Abdullahi: “Jubbaland needs change. If I don’t do it, who will?”

By: Rachel OHM

[This article originally appeared in print on the “Maine Central Telegram” and later on centralmaine.com]

MAINE, U.S.—Abdullahi Ali has lived a life many refugees only dream about.

He grew up in Somalia, fled to a refugee camp in Kenya as a teenager after civil war broke out in his home country, and was lucky to be placed in a resettlement program that brought him to the United States.

He arrived in Lewiston in 2009 and soon got a job as a receptionist at Catholic Charities, the state’s major resettlement organization. He enrolled in college and then graduate school and started his own business. He moved to Portland, became an American citizen and bought a house.

Others in Ali’s position might be satisfied with those accomplishments and enjoy the new lives they made. Instead, the 50-year-old has returned to Africa, where he’s working remotely in Nairobi while launching a campaign for president of his home state, Jubaland, in Somalia.

Ali said he was inspired to run for the position, similar to the governor of a U.S. state, after a 2021 return trip to Kenya and Somalia.

There, he saw crippling poverty in refugee camps and widespread fear and oppression caused by the Al-Shabab terrorist group, which has a heavy presence in Jubaland.

“I never wanted to be a politician, but this isn’t just about politics,” Ali said. “It’s about saving lives. It’s about impacting future generations in Jubaland and beyond, fighting extremism and liberating communities. … And I wanted to take the lead, because if I don’t do it, who will?”

FLEEING SOMALIA

Ali was born in Kismayo, a port city in the southernmost part of Somalia. His family earned a living as farmers and tenders of livestock on the outskirts of town.

They were forced to leave for a Kenyan refugee camp when he was around 17, at the start of the Somali civil war. Ali said his uncle was killed and his family had to flee after a hostile tribal group moved into the area.

The war brought a lot of uncertainty as different political and tribal groups fought for control, and an opposing group moving into a new city posed a threat to the people who lived there. Men would be killed, women raped and businesses looted, Ali said.

“When you knew your clan is losing, people would prepare to flee,” he said.

“People would always flee and go further away from wherever that was happening. That’s what we did, and the nearest place for safety was the Kenyan border.”

He spent years living at the Dadaab refugee camps but also attended school while in Kenya, studying sociology and public administration at the University of Nairobi.

Abdullahi Ali (center) arrives at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 7. [Picture/Mohamed Shire]

Ali said he was permitted to work right away because of his refugee status, and he found a job as a receptionist at Catholic Charities in Lewiston. He worked there for a year before moving in 2011 to Portland, where he took a different job with Catholic Charities as a case manager for fellow immigrants who had survived torture.

Ali said he was excited to come to the U.S., but he also found it daunting. He spoke English when he arrived, but he didn’t have a driver’s license or car, which made it hard to find a job.

“The systems, the expectations, the culture – all that was completely new,” he said. “I was excited, but also anxious.”

He enrolled at the University of Southern Maine while working at Catholic Charities, and he often took on other jobs as well – sometimes as many as three at once, he said. He worked at Best Buy and did freelance translation and interpretation of the Somali and Swahili languages.

Ali graduated from USM in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and a minor in economics. He then earned a master’s degree in justice studies from Southern New Hampshire University and a doctorate in public policy from the Muskie School of Public Service at USM.

In 2015, he started Gateway Community Services in Portland and a sister nonprofit, Gateway Community Services Maine.

The for-profit provides behavioral health services, including mental health counseling and case management, as well as services for children with intellectual disabilities.

The nonprofit provides similar services for people who are uninsured, along with community and leadership programs for young people. Together, the two organizations employ over 250 people, Ali said.

He said he started the organizations after his work for Catholic Charities made him realize how much the immigrant community was struggling with mental health.

“In many cases they were reluctant to seek services because they didn’t feel safe,” he said. “Because if they do share, parents think their children will be taken away or the government will know and they will be labeled as crazy. From where they came from, because of the isolation and stigma associated with mental health, they didn’t want to discuss that and they also didn’t trust the service providers.

“We wanted to create a center they could come to where they would feel safe and work with people from their communities, people who look like them and who have gone through the same experiences.”

The organizations later expanded to serve the broader population, not only immigrants. “We have realized that to ensure integration, there has to be interactions between different communities and that has to start with us,” Ali said.

Reza Jalali, a consultant on immigrant issues and former executive director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, got to know Ali through their mutual work at organizations led by and serving immigrants.

“He’s done amazing work here in Maine in terms of advocacy and starting his nonprofit, which has become a leading immigrant-founded, immigrant-run organization, but that’s not enough for him,” said Jalali, a former refugee from Iran. “He wants to work harder and create a safer and better world for all of us, not just new Mainers.”

In recent years, it’s become more common for immigrants and new Mainers to run for office locally; several now hold seats in the Maine Legislature and on their local city and town councils. And while it’s not uncommon for immigrants to return to their home countries, Jalali said, it is unusual for a new Mainer to return home and run for office there.

“In many cases they were reluctant to seek services because they didn’t feel safe,” he said. “Because if they do share, parents think their children will be taken away or the government will know and they will be labeled as crazy. From where they came from, because of the isolation and stigma associated with mental health, they didn’t want to discuss that and they also didn’t trust the service providers.

“We wanted to create a center they could come to where they would feel safe and work with people from their communities, people who look like them and who have gone through the same experiences.”

The organizations later expanded to serve the broader population, not only immigrants. “We have realized that to ensure integration, there has to be interactions between different communities and that has to start with us,” Ali said.

Reza Jalali, a consultant on immigrant issues and former executive director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, got to know Ali through their mutual work at organizations led by and serving immigrants.

“He’s done amazing work here in Maine in terms of advocacy and starting his nonprofit, which has become a leading immigrant-founded, immigrant-run organization, but that’s not enough for him,” said Jalali, a former refugee from Iran. “He wants to work harder and create a safer and better world for all of us, not just new Mainers.”

In recent years, it’s become more common for immigrants and new Mainers to run for office locally; several now hold seats in the Maine Legislature and on their local city and town councils. And while it’s not uncommon for immigrants to return to their home countries, Jalali said, it is unusual for a new Mainer to return home and run for office there.

“It is quite unique and wonderful to see someone trying to not only help people here but help communities that are left behind, in particular if they are in need of that type of leadership,” Jalali said. “He came here as a young man. He gained so much knowledge and so many skills … and now he wants to share his gift with the other communities he has belonged to. It is magical, and I hope more of that happens.”

After coming to Maine in 2009, Ali didn’t return to Kenya or Somalia for years except for a trip in late 2018 to visit a sick aunt. But in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to return to Africa, work remotely and visit friends.