*This is the last of five articles on some of the groups, programs and proposals discussed November 4–5 at the Africa Gathering in Washington.*
Washington —Young African women are becoming a *force *in the United States, says Semhar Araia, especially in Africa-related policy.
Araia encourages the trend with the Diaspora African Women’s Network, or DAWN. Running the network is fast becoming her full-time job.
Araia, the New York-born daughter of Eritrean immigrants, was a congressional staff member a few years ago and kept meeting other women of African descent who worked on Africa issues but didn’t know one another. She suggested that they “just get in a room and have dinner together,” and so 11 women from congressional staffs, executive agencies and nongovernmental organizations got together one evening.
“From 11 women in July 2007, it grew to about 200 women in July 2008,” said Araia, who referred to the group as “a number of intelligent, passionate, committed women of the diaspora.” She said they are doing substantive work to support the economic growth of Africa and the well-being of its people.
Monthly social gatherings led to a daily electronic update of Africa-related “events, job openings, latest publications, important actors and organizations to know,” Araia said. And DAWN’s membership broadened beyond policy experts to include professionals in development, health and science. The group provides a social outlet, “sisterhood,” career networking and mentoring for its members.
Araia said the group reflects the very different life that these young professionals live, as compared to that of an earlier generation.
In her parents’ generation, she said, Africans — even those with advanced degrees — came to the United States and worked as taxi drivers or took three jobs at once to secure their children a good education. DAWN members are grateful for their parents’ sacrifices, she said, and feel an obligation to give back to the African community, which might mean working for a nonprofit, planning a program for Senegal or “helping an immigrant community explain their needs to a state official,” she said.
“It’s an additional weaving to the social fabric of who an African American is and what African immigrants are about,” she said.
Araia, now Oxfam International’s regional policy adviser for the Horn of Africa, said she didn’t understand the distinctive place her generation of the diaspora occupies until she lived in Eritrea while working for the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission. She had visited before, but only during an extended stay did she recognize that she was as much American as she was Eritrean — a hybrid — and she considers herself and others in the diaspora enriched as a result.
The close connection to Africa can expose them to an emotional toll when their work involves the continent. “It no longer becomes a technical approach or a science or a concept. It hits them in such a deeply personal level,” Araia said. “I’ve had that experience with the drought and the famine in the Horn.”
Araia said she wants to make DAWN a more valuable group for many more women. It is applying for federal recognition as a nonprofit organization, and Araia said that will make it easier to find donors and sponsors. She plans to move to Minneapolis, where her family lives, and establish DAWN there and in other cities with substantial diaspora populations.
“I think we have a very rich immigrant community, very vibrant,” she said.
----[Mailing List for Eritrea Related News ]---- Received on Thu Nov 17 2011 - 12:05:58 EST
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