The International Center is Closing!

While I was net-surfing and looking for blogs relevant to my interest in immigration, I found sad news informing the International Center , a free-of-charge English Learning Center for immigrants, is closing by the end of April due to the financial difficulties. ( from Donna Poisl's blog Immigrants in USA)

“[T]errible loss for us, for our city and our community.” 

                                                 Comment from Dr. Allen Keller, Bellevue Hospital Center (NY Times)

Article Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/nyregion/international-center-a-school-for-immigrants-faces-closure.html?_r=1

Based on the article, we can see that the center has been loved by so many immigrants and its stuffs for over 50 years. The Center is not just a place to learn English, buy a place where peoples around the world can share their cultures, make friends, develop skills for living and working, and of course learn the American culture. 

Although it seems that nobody can stop the shutdown of the Center, some stuffs and volunteers have formed committees to raise money and find a new place to restart the center. Mr. Mahmood Ali, one of the students from Yemen, compared "'the center to a tree: If it is cut...it will blossom again and grow up again, because it has a soul.'"(NY Times)

I have not heard the existence of the center till I found the article, and when I knew it I was worried about students who have been learning at the center.  The Center must have been an essential bridge between them and the American society. Now, they feel like they are going to lose their prime supporter, I assume. As an international student, I really understand that a newcomer is dying to have a place she/he can feel like a home and foreign friends who share same experiences. Hmm, what I can do for the center? Posing this blog can be help, I hope...

Phuong