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2009: The Year in Review

Posted on Friday December 18, 2009

In November 2008, the Arab American Institute and Foundation (AAI) wrapped up our most comprehensive Yalla Vote initiative to date. Our staff and volunteers, partners and interns had done incredible work—not just in 2008, but since the day we launched the program in 2007. And, in the wake of the largest Arab American voter turnout in history, we were proud and energized.

It turned out that we needed that energy, because 2009 has been just as eventful a year. AAI was your voice on domestic issues, from introducing Arab Americans’ issues to a new Administration to coordinating with both major political parties to ensure outreach in our communities nationwide; from fighting the most egregious provisions of the PATRIOT Act to hosting the 21^st Annual Virginia Candidates Night. And on the international front, we made sure that members of the U.S. Congress heard from people on the ground in the aftermath of the attacks on Gaza. We provided the White House with input on the President’s Cairo speech, as well as our ideas on advancing the Middle East peace process and supporting the new government in Lebanon.

AAI staff participated in the Carter Center’s delegation overseeing Lebanon’s June 2009 Parliamentary elections, traveled to Morocco with the U.S. Department of State to discuss the role of Arab American women in U.S. politics and, in our offices, briefed visiting delegations of elected officials, journalists, human rights activists and businesses from over three dozen countries.

In 2010, we mark AAI’s 25^th anniversary. We celebrate how far we have come—as an organization and as a community. We celebrate our strength and our diversity, our commitment and our resilience. We move into the next quarter century with a new generation of leaders, a new league of supporters, and a new appreciation of our own capacity.

And we move there together.

Together, we have created so much more than an organization. We have cultivated a vision, a community, and a future.

Thank you for all you’ve done to help us reach this landmark anniversary, and thank you for your continued support.

Click here to download our 2009 Year End Report.