Lincoln’s ECHO Collective helps new American women [Video]

By JoANNE YOUNGFor the Lincoln Journal Star

Roe Jaf, her husband and daughter arrived at a New York City airport in November 2008 to claim a new country and a new life. The three spent the night at a hotel and took off the next day to make a home in South Carolina.

The 19-year-old and her family had been whisked away from all that was familiar in Iraq for their safety. Ameer Waly had been in danger there of being taken from his home and killed because he had worked with U.S. Army troops as an interpreter and translator.

Now that they were safe in Columbia, South Carolina, they faced the task of integrating into a new culture and making a living in a different land, as many waves of foreign born people before them have done.

Waly, who has a degree in French, found a job at a grocery store and Jaf began the task …