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Center Gets $300,000 Grant for Immigrant, Refugee Sexual Assault Services

An organization that works with southern Maine’s refugee and immigrant communities is getting $300,000 to work with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

The Immigration Resource Center of Maine in Lewiston, formerly called United Somali Women of Maine, will use the grant from the federal Office on Violence Against Women to maintain and expand its culturally specific sexual assault services for East African sex assault victims living in Southern Maine.

Fatuma Hussein, the center’s executive director, says the organization provides services that are culturally and linguistically specific.

“Because we are speaking in their language and we’re coming from their cultural background, and we’re able to help them navigate this humongous social service system,” she says.

Hussein says the agency provides services in 14 different languages. She says the center wants their clients to be safe, thrive and get a new start, if that’s what they want.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.