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On March 24, the AAAN co-hosted, with the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, the first event in the Chicago Cultural Alliance's "Talking About" series. The hosts each gave a presentation on their community's immigration to the southwest side of Chicago, after which the 30 participants reflected on and discussed similar and disparate experiences.

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AAAN youth leaders Ashira Anderson, Sara Abughnaim, and Janeen Radwan led a workshop March 25 for the rest of the youth program participants in Arabic letters and writing. Youth made the letters out of playdough.

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AAAN youth organizing team led a workshop March 30 at Kershaw Elementary School on Arab culture and writing.

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  The AAAN's youth services and youth organizing programs joined forces to lead an April 13 workshop on bullying in a 1st-grade class at Maddock Elementary in the southwest suburb of Burbank.

"Yes," said the girl, "but I can't." When Rasmea asked her why not, she said her mother didn't allow her to play with boys. So Rasmea sought out the mother, and began spending time with her. "That's when I understood," she says, "that the mom was afraid of letting her child play with boys and children of other ethnicities because she didn't want anything bad to happen to her."

She reasoned with the mother, pointing out that her child spent time with children of other ethnicities at school, and that it was better for her daughter not to be isolated. "I felt that day," she says, "that some Arab families try to isolate their kids. They need help understanding, and becoming part of, society here." Several years later, in 2005, Rasmea moved to Chicago and joined the AAAN.

She created the Arab Women's Committee, which now has over 400 members. The women meet regularly to learn, write, and have fun, while helping to determine the direction of the AAAN's community organizing work. Together they take on the challenges of adjusting to life in the U.S., dealing with sexism, racism, and anti-Arab / anti-Muslim sentiment, and communicating with their acculturated American-born children.

Rasmea says that women often face barriers when trying to express, and advocate for, themselves. She dealt with double standards herself as a child. Her grandfather believed only her male cousins, and not she or her sisters, should go to school because they were short on money. "I was ready to challenge him," she says. "I used to walk two to three kilometers to school because I knew he wouldn't give me money for the bus. I have always wanted to prove that women are equal to or better than men."

After two years as an AmeriCorps member, Rasmea was commissioned to work on a comprehensive organizational evaluation of the AAAN, and soon thereafter, was appointed Associate Director.  Loyal and committed to her community, Rasmea is continuously learning and developing new skills and ideas. Even after over 30 years of community development and organizing work in Palestine and the U.S., and already with a law degree from Jordan under her belt, she has returned to school to complete a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice.