One day, Zainab Al-Baaj heard about a community center that gives out food, clothing and basic items during English class at high school. The place was called the Good Neighbor Community Center. She thought it would help alleviate her family’s financial burden, so she went there for help. She got her first winter coat there.
Al-Baaj kept going back for help and soon started volunteering at the center. Today, she’s a case manager at GNCC, helping newcomers with any help that they need, just like how the center helped her nearly three decades ago.
"I came as a refugee myself in '94," Al-Baaj said.
Al-Baaj's family is from Basra, Iraq. She lived through war like everyone else in her neighborhood, but her home was no longer safe. She arrived in Lincoln at 18 years old with her husband, her six-month-old daughter, and her son, who was in her stomach at that time. She was forced to leave her family, heritage, culture, and language behind.
“I only had regular high heels. I didn’t know what the proper shoes for snow were,” Al-Baaj said.
GNCC slowly became a huge part of Al-Baaj's life. After the 9/11 tragedy, strangers would yell at her to go back to her country and said she wasn’t welcome here. However, her family also received immense support from GNCC and friends who made them believe that they can still live in Lincoln.
“I was getting help and I would like to give something back,” Al-Baaj said.
Each day at work looks different for Al-Baaj. Typically, she would be at work around 9 a.m. On Mondays and Wednesdays, she would put on her apron and sort food the center receives from the food bank with her coworkers. Most of Al-Baaj's work consists of case management and following up with newcomers. She teaches them how to handle phone calls, take public transportation, the right way to educate their children about cultural differences.
“I want to help clients because I lived and walked in their shoes,” Al-Baaj said. “I know their suffering, pain, and discomfort coming to a new country."
Al-Baaj noticed most newcomer families often struggle to balance with their new American identity and their native cultural roots. She observed that most parents try hard to teach their children about their heritage, in hopes of them passing down the tradition to their future children.
For Al-Baaj and her husband, it was important for them to pass down their Middle Eastern and Islamic roots to their four children. At home, they spoke Arabic with their children from the day they were born. They celebrated Muslim and cultural holidays and taught them how to pray five times a day. They only ate the permitted food according to Islamic law and taught their children how to cleanse their bodies. They taught them how to sit when there’s an elder in the same room as them, even down to the specific way of talking to an elder.
"They all speak the language and are very religious, Alhamdulillah [means Thank God],” Al-Baaj said.
During a trip back home to Iraq, Al-Baaj told her children, “This is your home,” to which they replied, “Our home is in America.” But that was OK, it made sense for them that the U.S. was their home. They were born here, grew up here and made friends here. Al-Baaj and her husband invested in their children’s lives here in the U.S.
Al-Baaj joked about her identity, saying she doesn’t know where to fit in. When she goes back home to Iraq, her family and friends call the “The American,” but here in Lincoln, people refer to her as the “Arabic Iraqi.” However, Al-Baaj said she’s lucky to have both cultures as part of her identity.
When asked if America was her home, Al-Baaj said, “Of course. I lived here for 26 years, more years than I lived in my country.” She feels that she’s more suited to live here. Back in Iraq, she feels a little lost living tomorrow the same as today. Here, she is making a difference by planting the seed of hope in newcomers and showing them the right path to take. Like most Americans, Al-Baaj values every minute at work. It’s also the staff and volunteers at GNCC that make Lincoln her home.
“I'm a proud American. It's the land of wonder,” Al-Baaj exclaimed. “If I stayed back at home, I wouldn’t be this active.”
During her first year in the U.S., Al-Baaj recalled a case worker telling her to take off her hijab, or headscarf. He said wearing the hijab would stop her from being successful.
“No, you’ll see, I'll be successful,” Al-Baaj replied.