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Arab American Students to Honor Amer Family at Annual Dinner
The Arab American Student Union (ASU) at UM-Dearborn will hold its 6th annual dinner tonight at Bint Jebail Cultural Center in Dearborn. The dinner is expected to gather more than six hundred supporters including community leaders, activists and officials.
Every year ASU chooses leaders from their community to honor in their ‘Empowering the Youth Banquet’. This year the organization chose the Amer family.
The Amers, Muslim Arab immigrants from Lebanon, lost their son and two daughters to foster care and then to adoption, in one of the most unjust cases in the history of the State of Michigan. They were wrongly accused more than twenty years ago of child abuse after an accident that claimed the life of their two year old son. The parents were acquitted on all charges and despite their persistent efforts to regain their children, the State would never return them. They were adopted and raised by Christian missionaries.
Despite their unbearable pain and the injustice that has been inflicted on them, the Amers believed in the American justice system and didn’t give up. They worked hard to clear their name and pass the Amer Act, which prevents State agencies from putting other families through the same pain and injustice. HB4118 protects Michigan families by ensuring that children are placed with relatives whenever possible and safe. Former Governor Jennifer Granholm signed the act into law before leaving office in December 2010.
ASU is an organization at the University of Michigan-Dearborn comprised of a promising new generation of individuals who are dedicated to representing the interests of Arab Americans at the university and community level.
CAAO is an umbrella group for 40 Arab American organizations in southeastern Michigan. ASU is a member of CAAO.
Click <a href=”http://www.arabdetroit.com/events.php?id=2066″>here</a> for more information about this event.