so much of his effort on learning English in order to blend into the Concord culture that the languages his parents taught him have faded into the background.

He’s felt pressure to fit in and be accepted by adults and other students his age.

“You have to really impress people to have more support because people are really expecting you to be less than what other people are,” Mulinde said. “It puts a lot of pressure on you. People think I’m a bad person because of my skin color. People think you’re uneducated if you don’t talk professionally. People think you’re involved in gangs if you don’t dress well.”

On Wednesday night, Mulinde took to the Bank of NH Stage in front of nearly 80 New American youth to discuss discrimination in Concord and how to make the community more equitable and accepting.

The event, called Building Peaceful Communities, was a youth empowerment and leadership workshop hosted by Overcomers Refugee Services and Project S.T.O.R.Y — organizations that work to educate, empower and engage New American youth while providing them with resources to be successful. Students of various ages agreed that stereotypes, social media, discrimination and a lack of diversity suppress their education and overall success.

To tackle some of these issues, the group of middle school students suggested organizing a peer support group for refugees and New Americans, while the elementary school students talked about how to be more inclusive with their peers by making them laugh and smile.

“It was my dream at the beginning to empower youth to engage in the community and organize for kids to understand why we’re here and what they need to achieve,” said Clement Kigugu, director of Overcomers Refugee Services. “They can be whatever they want to make of themselves and make their dreams come true, but they need to understand who they are first.”

Kigugu helped organize the event with Charm Camacho, director of Project S.T.O.R.Y, which stands for Supporting Talents Of Rising Youth, and Jessica Livingston, community outreach coordinator for the Capitol Center of the Arts, which empowers children to express themselves through art and music.

— JAMIE L. COSTA, THE CONCORD MONITOR