Testimonies
To Whom it may concern:
We, the community, say no to the receivership!
We, the West African community, refuse to put our leader’s honor at stake!
We want Issa Ndiaye; our leader back!
We want our community back, now!
- We can provide many examples of the support we got from Issa, for many years
- We can gather as many testimonials as possible to support the work done for over a decade, and way before the organization was formally created.
- We can voice and materialize several ways informal help has been disbursed in our families
- We can explain what solidarity means in our society, what success entails in our community, and how that unfolds when you run a community organization as an immigrant, with thousands of folks seeking your help when no other system can help
He is the one to call when help is needed for our families, with no time boundary or monetary limitation, no language barrier, or judgment. His availability to us has been consistent, whether it’s instant moral support, crisis intervention, financial support based on urgent needs, unpredictable events, and especially during the covid era when most immigrants and refugees got hit the hardest, economically, mentally, and socially, and in so many other areas.
While still in the process of recovery from broken systems in some our countries of origin, adding to the types of discrimination we encounter here, we diligently carry some hope to experience new opportunities, We raised our children with hope, welcomed our relatives, friends, and neighbors, despite the many challenges we faced to be seen and heard in our children’s preschools, in the healthcare system, getting appropriate developmental screening for our babies, accessing basic food security (especially when undocumented), figuring out consultation to navigate the immigration system, accessing parenting and housing support, knowing our basic rights, etc. We refuse to take away this privilege we have recently gained through the WACC’s unique support system model led by Issa.
We can all provide several examples of how the system has failed us in guiding us through appropriate early childhood education, basic needs like healthcare access, food, language access, immigration information, advocacy, etc.
We need to maintain our support system, and Issa is the face of this solidified support he built from scratch. Putting him in such a situation will break our dignity, affect our values, and unfortunately silence voices that took decades to be discovered, and many others to be heard. The organization falling apart is critical for our community – a structure that took so long to build.
We already had a late arising- starting all over again could obviously make us lag behind a lot more…
Issa has a business driven mindset, a public service background, with a unique vision to help, support his community, with social services. He understood very early his community’s needs, figured out how to get the training, the education, with limited resources, personal and financial sacrifices, and long working hours.
Unlike many West African immigrants who gave up because of systematic discouragement and dismissal from early stages of their projects, Issa tackled every step by believing in his people, hiring us, training us, and empowering us through his shared leadership. Believing and investing in such a big social enterprise, obviously requires a visionary leader!
We deeply believe that, like most of us immigrants, he engaged in a lone ranger battle of sustainability to define a mission, build a support system, with very few trustworthy allies.
As immigrants, our lived experiences here in the US can greatly influence how we approach our relationships with institutions, and prospective partnerships.
Thus, having other fellow immigrants as partners who experienced similar challenges is key in leading a community based organization. The bottom line remains doing work with people who share the same struggles and aspirations, for people who can relate to the same experiences and challenges…
Despite several adversities, deceptions, and disappointments over the years, Issa continuously engaged in a very tough conquest of benefits for his community, to fully fund programs, services and mostly basic needs that his community members were longing for.. The long, slow, and complex process mined with barriers, challenges maintained by systemic racism instills a need for hiring staff from diverse backgrounds, experiences.
We have witnessed a focused man, holding his leadership with dignity, and humility, working long hours, sometimes weekends, to support staff with reports, deadlines, while simultaneously meeting his community’s needs.
Issa has provided consistent support to his staff, trained them, providing the tools and resources to work towards the organization’s mission.
His staff felt empowered and at ease to perform their tasks and duties under his guidance with little supervision and no micro management.
Issa knocked at every door to listen to us, share ideas, seek advice, advocate for us immigrants and refugees at every step, and at the highest levels of our institutions. His community members felt like partners, not constituents. We feel like brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, family. If you try to take him down, we will be going down with him. We are One and inseparable!
Having this organization has helped thousands of very vulnerable individuals and families in the very grounded African virtues called : “horizontal solidarity”, “soutoura”, dignity gaining, family values and traditions preservation.
Without this structure, thousands of kids wouldn’t have access to a culturally relevant early childhood education, families interacting with people who are relatable to them, teachers who understand their needs, preserve their traditions, welcome them and support them in these very complex, racist, and discriminatory systems.
Issa may have made mistakes but could also be a victim, because he trusted that by running the organization in a culturally competent way, he would be able to bring his community together. A community that has been one of the most marginalized in America.
Taking away Issa from WACC isn’t fair. Putting strangers who are here for personal gain and profit is even worse.
The dynamic of our culture, the uniqueness of our community, the complexity of our family values will take time to learn and understand. Issa knows us best, and he understands well what we need and how to deliver. He has mastered it well throughout these past few years.
Please do not dismantle something that works. Please do not bring a change we didn’t ask for!
We would appreciate it if you took in consideration all the sacrifices made by Issa, to establish the WACC, a unique comprehensive model of services and programs, for us, and by people who look like us!.
We demand that you do not break our trust, our dignity, our community!
Please take in account the fact that we know best what ‘s best for us, and our community!
We already have Issa whose inspirational character and leadership brought us together!
We do not need someone else!
We want him, and need him back!
Thank you!
Sincerely,
The West African Community Council people.
Actions:
Check with each and everyone who benefits from programs, services, food, rental help, crisis intervention, marital counseling, domestic violence, support with homework, support with after school activities- free babysitting -employment, job training, food deliveries at people’s homes.
We can provide these:
- Data about the number of undocumented folks not accessing basic needs ( whom no other system can support to get benefits, whether it’s food security, healthcare access,childcare, proper education, employment search,informal training documentation, financial assistance.)
- Create a list of petitions with people who got help ( verbal testimonials, written with signatures, or verbal messages)
- Find data about the number of callers for hel, but not getting it because of limited capacity
- Retrieve from the beginning how many people got help prior to organization is created
- How trust has been instilled with those early relationships that lead to the organization’s creation. The trust is based on brotherhood, and sisterhood ; which involves regular financial support,mentorship, kinship ties preservation,
- Who believed in the mission, and vision?
- Sacrifices made to create the organization
- Putting his house in? Value?