"AIDS catapulted African Services into a niche that needed us and we were well-suited to address."

African Services Committee Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

Part one of a two-part interview

NEW YORK CITY 2006, - It has been 25 years since Asfaha Hadera founded the Committee to Aid Ethiopian Refugees. From a humble apartment in the Bronx, he began offering a helping hand to other refugee newcomers like himself. Soon after, he partnered with Kim Nichols, they established our first office at the Community Church of New York, and began providing support of all kinds to African immigrants, including lifesaving AIDS care. In this two-part interview, co-Executive Directors Asfaha Hadera and Kim Nichols look back at what has made their work successful and what lies ahead for African Services.

What led you to establish African Services and what values shaped the mission?

Asfaha: ASC was born after my arrival in the U.S., but I had been doing similar organizing and promoting self-reliance programs in the refugee camps in Sudan. It is hard for a refugee with no resources to assist others, but I feel that giving back is a duty and responsibility.

Kim: Our intention was always to create an institution to serve as a crucible for the African immigrant community in its response to various polices in immigration, public health or other aspects of law. We never had a hierarchical view of creating an organization that would exist, first and foremost, as a business. That vision influenced how we shepherd the work of ASC, and it definitely shaped the organization of today. The team spirit among staff and clients is a consequence of that.

Did you foresee what ASC would become?

Asfaha: I always wanted to take the organization beyond the refugee issue, and I saw us making an impact back in Africa.

Kim: I knew Asfaha had a great concept that needed to be nurtured, but I didn't realize what 25 years would bring. Early on, the only source of funding accessible to us were grants from New York State and New Jersey that allowed us to do refugee resettlement. The first ten years we never had an annual budget over $150,000. Until now, every program we've had started with an idea and less than $20,000. Luckily the recognition and funding followed.

What do you think are the greatest challenges immigrants face today?

Kim: When we first started the work we do at ASC, there was greater support for the rights of refugees and asylees. By the 1990's, after the opening of doors for refugees, many Americans, especially in the border states, began to feel threatened by the immigration flows. Many politicians who've run for office since 2000 made border and benefits tightening for immigrants their platform.

Today, it seems the public has shifted its view of immigrants. The majority has at least a degree of sympathy; but the consequences of the tug-of-war between public opinion and political forces, has had critical consequences for immigrants.

Asfaha: The issue of security since September 11th has changed things. If America isn't secure, it can't be the mother of freedom. Everyone aspires to come here. I left my country because of lack of freedom and justice and now I can enjoy those privileges I was denied in my homeland. I don't take it for granted. Many African immigrants, I believe, share my values, whether they come as political refugees, economic immigrants or to reunite with family. We all come here as a result of lack of freedom.

How did African Services begin its work in HIV/AIDS?

Kim: We had early roots in the consciousness of the epidemic. Well before warning bells sounded in the U.S. and Europe about AIDS in Africa, African Services was already aware of the catastrophe unfolding. With growing migration to New York City in the late 1980's, we began seeing more clients with HIV infection and people coming to us as undocumented immigrants in need of health services. By 1991,we decided to develop a small HIV prevention program; little did we know that over time many, many more people from Africa and the Caribbean would need this critical help. AIDS catapulted African Services into a niche that needed us and we were well-suited to address.

How do you think African Services has impacted community mobilization around AIDS locally and beyond?

Kim: We were one of the first, if not the first, immigrant organization in New York City to tackle HIV as an issue. I think we served the purpose of beginning to educate the public, maybe even more so members of the African community, about the danger of HIV and how to protect themselves. We had a lot of clients who still had family and businesses on the Continent, and there was extensive contact between New York and Africa. Our role was to impact HIV prevention in a significant way that we'll probably never be able to fully document. There are a lot of statistics on how many people we were able to contact through community prevention outreach programs, but you can't measure infections averted. That part of the story goes untold.

We also got involved in AIDS policy work in the early 1990s addressing issues relating to the African Diaspora. We helped nurture and set the stage for many activists and advocacy organizations who wanted to be involved in the response to AIDS in Africa around the time of the international AIDS conference in Durban. We also did some of the early organizing through the U.N. General Assembly Special Session on AIDS in 2001, that made the world aware of the crisis in Africa, and began to plan a strategy to set up the Global Fund. For many years, African Services was the only voice—and today is still the most prominent – on issues affecting African immigrants with HIV in the U.S.