CINCINNATI -- Throughout her entire life, well-known social worker Natalie Fair-Albright has been an advocate for the undocumented and through her work, she has championed for their causes.
Fair-Albright's reputation took off after she founded the International Center of Greater Cincinnati and even after it was shuttered, she remains a strong voice in immigrant issues. With advice, support and referrals to community services, she has assisted immigrants and others who fell through the cracks time and time again.
Fair-Albright cared about people so much that she worked with little or no compensation. She barely paid her bills when she was working and today she is left with little money.
Now, 62-year-old Fair-Albright is struggling financially and is in ill health. Worried friends are becoming advocates themselves and have been trying to get her into Alliance Integrative Medicine, and they're asking the community for some help to make Fair-Albright's life more comfortable.
Maura Kennedy Anaya is one of those friends.
“Natalie has selflessly changed lives and has difficulty making ends meet. Her passion and empathy for the dignity of every human and knowledge of the plight of people who come to this country for a better life is palpable,” Anaya said. “She has helped hundreds if not thousands of people.”
She first met Fair-Albright 20 years ago, when they both were employed as caseworkers for Hamilton County Children’s Services. Anaya got reacquainted with Fair-Albright after a man showed up at her international center, “desperate for help.”
“His wife had been shot in the back while all four children ranging in ages from 6 months to 5 years were present,” said Anaya, 52, who has spent 25 years working in social services. She tutors international graduate students and owns a business, Rise to Shine LLC, which helps the elderly downsize their assets and move into facilities.
It was a heart-wrenching situation, Anaya said.
“When police arrived, they found the children holding onto their mother’s body and no one assisting on the street for fear of the shooter,” she recalled. “The father could not take the traumatized children back to their apartment because he feared retribution from the shooter. He had no place to go and he could barely speak English.”
Anaya became their caseworker and focused on on trauma counseling and schooling for the kids, while Fair-Albright asked John Sellins, a family law attorney in Cincinnati, for help with the legal side of things. He took on the family’s case pro bono and got the children money through the Ohio Victims Fund.
“Natalie changed their lives. Without her help, it would have been very difficult to get anything done. Forms, applications, emotional support, anything that was needed, she was there,” said Sellins.
As she worked with Fair-Albright to help the family, Anaya got some insight into who she really was.
“I learned that Natalie was suffering with many serious health issues. She was supporting her full-time work of helping those in need by working part time at a convenience store as the center had not received funding,” Anaya said. “Despite her own suffering, Natalie was always cheerful, respectful, compassionate and willing to assist anyone who asked for any help.”
Even now, Anaya added, Fair-Albright’s cellphone continues to ring several times a day with people asking for assistance.
Natalie Fair-Albright co-founded the International Center of Greater Cincinnati in 2003. It closed in 2009 because she could no longer afford to keep it open. Photo provided by Natalie Fair-Albright
'Never too busy to help'
There are many in the immigrant community who willingly stand up in support of Fair-Albright and share their stories.
Fifteen years ago, Monk Chey Sok, a Buddhist monk from Cambodia, came to the University of Cincinnati to earn his bachelor’s degree. He also hoped to build and act as a director of the Cambodian Buddhist Temple of Cincinnati.
He said that Fair-Albright assisted him with each of his classes individually for those four years. She also spent hours tutoring him in English without any compensation.
“Natalie is a kind, good-hearted person. She is always helpful. I learned a lot from her. She is never too busy to help me,” said Sok, who earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and is finishing up a master’s degree in leadership management.
Don Sherman, a retired immigration attorney and an advisor for immigration reform in Cincinnati, has known Fair-Albright for a decade now and said she's played an important part in “changing the lives of those who need it the most.”
“To help people has always been a passion of hers,” he said. “With her empathy and her incredible attitude, she has helped thousands with their legal, cultural and social issues.”
Dr. Ibrahmin Amidou, an assistant adjunct professor of French and francophone literature and culture at UC, was a co-founder of the International Center of Greater Cincinnati, which Fair-Albright created to help immigrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and others who needed assistance, resources and referrals.
It was a small, all-volunteer, nonprofit organization.
“Natalie strived to help the immigrants integrate into their new environment as well as helping bridge the cultural gap arising among the host community in Cincinnati,” said Amidou, who is from Togo, West Africa, and speaks five different languages. “It’s Natalie’s hard work that has integrated the immigrants by making them U.S. citizens and new voters. And many have gone on to be successful business owners and professionals with higher degrees.”
Robin Lamont, 29, who works at the Junior League of Cincinnati's RefugeeConnect, said that Fair-Albright is a role model.
“She’s an incredible leader in the community,” Lamont said. “She can organize people into a group and she can be the voice of the people who are unheard. We are lucky that she is in Cincinnati.”
A legacy of compassion
Fair-Albright was born in Massillon, Ohio, the fourth of six children and moved to Cincinnati when she was 5 years old.
Her father, Frank Fair, a World War II fighter-pilot-turned-businessman, had fought against the Japanese but eventually befriended and worked with Japanese businessmen.
Her mother, Ruth Hammel Fair, was a stay-at-home mom who regularly corresponded with a Tanzanian missionary. She often invited international young people who were students or tourists from Asia to their home.
“From my parents, I learned compassion, the importance of giving back and that people are valuable regardless of where they come from or what they look like or sound like,” said Fair-Albright. “The differences are an opportunity to learn.”
Fair-Albright went to all-girls Catholic high school Our Lady of Angels in Cincinnati, now closed, and attended UC for one year.
She then left school to get married and eventually had two daughters, Lalaneya and Chandra. She's now divorced and also has two grandsons, 8-year-olds Cougar and Maddox, and a granddaughter named Ayla, who is 6.
All throughout her life, Fair-Albright said, she's been inquisitive — and that's what eventually led her down her path of advocacy.
“Since I was a child, I have been curious about the world. Early on I developed an interest for immigrants, refugees and asylees who struggle to assimilate into American society,” said Fair-Albright, who has always been an avid observer of current affairs.
After the Vietnam War, Fair-Albright read articles and watched television reports about Amerasian children who had been left behind, so she wrote to her congressman at the time, Bill Gradison, and asked how she and her family could help.
Gradison wrote back and told her to contact Catholic Charities, which in turn arranged for the family to sponsor a Vietnamese mother and daughter, Tham and Trang Ngo, who arrived in October 1985. The family later sponsored a Romanian man and four Bosnian families over the years.
When her daughters started school, Fair-Albright went back to school herself at Xavier University. She was a part-time student and worked as a secretary in the ESL (English as a second language) department, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in international affairs. After graduation, she worked at Catholic Charities for 18 months in refuge settlement, helping people from Kosovo, Iraq, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Burundi, Afghanistan and other countries. She was also one of the first people to work with immigrant women who were victims of domestic violence.
After 9/11, Fair-Albright went to work for children's services in Hamilton County and was dedicated to helping families stay together.
“I would find a number of cases involving refugees, asylees and immigrants that were not receiving services they qualified for mostly due to workers who did not know or misunderstood the applicable rules,” she said.
She co-founded the International Center of Greater Cincinnati in 2003 and it operated until 2009, when Fair-Albright could no longer afford to keep it open. During that time, over 1,500 individuals and families received assistance with housing issues, medical problems, family reunification and applying for U.S. citizenship.
“The need still exists for a place where people can go to get answers or help regardless of where they were born, what ethnic group or religion they may be a member of,” Fair-Albright said. “It was also a place where Cincinnatians could learn about other parts of the world by interacting with families and individuals from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, Europe and even some from Central and South America. It was a fantastic opportunity and a dream come true.”
Fair-Albright said she will continue to help people for the rest of her life, but friends want to get her health issues addressed immediately.
To make a contribution, visit youcaring.com/natalie-fair-albright-608431.
