http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local//item/59677-from-a-philly-taxi-drivers-seat-a-one-man-social-service-agency-for-immigrants/
Moving to a new city is hard, especially when you're relocating from a very different country. An African man who moved to Philadelphia decades ago has made it his life's work to help new immigrants build a life here.
"A lot of people ask me how long I've been here and they tell me well I'm 24 and I tell them well I'm sorry, I was here before you were born," said John Kidane. "I've been here since the early 1980's, I've been here close to 30 years."
Kidane grew up in Eritrea. The small country in the Horn of Africa that gained independence from neighboring Ethiopia in the early 1990's after a bloody struggle. "People were being killed, people were being arrested by Ethiopian ruling officials," he said. "Many of us had to flee to survive. My brother and sister died in the war and the only way to escape the war was to leave Eritrea and go to a refugee camp in the Sudan...it's a painful past memory."
In his search for a new home, Philadelphia beat out Canada, which seemed too cold, and Australia, which felt too far away. "Philadelphia is an interesting city. The city of Joe Frazier, the city of a lot of African-Americans. I have an affinity with Africa and African-Americans so I chose Philadelphia as my city and I ended up here and I'm still here. I am part of this city."
In all his decades in Philly, Kidane's done much more than build a new home for himself.
Thomas Mebrahtu met Kidane in the mid-1990's when he became active in an immigrant group for Eritrean in Philadelphia. He calls "one-stop shop" because even if he can't solve a person's problem, he serves as a pathway to finding the answer.
"He understands the situation here," said Mebrahtu. "He has a good network of people practicing in various fields, whether it's health or immigration or other needs." Mebrahtu says when he worked with Kidane it was common for people to suggest, 'Hey call John. Maybe he knows the answer to this?'"
Perhaps the most surprising thing about John Kidane is that he's helping all these people not from an office chair Ñbut from a cab. That's right, this affable one-man de facto social services unit is helping Philadelphia's immigrants organize and adapt while driving a taxi. Kidane says the job gives him "the flexibility of time of helping groups and people in anyway I want to. I'm very independent basically I can do whatever I want to do. I can help in anyway I want to help."
Kidane says the job also lets him connect with fellow cabbies who are often members of the immigrants group he's trying to help.
He tried going the more traditional route Ñhelping immigrants by working for a social service organization. "One thing I don't like that I've learned is I hate being controlled by certain mission statements of organizations that have their own mission statements. It limits you to how much you can do," he said.
Kidane helped establish "AfricCom," an advocacy, social service and economic development non-profit in Philadelphia and he's helped Africans who've come to Philadelphia from Eritrea, Tunisia and Somalia.
Abdirahman Ahmed, with the Somali Community Association of Philadelphia, first met Kidane 17 years ago. He says Kidane recently helped the Somali community complete the paperwork to get non-profit status. "Finding what documentation we need and where to go and he helped us a lot for the community and whatever we need he's there for us," said Ahmed.
Kidane says he does all this work so he can set fellow immigrants up to succeed in America. "I want communities to help themselves so everybody will look at them and say, 'they're not taking a penny from anybody. They're doing it themselves, they're helping themselves.'"
Kidane understands firsthand what it's like for these new Philadelphians to flee famine, war and death. He doesn't let himself get lost in that pain.
"Everybody in Eritrea has somebody who died in the war. I mean I'm not the only one. I know six, seven people who lost all their siblings," he said. "Eritreans do not complain about what they had to do for independence. They're living with it."
Now Kidane's shifting his focus to another group he sees needs help: his fellow cabbies. "I feel sad for taxi drivers. Especially when it's a slow day you see them struggling and driving around looking for business. It is not an easy life." He wants to start by working to improve fellow cabbies' health. If history is any guide, he could become the "go to guy" when taxi drivers need help.
Received on Thu Sep 12 2013 - 21:01:28 EDT