New York: Leaders of the Silk Road Foundation and members of the Uzbek community apprised New York City Mayor Eric Adams of issues being faced by the community and put forward a set of recommendations including opening the first Uzbek community center, access to city agencies, and jobs for the Uzbek community.
NYC Mayor hosted a roundtable with the Silk Road Foundation, and the Uzbek community leaders, who highlighted their concerns.
Eric Adams was joined by Community Affairs Unit (CAU) Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) Commissioner Manuel Castro, International Affairs Commissioner Edward Mermelstein, and Executive Director for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC) Hassan Naveed at the Roundtable.
Also, the CAU Muslim Liaison Mohamed Bahi, Executive Director of Ethnic Media Jose Bayona and senior staff members met with the leaders of the Silk Road Foundation and members of the Uzbek community to discuss issues pertaining to their community.
Mayor Adams welcomed all in attendance and expressed his support for hosting the first ever meeting with leaders of the Uzbek community.
The meeting was turned over to CAU Muslim Liaison Mohamed Bahi who called on one of the speakers to open the meeting with a prayer before calling on other speakers to voice their topics of concern.
Speakers addressed concerns such as the opening of the first Uzbek community center, access to city agencies, access to city jobs for the Uzbek community, organizing Uzbek cultural events with the mayor (flag raising, heritage event at Gracie mansion, collaboration in the international day of friendship) , addressing and combatting hate crimes in the Uzbek community, feedback on how to keep safety as a priority in the Uzbek community, better communication whether in print or television to be better informed, and civic engagement towards voter registration.
The mayor thanked everyone for coming to the meeting.
