Overcoming BARRIERS

Fowzia Adde finds a welcoming home in Fargo

The following is a conversation with Fowzia Adde, director of the Immigrant Development Center in Moorhead. Fowzia works with immigrants to overcome barriers and help them realize their dreams of self-employment.

AW: Where did you grow up?

Fowzia: I grew up near the Indian Ocean in Mogadishu, Somalia. I loved to swim! My father worked for the Somali government as a ship captain. In 1990, war broke out, and we were one of the first targets. We escaped to a refugee camp in Kenya. I was twelve or thirteen. We stayed there six years. We didn’t know what was next. In a refugee camp, you get lost. You don’t know who you are. I went to school in the camp and graduated. Then I went to a boarding school and became a nurse.

AW: Did you want to go back to Somalia?

Fowzia: The war in Somalia kept on. It became a civil war, then territorial, then religious. I did not have a choice. I could not go back home. My grandmother still lives there. She is very old. I have always wanted to go back, to say good-bye to her.

AW: How did you come to the United States?

Fowzia: After six years, the UN began to look for a place of settlement. Each family in our camp could register for Canada, Australia, or America. Australia and Canada had limits of four people per family. We applied to America because we were eight. It took about a year. It was hard to wait. I wondered what my fate would be.

When we got the letter we jumped up and celebrated. We had two months of orientation. We learned the laws of the United States. We learned that if we are angry we cannot fight, we are supposed to tell the police. We learned what 911 is for. It is not because you have a headache. There were so many new things to learn.

Then I got my ticket! I was going to Washington DC!

June 16, 1997. I came to the United States by myself. I got on the plane, and the whole flight was full of Somalia people. We were afraid they were taking us back to Somalia. But then we landed in France. I was on my way!

AW: What was it like when you first arrived?

Fowzia: A caseworker met me at the airport. He held my name up on a sign and took me to an apartment. I had a small bed and a refrigerator. But the fridge was empty. He gave me a check and paperwork. I didn’t know how to cash the check. I was hungry. My neighbor, a Jewish girl born in the United States, helped me. She bought me a phone card so I could tell my family I was in America. I spent six months in DC.

AW: What brought you to Fargo?

Fowzia: Some of my friends from the refugee camp had settled in Fargo. They said life in a smaller town was better. So I took a bus and came to Fargo. I got a full time job. Later I started to work as an interpreter over the phone. I would get calls from all over. People needing interpreters about insurance, hospital problems, accidents, 911 calls, struggles were everywhere. After years of interpreting work, I was tired. I didn’t want to hear about people’s problems. I wanted to get involved and start to solve the problems.

I began to talk to people and we dreamed of making an organization that would be a resource for immigrants. I took training with the Organizing Apprenticeship Program in Minneapolis for six months. We began the Immigration Development Center in 2006.

AW: What does the Immigrant Development Center do?

Fowzia: We have four main areas: Microenterprise Development, Entrepreneurship Training, Community Gardening, and the International Market Plaza. The Plaza will contain 16 businesses. Our goal is to create 58 jobs. It will give people a place to start and grow. Restaurants, café, grocery, jewelry, and small retailers will all be a part of it.

AW: Are you settled now?

Fowzia: With all I have been through in my life, Fargo feels like home. My children go to school here. I have found good people who care about me. Many people in Fargo have given me time, advised me, listened to me. I am honored they believed in me. This community allowed me to move ahead. I have been a refugee woman, and I am now running a non-profit organization. I found my place. [AWM]

For more information about the Immigrant Development Center visit www.idcfm.org