New Pandemic Oral Histories Available on the ROHA Website

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Published:
September 29, 2021
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This story first appeared in History Alive. An excerpt can be viewed below. To read or listen to the full story click here.

When the pandemic began, Karenn Happuck Alves was an undergraduate at RutgersNewark working to attain her degree. With friends and relatives getting sick with Coronavirus and community members facing layoffs in the spring of 2020, she refocused her efforts. Along with several others, Alves launched the organization Amigos Por Newark (Friends for Newark) to provide food and other resources to individuals and families in need. "We helped not only Brazilians, we helped Spanish communities and we helped low-income, in different areas of Newark and other parts of New Jersey," Alves explains in her oral history interview. Alves' story is showcased in the Voces (Voices) of a Pandemic oral history collection, now available on the ROHA website.