News - Kurdish American Solidarity Association (KASA)

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Advocacy and Awareness: How Anyone Can Amplify Kurdish American Voices

Advocacy does not require a law degree or a Washington office. The most effective advocacy is often local and personal: a conversation with a neighbor, a social…

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Hosting a Fundraiser for KASA: Ideas and Guidelines

Community-organized fundraisers are one of the most effective ways to raise money for KASA, because they reach people who are not already in our network and do …

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Becoming a KASA Member: What It Means and How to Apply

KASA membership is open to anyone who wants to be formally affiliated with the organization and committed to its mission. Membership is not required to attend K…

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Planned Giving and Legacy Donations: Supporting KASA’s Long-Term Mission

Building a nonprofit that lasts beyond its founders requires resources that are not dependent on any single fundraising year. Planned giving — the inclusion of …

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Donating to KASA: How Contributions Are Used and Why They Matter

Every donation to KASA goes into one of three areas: direct services to families (food, heating aid, emergency support), educational programs (language classes,…

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Corporate and Organizational Partnerships: How to Collaborate with KASA

Businesses and institutions that want to support the Kurdish American community have more options than writing a check — though writing a check is also welcome.…

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Why I Volunteer with KASA: Stories from Our Community Members

We asked a dozen KASA volunteers the same question: why do you volunteer? The answers were more varied than we expected.One said she volunteers because her fami…

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Volunteer Spotlight: A Year of Dedication and Service

Every year KASA runs, it runs because of people who gave their time without being asked twice. This year's volunteer spotlight is not a ranked list — the work p…

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How to Get Involved with KASA: A Guide for First-Time Volunteers

The most common thing we hear from people who are thinking about volunteering with KASA is that they are not sure what they could offer. They are not profession…

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Five Ways to Support the Kurdish American Community

The first and most direct thing you can do is support an organization that serves the community — through a donation, through volunteering, or through both. KAS…

Events & News

Looking Ahead: KASA’s Plans and Priorities for the Coming Year

The coming year at KASA is organized around three honest admissions. First: our language program is working, but it is not yet reaching everyone who wants it. W…

Events & News

Year in Review: KASA’s 2025 Milestones and Achievements

2025 was the year KASA's humanitarian programs reached scale. The Ramadan food distribution grew to 180 families. The Qurban campaign for Eid al-Adha was the la…

Events & News

KASA Board Elections: Meet Our New Leadership

KASA's board of directors shapes the organization's direction, ensures its accountability, and provides the governance structure that allows a nonprofit to oper…

Events & News

New Partnership Announcement: Expanding Our Reach

KASA is pleased to announce a new partnership with an organization that significantly expands our capacity to serve Kurdish families in a region where we have h…

Events & News

KASA at the National Nonprofit Conference: Sharing Our Model

When KASA staff presented at the national conference, the reaction was not what we expected. We anticipated questions about scalability — how do you grow a dias…

Events & News

KASA Joins Coalition for Refugee and Immigrant Services

Kurdish Americans exist within a broader ecosystem of immigrant and refugee communities, and the challenges they face — navigating legal status, accessing publi…

Events & News

Community Forum Recap: Listening to the Needs of Kurdish Americans

KASA held a community forum last quarter with a single goal: to listen. Not to present programs, not to ask for donations, not to explain the organization's str…

Events & News

KASA Volunteer Appreciation Event: Recognizing Our Dedicated Team

KASA runs on volunteer labor. This is not a complaint or a confession of organizational weakness — it is a description of how Kurdish American civic life actual…

Events & News

Upcoming Kurdish Cultural Events Across the United States

The Kurdish American community calendar is more active than many people outside the community realize. From Nashville to San Diego, from Houston to Washington D…

Events & News

KASA Annual Fundraising Dinner: Thank You to Our Supporters

The annual fundraising dinner is the one night a year when KASA asks directly and everyone in the room knows it. We try to make it worth the ask: good food, a p…

Events & News

KASA Community Picnic 2025: Families Gather in Austin

Austin in late spring is good for a picnic if you start early enough to avoid the midday heat. KASA's 2025 community gathering did exactly that: families arrive…

Events & News

Kahoot Kurdish Language Competition: Engaging Students Through Technology

The idea was simple: take the vocabulary and grammar concepts that students had been studying in KASA's online language program and turn them into a competition…

Events & News

Newroz 2025 Recap: A Celebration of Identity and Solidarity

Last year's Newroz celebration was the kind of evening that reminds you why community organizations exist. Not to do paperwork, not to file reports, not to writ…

Events & News

Newroz 2026 Celebration Recap: Community Comes Together

The hall was packed before the music started. Families arrived in traditional Kurdish clothing, children were already running between tables, and the smell of f…

Humanitarian Aid

How to Donate to KASA’s Aid Programs: A Step-by-Step Guide

Donating to KASA is straightforward. On our website, you can donate by credit card through our secure payment processor. We also accept donations by Zelle to ou…

News and Events

SUPPORT ROJAVA | Ji bo Rojava

A small act of kindness can become a great hope.With a small contribution, you can offer hope and dignityto the refugees of Rojava. Join us in standing with th…

Humanitarian Aid

Annual Impact Report: Humanitarian Programs in Review

An impact report is not just a document. It is a conversation between an organization and the community it serves — a moment to say clearly: here is what we sai…

Humanitarian Aid

Aid Beyond Food: KASA’s Broader Support Services

Food is the most visible part of KASA's humanitarian work, but it is not the whole of it. Kurdish Americans face challenges that go beyond food access: navigati…

Humanitarian Aid

March Food Distribution: A Recap

KASA's March food distribution went out to families across the region last week, carried by volunteers who showed up early on a Saturday morning and did not lea…

Humanitarian Aid

Partnering with Local Organizations to Maximize Aid Impact

No single organization can serve the full range of needs in a dispersed, multi-city community. KASA has learned this through experience. There are things we do …

Humanitarian Aid

Volunteer Coordination During Aid Campaigns: Behind the Scenes

A food distribution campaign that reaches 180 families does not organize itself. Behind every package delivered is a chain of work that started weeks before: id…

Humanitarian Aid

How Your Donation Reaches a Family: The Aid Distribution Process

When a donation arrives at KASA — whether by credit card through our website, by Zelle, or by check — it enters a process designed to move it toward its intende…

Humanitarian Aid

The Impact of Community Donations: A Year in Numbers

Last year, KASA distributed food packages to more than 400 families across multiple distribution campaigns. We reached over 180 families during Ramadan alone. W…

Humanitarian Aid

Food Security and Kurdish Communities: KASA’s Ongoing Commitment

Food insecurity in the Kurdish American community does not look like the images in fundraising campaigns. It does not always look like empty cupboards. More oft…

Humanitarian Aid

Emergency Response: How KASA Mobilizes Aid When Communities Need It Most

An emergency call arrived on a Saturday afternoon. A Kurdish family in the community had experienced a house fire and lost almost everything. They had nowhere t…

Humanitarian Aid

Qurban 2026: How to Participate in This Year’s Campaign

KASA's Qurban campaign for Eid al-Adha 2026 is now accepting donations. If you want to fulfill your Qurban obligation but are unable to arrange the sacrifice yo…

Humanitarian Aid

Qurban 2025: KASA’s Eid al-Adha Aid Campaign in Review

Qurban — the ritual sacrifice performed during Eid al-Adha — is one of the five pillars of Islamic practice for those who can afford it, and one of the most pow…

Humanitarian Aid

February Food Distribution: Reaching Families During the Coldest Months

February is usually the toughest month. The winter holidays are over and the generosity that surrounds them has faded. Spring is still weeks away. Heating costs…

Humanitarian Aid

Hot Meal Distribution Program: Weekly Support for Vulnerable Households

The hot meal program started with a simple observation: some families in the Kurdish American community do not have a reliable daily meal. This might be because…

Humanitarian Aid

Ramadan Aid 2026: 180 Families Receive Food Packages

One hundred and eighty families received food packages from KASA during Ramadan 2026. The number represents months of preparation — identifying families in need…

Humanitarian Aid

Ramadan Food Package Distribution: How KASA Supports Families

Ramadan is the month of fasting, but it is also the month of community tables. Every evening, as the fast breaks at sunset, Kurdish Muslim families gather aroun…

Humanitarian Aid

Emergency Heating Aid: Stoves and Fuel Distributed to Families

The call came in during the third week of January: a Kurdish family in the region had been using a single electric space heater to heat their entire apartment, …

Humanitarian Aid

KASA’s Winter Aid Campaign: Providing Warmth to Families in Need

Winter is the harshest season for families already living close to the edge. Heating costs spike, and families who cannot afford them face a genuine choice betw…

Language & Education

How KASA Develops Its Language Curriculum

Building a good language curriculum is harder than it looks. The temptation is to assemble a list of vocabulary words and grammar rules and call it a course. Th…

Language & Education

Kurdish Language in Higher Education: Opportunities and Challenges

A small number of American universities offer Kurdish language instruction, primarily at institutions with Middle Eastern Studies programs or strong connections…

Language & Education

The Importance of Bilingualism for Kurdish American Children

Decades of research on bilingualism have consistently found that children who grow up fluent in two languages have measurable cognitive advantages over monoling…

Language & Education

Resources for Learning Kurdish Online: A Curated Guide

Learning a language in the twenty-first century does not require a classroom — but it does require good resources, which can be surprisingly hard to find for a …

Language & Education

Digital Literacy for Kurdish Communities: Bridging the Technology Gap

Access to digital tools and the skills to use them effectively is increasingly a prerequisite for full participation in modern life. Online banking, telehealth,…

Language & Education

47 IT Graduates in Rojava: A Milestone for KASA’s Education Programs

Forty-seven students completed the latest cycle of KASA's IT education program in Rojava, earning certifications in C#, Scratch, and PHP. The number matters, bu…

Language & Education

IT Education in Rojava: Supporting the Next Generation of Tech Professionals

Software development is one of the most portable skills in the modern economy. A developer who can write clean code in C# or build web applications in PHP can f…

Language & Education

Kurdish Literature: Authors, Poetry, and Works Worth Knowing

Kurdish literature is ancient and modern simultaneously. The oral tradition — the dengbej performers, the long narrative poems, the love songs that circulated f…

Language & Education

English for Kurdish Newcomers: KASA’s Adult Education Program

When a Kurdish family arrives in the United States, the first months are consumed by logistics. Housing, employment, school enrollment, healthcare — all of it n…

Language & Education

English Language Support for Kurdish Adults: Why It Matters

English proficiency is the single most important practical factor in a Kurdish newcomer's ability to build a stable life in the United States. It determines wha…

Language & Education

Kurdish Language Competition 2026: Highlights and Results

KASA's annual Kurdish language competition brought together students from across the country for a multi-round online contest testing vocabulary, reading compre…

Language & Education

Online Kurdish Language Classes: Reaching Students Across the Country

Before KASA moved its language program entirely online, geography was the limiting factor for Kurdish language education in America. A Kurdish family in a small…

Language & Education

KASA Kurdish Language Classes: What We Offer and How to Enroll

KASA's Kurdish language program offers online instruction in Kurmanji for students at multiple levels — complete beginners who want to start from scratch, inter…

Language & Education

Teaching Children Kurdish in America: Practical Tips for Parents

The most effective thing a Kurdish American parent can do for their child's language acquisition is simply to use Kurdish at home consistently. Children learn l…

Language & Education

The Kurdish Alphabet: History, Variations, and Modern Usage

The question of how to write Kurdish is more complicated than it sounds. Kurdish has been written in Arabic script, Persian script, Latin script, and Cyrillic s…

Language & Education

An Introduction to Sorani: The Southern Kurdish Dialect

Sorani is the second major dialect of Kurdish, spoken primarily in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and in the Kurdish areas of western Iran. If you are a Kurd from…

Language & Education

An Introduction to Kurmanji: The Most Widely Spoken Kurdish Dialect

Kurmanji — also written as Kurmanji or Badinani in some contexts — is the dialect of Kurdish spoken by the largest number of people worldwide. Estimates suggest…

Language & Education

Why Preserving the Kurdish Language Matters for Future Generations

Kurdish is spoken by an estimated 30 to 40 million people worldwide, making it one of the largest languages in the world without a state of its own. Despite its…

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Coffee and Tea Culture: Gathering Around a Shared Cup

Tea is the social currency of Kurdish daily life. You cannot visit a Kurdish home without being handed a glass within minutes of arriving — a small, tulip-shape…

Culture & Heritage

The Importance of Dance in Kurdish Cultural Expression

The halay is not optional. At every Kurdish wedding, every Newroz celebration, every family gathering large enough to push the furniture back, the halay forms. …

Culture & Heritage

Seasonal Celebrations in Kurdish Culture Beyond Newroz

Newroz gets most of the attention, but the Kurdish cultural calendar extends well beyond March 21st. The agricultural rhythms of the Kurdish homeland generated …

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Proverbs and Their Wisdom

Kurdish proverbs are compact and often ruthless in their honesty about human nature. The dog that is beaten with a stick will also bite its owner — meaning that…

Culture & Heritage

Medicinal Plants and Traditional Remedies in Kurdish Culture

Before pharmacies, Kurdish communities had herbalists. The mountains of Kurdistan are extraordinarily biodiverse, and the communities that have lived there for …

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Visual Arts: Painters, Sculptors, and Contemporary Creators

Kurdish visual culture has deep roots in the material arts — carpet weaving, embroidery, metalwork, and ceramics — but contemporary Kurdish fine arts are relati…

Culture & Heritage

The Role of Storytelling in Kurdish Cultural Preservation

Among people who spent centuries without recognized schools, without official support for their language, and without a state that acknowledged their existence,…

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Weddings: Customs, Music, and Community Celebration

A Kurdish wedding is not an event you attend for two hours and go home. Traditionally, Kurdish weddings lasted three days, with different ceremonies and gatheri…

Culture & Heritage

Eid al-Adha in Kurdish Culture: Traditions, Celebrations, and Giving Back

Eid al-Adha — the Feast of Sacrifice — is the larger of the two major Islamic holidays, and for Kurdish Muslim families it is an occasion that combines religiou…

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Hospitality: The Cultural Significance of Welcoming Guests

There is a Kurdish saying: A guest is a gift from God. This is not a decorative sentiment — it reflects a code of conduct that shapes how Kurdish households act…

Culture & Heritage

Traditional Kurdish Clothing and Its Regional Variations

Kurdish traditional clothing is one of the most visually distinctive in the region, immediately recognizable by its bold colors, intricate embroidery, and the s…

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Carpet Weaving: Art, Identity, and Craftsmanship

Kurdish carpets are among the most celebrated textiles produced in the Middle East, and they have been collected by museums and private collectors for over a ce…

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Bread and Baking Traditions: From Tandoor to Table

Walk through any Kurdish village at breakfast time and the smell hits you before you see the source: flatbread cooking on the inner wall of a clay tandoor oven,…

Culture & Heritage

How to Make Traditional Kurdish Dolma: A Step-by-Step Recipe

Dolma is the Kurdish celebration dish. Every family has their version, and every family is quietly certain that their version is the best. The core concept — a …

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Cuisine: An Introduction to Traditional Dishes and Flavors

Kurdish food is mountain food and valley food and steppe food all at once. Because the Kurdish homeland spans different climates and geographies, the cuisine is…

Culture & Heritage

The Dengbêj Tradition: Kurdish Oral Storytelling and Its Importance

Before there were books in Kurdish — and for most of Kurdish history, there were not — there were dengbej. The word means roughly 'voice giver' or 'the one who …

Culture & Heritage

Kurdish Folk Music: Traditions, Instruments, and Living Heritage

Kurdish folk music is one of the richest and least-documented musical traditions in the Middle East. It spans a vast geographic range — from the mountains of ea…

Culture & Heritage

How Kurdish Americans Celebrate Newroz in the United States

In Nashville, hundreds of families descend on a public park or community center each March, wearing traditional Kurdish clothing and carrying flowers. The music…

Culture & Heritage

The History and Meaning of Newroz Across Kurdish Regions

The origins of Newroz are ancient enough that historians debate them. The celebration is closely associated with Zoroastrian traditions predating Islam, and the…

Culture & Heritage

Newroz: The Kurdish New Year and What It Means to Our Community

Every year on March 21st, Kurdish people around the world light fires and dance and eat and celebrate in a way that has no single authorized version. Newroz — t…

Community

A Message from KASA Leadership: Our Vision for the Year Ahead

Every year we write a version of this letter, and every year the hardest part is resisting the temptation to be vague. Vision statements are easy. Saying we wil…

Community

Building Bridges: How KASA Connects Kurdish and American Communities

The name says it: solidarity. Not charity, not assistance, not support — solidarity. The distinction matters. Charity implies a hierarchy, a giver and a receive…

Community

Kurdish Diaspora Across the United States: A Geographic Overview

If you were to map the Kurdish American population, the biggest dot would land on Nashville, Tennessee — the city with the largest and most established Kurdish …

Community

What It Means to Be Kurdish American: Perspectives from Our Community

We asked community members a simple question: what does it mean to you to be Kurdish American? The answers were more varied than we expected, and more honest.So…

Community

KASA at Five Years: Reflecting on Our Growth and Impact

Five years is long enough to see whether an organization is real. In the early days of any nonprofit, there is a lot of energy and vision and not much infrastru…

Community

Faith and Community: The Role of Religion in Kurdish American Life

Kurdish communities in the United States are predominantly Muslim, though the range of religious practice is wide. Some families are observant in the traditiona…

Community

Kurdish American Entrepreneurs: Building Businesses and Creating Opportunity

Walk the main commercial street of any Kurdish American neighborhood and the entrepreneurial spirit is obvious. Kurdish-owned restaurants serve lamb kebab and d…

Community

Community Support Networks: How Kurdish Americans Help One Another

Long before KASA existed, Kurdish Americans were helping each other. When a family arrived from Iraq in the 1990s, it was usually another Kurdish family who pic…

Community

Kurdish American Professionals: Contributions Across Fields

Walk through any major American hospital and there is a reasonable chance you will encounter a Kurdish American physician or nurse. Drive through any mid-sized …

Community

The Role of Kurdish Community Organizations in the United States

The Kurdish American organizational landscape is diverse and, in many places, still young. Cultural associations exist in most cities with significant Kurdish p…

Community

Intergenerational Connections: Bridging the Gap Between Kurdish Parents and American-Born Children

There is a particular silence that settles over some Kurdish American dinner tables. The parents want to speak Kurdish; the children respond in English. The par…

Community

Kurdish Youth in America: Identity, Belonging, and the Path Forward

Kurdish American young people occupy a position that is genuinely interesting, even if it does not always feel that way. They are among the first generation of …

Community

Kurdish Women in the American Diaspora: Strength, Adaptation, and Leadership

Kurdish women in America carry a particular weight. They are often the primary preservers of culture within the family — the ones who teach the language, prepar…

Community

From Newcomer to Neighbor: How Kurdish Families Build Roots in America

The first year in the United States is often the hardest. Kurdish families arriving as refugees or immigrants face a gauntlet of practical challenges: housing, …

Community

Growing Up Kurdish in America: Navigating Two Cultures

Ask a Kurdish American teenager what they are, and you might get a pause before the answer. Not because they do not know, but because the honest answer is compl…

Community

Kurdish Americans in Washington D.C.: Advocacy and Representation

Washington D.C. occupies a unique place in the Kurdish American landscape. While the city's Kurdish residential community is smaller than Nashville's or Dallas'…

Community

Kurdish Americans in San Diego: A Community Profile

San Diego's Kurdish community is smaller than Nashville's or Dallas's, but it has a character all its own. The city's mild climate and relatively affordable (by…

Community

Kurdish Americans in Dallas: A Growing and Vibrant Community

The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has become one of the most significant centers of Kurdish American life in the country, with a community that has grown steadily…

Community

Kurdish Americans in Nashville: Building a Community from the Ground Up

Nashville has the largest concentration of Kurdish Americans in the United States, with community estimates ranging from 15,000 to 20,000 people. Most arrived b…

Community

The Kurdish American Community: Who We Are and Where We’re Going

Estimates put the Kurdish American population somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000, spread across cities as different as Nashville, San Diego, Houston, and Wash…

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