by Kamna Shastri
(SOUTH SEATTLE EMERALD) As an immigrant, it can be grating and alienating to go about your daily life without hearing the familiar lilt of your mother tongue. When you have moved to the United States to escape war or political instability and are trying to put down roots, it’s as important to retain a connection to your community as it is to make inroads into this new culture. This was the case for Sahra Farah, founder and director of Somali Community Services (SCS) of Seattle, based in Renton.
Farah left Somalia before civil war broke out in 1991. Prior to that time, Somali immigrants had mostly come to the U.S. as students and professional workers. As the conflict in Somalia escalated, sending a new wave of refugees to the United States, informal mutual aid networks burgeoned to help new arrivals access resources and settle down in a foreign country. SCS started as one of these informal networks and then went on to become a registered non-profit.
Farah remembers feeling lonely and felt that something was missing. As she came to meet other Somali immigrants and refugees, she realized she was not alone. A Somali community was slowly putting down roots in Seattle and Farah could see that there were so many needs, from language access to navigating social services.
“I chose to come to the community because I see a lot of elders, a lot of people who have the language barriers that don’t have no place to go,” she said.
Farah founded Somali Community Services in 1995 and spent her evenings working with the community. Surrounded by the language and culture, that thing that had felt missing was reignited.
“I got my language back too, culture back, everything, because I see people that I grew up with and it makes the people happy,” she said.
