"Self-sufficiency equals self-respect."
Stephen Wreh-Wilson, the African Development Center’s new outreach coordinator, has been changing the world, one person at a time, for the last 15 years.
As a Research Officer for the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Liberia, he collected civilian reports of civil war atrocities, trained his co-workers and other community volunteers in human rights fact-finding and documentation. These reports were passed on to Amnesty International, the US Embassy, the UN, Human Rights Watch, and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights to help prepare for an eventual war crimes tribunal. Steve became Director of the Peace and Justice Commission in 1998 after former President Charles Taylor’s thug administration forced his predecessor to leave the country.
A year later, similar threats compelled Steve to do the same. Most of his family, including his son,were not allowed to emigrate, and instead became refugees in Ghana. His elder brother, Jerome, died under very grave conditions in the refugee camp in Ghana. Fortunately, Steve is one of the few Liberian exiles to have located his close relatives: after Taylor left the country and UN West African peacekeeping troops arrived, his mother, son, and the rest of his extended family were able to return from Ghana. His daughter Stephanie lives with him in Minnesota.
“The culture of silence creates fear. Once a person is targeted by government, his/her family become objects of that threat as well. I was perceived to be crazy. Most exiled people don’t get back in touch with families out of fear for their safety,” says Steve.
After arriving in the United States, Steve obtained his M.A. in Communications Studies and Intercultural Communications from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania in 2001 and came to Minnesota in 2002. He married Dehcontee Browne, a beauty salon-owner, in June 2004.
Last year, Steve participated in Minnesota’s Organizing Apprenticeship Project (OAP), a competitive six-month leadership development program. While interviewing African immigrant leaders in the Twin Cities for OAP, Steve says that ADC Director Hussein Samatar’s message about economic development made a big impression.
“Self sufficiency equals self respect,” says Wilson. “Hussein understands this and wants to help people achieve the American dream.”
Steve and Hussein recognized an ally in one another. “Hussein offered a hand to me in helping him work toward his goal of moving our community forward. We help people establish their own businesses, buy homes, and get counseling on their financial situation,” Steve says.
He is passionate about the cause and unfazed by the urgent pace of his new workplace. “I’ve learned more here in six months than I have in any other organization.” Fortunately for Steve’s co-workers and clients, the complex issues facing African immigrants and refugees in the United States don’t intimidate him either — they simply expand his sophisticated vision of social justice for Africans worldwide.
In his role as a community organizer, Steve familiarizes Twin Cities African communities with the ADC’s services and its connections to other resources. He serves as event planner, database manager, and loan portfolio manager. His experience as a home-ownership workshop trainer also inspired him to become a licensed realtor.
“A lot of Africans are afraid of being duped,” he says. “They don’t understand the system, and they’re afraid even if they have all of the qualifications to buy a home. I thought I’d help out.”
Steve’s next objective is to cultivate partners in the Twin Cities African media, and educate them about ADC programming. “We need ways for our people to get information about us quickly.”
When asked what he liked best about working for the African Development Center, Steve gave a recent example: “A woman had been working with us to secure a loan for her business. She came into our office this week to pick up her $35,000 check. Imagine how she smiled! If you can help people like that get to where they want to be, others get inspired and move the whole community forward.”
