“As a part of Somali culture, we work together, we share together.”

On a rainy Saturday afternoon in Southeast Portland, the hum of several sewing machines can be heard, as well as words spoken in the Somali language. Women giggle, and exchange stories and drink spiced Somali coffee. Lul Abdulle, the Program Coordinator runs about, helping women adjust their seams and perfect their stitches. New people come into the room and exchange hugs and greetings. It is a warm atmosphere, a safe place for women filled with tasty food and sweet affection.

Lul Abdulle, a refugee herself, has been working with Somali refugees since her arrival here in the United States in 1995 from her home country, Somalia. She provides Somali refugees with basic needs. The Somali community is one of the fastest growing immigrant communities in the United States, with the foreign-born population of Portland being 12% in 2000, twice the national average (U.S. Census Bureau 2000). Lul works to make sure that that transition for Somali refugees is smooth one where they can tap into resources they need.

Lul focuses her services on the women of the Somali community. She started working with Somali Women’s Association (SWA) in 2004 and is now a part time staff member for the organization. “I serve the Somali women community because I am a woman and understand deeply the women’s issues and cultural barriers of Somali women,” she says. “There are many needs that our women have: housing, domestic violence issues, culturally-appropriate social activities, and many of the women are isolated from others.” SWA serves women throughout the greater Portland and Beaverton area as a place where Somali women can receive culturally appropriate services and support.

In 2005, Mayor Tom Potter, through the Vision PDX Project, asked Portland residents, “How would you like to see Portland in the next 10 years, and what areas would you like to see changed or improved?” Community groups responded that they wanted more connection and dialogue with their ethnic neighbors. There was a need for outreach to underrepresented communities living in the Portland area. Somalis are among those communities who often lack a relationship with the wider community because of linguistic and cultural barriers. Somali Women’s Association plays the unique role of bridging Somalis and the wider community. For example, SWA got involved with outreach and translation with the Center Neighborhood in NE Portland, which has a large Somali population. They were asked to serve as a liaison between the Somali population and the neighborhood associations that wanted to do outreach work.

In additional to its intercultural work, SWA works to enable Somali women in their communites. In the weekly sewing classes, SWA helps Somali women learn English, practice and develop sewing skills, and become more familiar with the social service organizations that can help them. SWA encourages women in the sewing class to develop peer support strategies and community involvement. The women who have demonstrated leadership skills are recognized and given awards in the sewing classes. SWA also hopes to build long-term community leaders, women who can act as advocates for the refugee community in the generations to come. This goal is ambitious and requires many hours of door knocking and building relationships with community members.

SWA receives most of its funding through grants, and Lul spends her free time researching and applying for grants. “If you are after grants, you have to spend some time to designate those grants,” she says. But we didn’t have the time to do that in the beginning months. We also didn’t have a computer, a cell phone, no connection.” It is very difficult to do outreach work in the modern world without the necessary tools, such as a computer or a phone. However, the work that SWA is doing spread by word of mouth, which helped pave the way to a relationship of recognition and support by a staff person at Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition (SEUL).

“Southeast Uplift was a key help to the SWA,” says Lul. Brigette Fahnbulleh, a community organizer at SEUL, gave her Saturday afternoons to meet with members of SWA. She helped them find an office space at Southeast Uplift, where they are now since 2004. “Then our success became great because we had an address, we had a physical space where people can come,” says Lul. SWA also received help from Southeast Uplift in grant writing, identifying and maintaining grant donors. This year, the two organizations have teamed up with Southwest Neighbors to conduct a needs assessment of the community, host a community engagement fair, and present the public with cultural awareness trainings, all part of the Neighborhood Initiative for Community Engagement (N.I.C.E.).

The Somali Women’s Sewing Group is in its second annual run this year, with much success. SWA awarded certificates to 11 students who met diligently every Saturday and Sunday afternoons for three months this year to learn the art of quilting. The women that showed up on time, offered skills and ideas and helped other women in the group were given sewing machines at graduation. They were very touched and glad that they had received this generous gift. Lul says that recognizing their special effort and sharing or connecting them with resources available to them is very important. However, no one went home empty-handed: other students received sewing kits from Southeast Uplift and above all the women received different resources, shared ideas and gained a sense of social freedom by coming to this unique group. As for the quilts, the results are colorful and brilliant: over 20 bright and soft quilts hang from the walls of Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Coalition meeting room. Pictures are taken of every woman with her work of pride. Smiles are all around.

When Lul is asked why she is a social worker, she answers: “I’ve empowered many women who were isolated and they know a lot more now, are more confident now. And that empowers me. Yesterday, a woman asked me for help to set up her sewing machine. And today, I see the same woman teaching another woman. That’s the most rewarding thing, which someone else is doing or teaching skills that I’ve taught. So that’s what keeps me doing the job.”