PEF
members’ heroic Sept. 11 stories featured on US
State Dept. Website
People from all over the world have a unique window on
the lives of PEF members at the state Department of
Taxation and Finance who were caught up in the tragic
attacks on the World Trade Center.
With the help of the Service Employees International
Union and the PEF Public Relations Department, the US
State Department created a Website honoring immigrants,
their children and grandchildren from all parts of the
world who came to the United States and became heroes in
those dark hours on the morning of September 11, 2001.
Of the 10 immigrants’ whose stories are featured on
the Website, four are PEF members — Rose Riso, Eli
Chalouh, Sankara Velamuri and Henry Li. The first three
died heroically. Of those featured, only Henry Li lived,
and was able to help co-worker Diane Fattah, another PEF
member, escape.
But Fattah is also one of at least 39 people whose lives
Riso also helped to save that day, at the cost of her
own.
These stories are told with photos and the vivid
recollections of family and friends, such as PEF members
Joseph Botros, an Egyptian Christian, and Baher Shaarawy,
an Egyptian Muslim, who became best friends with Chalouh,
a Syrian-born Jew.
“I considered Eli like my own son,” Shaarawy
told the Website’s creator John Aravosis. Their
stories are only a few of the amazing, personal and
touching accounts provided. You can access the site,
which is intended for foreign access, directly at www.usinfo.state.gov/albums/911. — Sherry Halbrook
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