Ethiopian Keeps Lonely Vigil Helping Countrymen Settle in U.S.

Saba HileMaskel has worked almost single-handedly for six years to help ease the transition of Ethiopian refugees to a new way of life in California.

From her tiny office between a printing shop and a carpet store on Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles, she has helped newcomers, as well as Ethiopians who have been in the United States for several years, cut through the red tape of government assistance agencies and find food, emergency shelter, housing and medical care.

But the nonprofit Ethiopian Community Center Outreach Services she runs, which has helped an estimated 3,000 refugees from the east African nation, is in danger of closing down.

More Money Out Than In

Since its founding, the organization has kept its doors open with the money from clients who could afford to contribute to the center and through donations from Los Angeles’ Black Employees Assn., a labor group for county employees, HileMaskel said.

But the gifts cannot keep up with the bills; HileMaskel said it costs $3,000 a month to keep the center open. She is five months behind in paying rent and phone bills, which include frequent calls to the United Nations and to government agencies in Washington.

Already overburdened with the day-to-day operations, the 38-year-old HileMaskel says she has exhausted herself seeking funds from relief organizations and from county government. But she keeps returning to the office, working 12-hour days sometimes, mixing in a part-time translating job that provides her only income.

“If the office is not open, we are not able to save lives because there is no support group for Ethiopians,” she said.

County officials are aware that HileMaskel provides services to a community that other organizations do not focus on, but they said the limits of their budget and the small number of Ethiopian refugees here prevent them from funding the center.

Competitive Funding

Los Angeles County’s Refugee Targeted Assistance Program distributes nearly $4 million in federal aid to refugee projects. HileMaskel is in a competitive bidding system for the federal money. “Everyone on the list is qualified, but only the very highest ranked receives those funds,” said Tom Garrison, the program’s project manager.

Cutbacks this past fiscal year have limited the amount of refugee funds available nationwide. The allocation was slashed 30% to $33 million, Garrison said.

The bulk of the county money goes to organizations that serve refugees streaming into the county in the greatest numbers, a criterion that cuts out Ethiopians fleeing famine and the war between the military government and secessionists.

Between October, 1987, and June, 1988, 7,800 Armenians and 1,200 Iranians resettled in Los Angeles while only 50 new Ethiopians came, according to Garrison. All told, perhaps 20,000 people of Ethiopian descent live here.

While officials at some larger resettlement agencies say they help Ethiopians, most of their work stops once the refugees are settled. And some of the larger organizations, such as Catholic Charities, do not have employees capable of communicating effectively with non-English-speaking Ethiopians.

Helps Those in ‘Second Migration’

Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, HileMaskel is fluent in Amharic, the language most commonly spoken in the republic.

She helps all comers, including people in what she calls the “secondary migration”--Ethiopians still searching for a permanent home in the United States.

Ruth Haywood, who first settled in Boston, came to the Ethiopian Community Center three months ago with her 3-year-old baby Beth. She was without a job and without housing. She said she had nowhere else to turn but to HileMaskel.

“I talked to her and she connected me. . . . She got me shelter at a Jewish organization,” Haywood said. HileMaskel, she said, has also helped her get welfare aid as she seeks permanent housing and a job.

Despite the threat that her center may have to close, HileMaskel toils on, hoping that fund-raising initiatives launched by a group of businessmen and clergymen will succeed.

Came for Education

A graduate of UC Irvine with degrees in biological sciences and social ecology, HileMaskel--who came to this country in 1969 to get an education--said her dream was to become a gynecologist and return home.

“But because of what happened in my country, I couldn’t concentrate on that. What happened in my country really moved me. I understand the system there (because) my father was tortured and killed,” she said. “That’s why I can’t have a normal job and a normal life when my country has been taken from me.”