CCFI members and international students are invited to a free lunch on Friday, April 13th from 12:30-1:30 pm at the USC Close Hipp Building.  Great time to get to know each other!

Come join the Pan-African Student Association at USC for an evening celebrating African culture. The event will feature African food, traditional African cultural displays, a fashion show, poetry, and music! This event is cosponsored by Maxcy College.

Dinner at 6:30pm, Show at 7pm

Free Event!

CCFI / Palmetto Council for International Visitors and Columbia World Affairs Council

are hosting a group of Women Business Leaders from Russia March 9 - 17.

A reception is planned for CCFI members to meet the Russian delegation.

RSVP is required by 5 pm on Thursday, March 8.

Please email [email protected].  Please indicate if you will attend & if you will be bringing a guest.

International friends, please come meet CCFI community members at the statue at 10 a.m. in front of the State House on Main Street for Soda City Market.  This is a great way to learn more about our culture and meet community members.  CCFI members please join us!  

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the beautiful art of Japanese Calligraphy?  This event is on Monday 26th from 4:30-7:00  at the USC Close-Hipp Building, 1705 College St, Columbia, SC 29201, on the 6th floor. 

Here’s a video of what you will be doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3FliiK8uoc&feature=share

This event is not just writing, but also a performance! Japanese calligraphy performing is growing in Japanese culture where you use large paper and brush to music! You can move your whole body to the beat! Here’s a video of a Japanese calligraphy performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_XfsKHGLu4&feature=share

We will start with a simple performance so don’t worry. We will perform to this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzMamUEdlMI&feature=share

They request that you RSVP by 7 PM February 22nd, which is this Thursday. In the RSVP, please tell us you name and home country.

There is no cost for attending! If you will be late, please let us know in your RSVP. Our event page is on Facebook! Please like and share us and invite your friends.

https://www.facebook.com/events/170791900217964/

There are few opportunities to do Japanese calligraphy performances outside of Japan. Don’t miss out on this! We look forward to seeing you there.

Members and USC Internationals come join us for tea, coffee, cookies and mandarin oranges.   Location:  USC, Close Hipp Building, 1705 College Street, Columbia, SC

Free and open to the public

Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal & Advocacy Director for Project South, will be presenting on “Imprisoned Justice: Inside Two Immigrant Detention Centers in Georgia.”

 In May 2017, Project South and the Penn State Law Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic published a report, "Imprisoned Justice: Inside Two Georgia Immigrant Detention Centers," in collaboration with a special student project of Mercer Law School and other organizations. The report is based on interviews with more than 70 detained immigrants, immigration attorneys, and tours of the Stewart Detention Center and the Irwin County Detention Centers. It shines light on conditions inside these two facilities and recommends that they be closed. Hear Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal & Advocacy Director with Project South, talk about immigration detention in the US and findings of the report. Read the full report here.

Azadeh Shahshahani is an internationally recognized human rights lawyer. She is a past president of the National Lawyers Guild and a director at the ACLU of Georgia.  Azadeh has served on human rights tribunals and commissions around the world. She has actively supported liberation and human rights movements in Palestine, Tunisia, and the Philippines. Azadeh has worked on anti-racism and anti-Islamophobia campaigns for more than ten years, including defending Black, Brown, and Muslim community members targeted by the law enforcement; challenging human rights abuses in detention centers; defending Muslim women targeted for wearing hijab; and other cases of institutional oppression. She has been awarded the 2017 U.S. Human Rights Network Movement Builder Award, Georgia Women’s Action for New Directions 2016 Peace and Justice Award, the American Immigration Lawyers Association 2012 Advocacy Award, among several others.

Legal and Advocacy work at Project South

https://projectsouth.org/legal-advocacy-work/

Video highlighting Legal and Advocacy work at Project South

https://vimeo.com/245915577

In collaboration with Grassroots Alliance for Immigrant Rights (GAIR)/ Somos SC