Grassroots.org

About ROZA Promotions Inc.

ROZA aims to provide culturally appropriate programs and services for the West African immigrant and refugee population. The primary population they serve is war-traumatized West Africans (especially Liberians and Sierra Leoneans) in the North Shore - Clifton / Concord communities of Staten Island.
ROZA was founded in Monrovia, Liberia in June of 1981. Mr. Rufus Z. Arkoi, founder and Executive Director established ROZA on Staten Island, New York in February of 1994. They are currently have 220 clients.

Why ROZA was founded

ROZA was founded to address some of the cultural, social and educational challenges that newly arrived refugees and immigrants from West Africa face when they come to America. Liberia and Sierra Leone had civil wars for most of the 90s. Many of their citizens fled for to other countries, and many were later brought to the US as refugees. Many came sick, below the educational standards of their peers in grade school and had different culture / attitudes. They were misunderstood and sometimes, misdiagnosed.
ROZA was established to help the "helpers" and to increase cross-cultural understanding, and to ease the transition to post-refugee life. Current programs include social-service referrals, advocacy work, educational workshops and community-building activities such as soccer

Getting Online

Our website is a way to introduce ourselves and our community to the public and acquaint them with our work. We also use the website to solicit help for our organization. Since the website has gone up a larger number of people have seen us as more credible and established; it is helpful for us to have others able to see our organizational commitment in this way.

ROZA on Grassroots.org

Grassroots services came at a perfect time for our organization. The people we worked with were very responsive and understanding of our needs. They were always timely to respond and listened to what we wanted, which was very much appreciated.

Our budget is very tight--most of our money comes out-of-pocket; without Grassroots.org we most certainly would not have developed a website. We just wouldn't have had the money. But getting our website has been huge. It helps our clients, and us, to feel proud of our organization. Our clients are very proud to see their pictures online--it's a huge thing for them. And it builds community too, as they can let friends and family members know about our program through the site. This increases their ownership and sense of belonging, and in so doing helps us to fulfill our mission!