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A poster with four American flags hangs on Gulchekhra Alimova’s apartment door. Clocks on the dining room wall keep two different times – one in New York and the other in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
From her 17th-floor apartment in Lefrak City, Alimova runs Vatan Asia, Inc., a grassroots immigrant association that helps the growing number of Central Asian immigrants assimilate into American life.
Since she established the non-profit organization in 2003, it has grown to approximately 25 active members and more than 100 volunteers. Alimova has become the inadvertent go-to person for Central Asian immigrant needs. She said Vatan Asia, which translates to “Homeland Asia” in Uzbek, has a network of about 5,000 in New York and 9,000 across the U.S. Alimova said she will now seek city grants or government sponsorship for her association.
“They are like my sisters and brothers, my small country in America,” said Alimova. “It doesn’t matter what ethnicity or religion, we are like one family.”
When she came to the United States in 1999, Alimova, 55, said she had no help. Because of the group’s diverse religions and ethnicities, she found no one mosque, church or organization that covered the needs of Central Asian immigrants, who come from the former Soviet Union countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
“Friends and friends of friends asked me how to [find a] job, money, find apartment, pay rent, and [cope with] depression,” said Alimova, who is an elderly caretaker and published poet.
“My friends send me so many people,” she said. “I went to my job for one day and my husband said there were 39 messages for me.”
Alimova said she has picked up Central Asian immigrants at the airport and has regularly opened the guest room of her three-bedroom apartment to them.
“When they arrive here they expect solidarity,” said Alimova, who worked as an English language teacher in Uzbekistan. “I know several families who returned because they didn’t have jobs and language skills, so I try to give them the right direction.”
She even has her children, Jaohiva Sadi, 22, and Hislatjon (John) Sadi, 16, serve as interpreters – they both speak Persian, Russian, Uzbek, and English. They accompany immigrants to the Uzbekistan and Tajikistan consulates and to the social security office in Jamaica. They said they often help immigrants fill out Section 8 housing or food stamp applications.
“We don’t sleep,” said Sadi Khamrokulov, Alimova’s husband, who was a pediatrician in Uzbekistan and now works as a home care attendant. “They call 24 hours a day, at 11:00, 12:00, 1:00 for any emergency.”
Many Central Asians help each other individually, utilizing personal and professional networks, according to Rafis Abazov, a Columbia University professor who has written extensively on Central Asian cultures.
Central Asians are a relatively new, but growing, American immigrant group, which began arriving in the U.S. in the late 1990s, according to Sam Kliger, the founder of the Research Institute for New Americans (RINA), a think tank for the Russian-speaking community in the U.S. Kliger is also the director of Russian Jewish community affairs at the American Jewish Council.
“It is not only because they are new or fresh that they don’t have a host organization specifically targeting them,” said Kliger. “They don’t trust any government or non-governmental organization.”
A recent RINA survey of immigrants from the former Soviet Union showed low levels of government trust, with trust of spouses below 30 percent and trust of doctors below 15 percent.
“But the good news is that as time passes, they adjust to the American lifestyle,” said Kliger. “They start to self-organize because this is the best way to improve their common goals.”
Alimova said it is now time for her to seek government grants. Her personal investment in Vatan Asia has cost her up to $5,000 – to organize Uzbek, Tajik, American, and Muslim holiday parties (with sometimes up to 40 people in her apartment), to help immigrants with application fees and to finance her monthly community newsletter, Vatan.
“I want to help people, but I pay rent, too, and should make money for my family,” said Alimova. “I want the government to help me to open a center.”
Ravshan Pulatov, 56, went to high school with Alimova in Samarkand, but 25 years had elapsed until she found him an apartment in Lefrak City five years ago. He now serves as Vatan Asia’s vice-president.
“We’re getting more people coming here,” said Pulatov, through an interpreter. “To not lose our culture, tradition, we need a place to go, talk, meet, and eat.”
“Gulchekhra is our direction,” said Pulatov. “She knows the rules and what an immigrant needs. Without her, we would be lost.”
From the balcony of her apartment, Alimova has a view of Manhattan, five bridges and the planes circling in and out of LaGuardia Airport.
“We only have this apartment,” said Alimova. “But it’s not enough.”