ShebaUSA organized a “Voter Registration and Guidelines” campaign at the Diversity Plaza arena in Jackson Heights last Saturday, May 31st. The campaign was led by the Sheba’s founding member Tamanna Yasmin, institution’s volunteer teacher, freedom fighter and social worker Abul Basher, ESOL teacher Saama Salim. More than 20 volunteer students of the organization participated in the campaign.
The campaign caught attention of the public eye. A significant number of local residents registered to become voters for the first time. The residents expressed excitement on becoming first-time voters in the United States, as well as, conveyed gratitude to the organization for holding the awareness-raising campaign. Voter registration forms and Registration Guideline booklets were available in multiple translated versions, including Bengali, Chinese and Spanish languages, which was greatly appreciated by the residents.
Immigrant lawyer Attorney Richard LaSalle’s associate Ehsan Rahman, and notable lawyer Mariam Malik had also participated in the campaign. Sheba USA expressed plans of organizing similar community events and campaigns in the near future in order to encourage Bangladeshis as well as other South Asian community residents to participate in voting in the US elections.
The organization also encouraged everyone to learn about the various services it offers, some of which include free ESL (English as Second Language) classes, computer education, citizenship/ civics exam training, housing and health benefits information, tax and lawyer referral services, job referral and etc. Among the participating volunteers in the campaign were Abul Bashar, Tonni Jannat, Hygiea Tuhin, Saima, Jumma Chowdhury, Mustafizur Rahman, Jay, Kaniz Akhter, Jasprit Kaur, Monowara Begum, Mohammad Islam, Rana Chowdhry and many more.
