Over the last several years,
we've been keeping a close eye on how
our state is working to support thousands
of asylum seekers from across the globe.
People who have fled everything,
from famine to violence for a new life
here in Maine since the summer of 2019,
when hundreds of asylum seekers who are
housed at the Portland Expo challenges
have persisted and the housing
struggles have only gotten worse.
Despite this, volunteers are working
to make their transition to life
in Maine as seamless as possible.
New Center main Sean Stackhouse joins us now.
Tell us more about that.
Sean
Patton Amanda right now.
The Greater Portland Council of
Governments estimates that more than 400
families are staying at hotels across
the region as communities actively
look for solutions in terms of housing.
Another challenge stands out.
Transportation.
Asylum seekers don't have access to cars,
and many don't know how to navigate
our public transportation system.
That's why those who have
experienced similar challenges are
trying to help ones arriving now.
Hi. Came from there. I know
how much he's challenging. Key
employee has lived in Maine for
just more than three years.
Originally from the Congo,
the challenges asylum seekers in
Maine face today are fresh in his mind
when I came over here. I cannot say
any word in English except good morning
from the language barrier to housing.
Gee has navigated the
hurdles put in front of him.
Now he's looking to use his knowledge
to help those whose shoes he once wore
with one of the trickiest things.
He had to learn.
Simply how to get around
the new arrival coming man so they have.
They don't have the all. Car.
The only transportation they
can use, it's only the buses,
a bus system that unless you grew up here,
can be tricky to navigate.
Now imagine you're trying to
figure it out in a foreign
language to get to doctors.
The grocery store anywhere.
What can be a simple task for
many Mainers can be nearly
unsolvable for the newest arrivals.
I struggled a lot to access information
about public transportation and then
understanding how the system works.
Delta Gora knows the challenge too.
Originally from Central Africa,
he now works with the Greater Portland
Council of Governments doing outreach.
He's worked closely with GP Cloggs
community Transportation Leaders program.
He and many advocates know the challenges
that face asylum seekers when it comes
to getting from point A to point B,
they are considered as a new
manners who also have the right as
all residents to move around to
get around, to be to move safely.
And independently on a public transportation,
we see a number of our immigrants come here.
They know how to drive, but they don't.
They're not allowed to drive
because of their status.
Muffalo Cheatham is the executive
director of the main immigrants
rights coalition and works with
asylum seekers every day and sees
the importance of transportation
to work. Find a job, you know,
for you to go to the to the hospital
to go to school in everything is is
within drivable, you know and Foxconn,
but people like Gee? We are
working to make a difference.
Some of those after taking part
in the Community Transportation
leader program through GP COG.
He had an idea to bring the
knowledge of the bus system
directly to the people who need it.
From my own experience and
say so. How can I make?
Distressed to be more accessible from
immigrant and refugee and asylum seeker.
So he worked alongside the Greater
Portland Council of Governments to
create the bus ambassadors program,
teaching those with limited language skills.
How to use public transportation.
Because of this, the bus ambassadors,
newcomers New Mainers are able to
be connected to available resources
connected to resources like
the grocery store, pharmacy,
social services, essential.
When arriving in a new place,
the program is a partnership with
the South Portland Bus service
and the Greater Portland Metro.
The route comes right to the
people that need it most every
Tuesday and Thursday the bus comes
to three hotels in Yarmouth and
Freeport that hundreds of asylum
seekers currently call home.
Funded by Cumberland County
American Rescue plan funds,
these new Mainers pay nothing
to get their essential services
and learn a complex bus system
in their own native language.
Those volunteering as bus ambassadors.
Speak ten different languages.
My first language is French,
but I can speak five languages, 4 far.
I can speak Swahili, Lingala
French and Kikongo. Hand. English
making a difference for the hundreds
that already use the service
GP Kong recently awarding Gee
its Community Leadership Award,
he knew how much work there was to
get to the point of being able to
actually implement this program,
and he always pushed through, pushed through,
pushed through and it always for him.
He's just thinking about the the change
that he can make to the community.
That's here.
Now that's going to be arriving and I
think that's what always pushes him.
While the bus ambassadors program goes
directly to hotels in Yarmouth and Freeport,
other residents from all backgrounds in the
Greater Portland area that are looking to
use the bus service can request help too.
We'll have more information on our
website and mobile app shortly patient
Amanda Sean. Thank you.