LEWISTON — On Wednesday 25 leaders from 18 African countries will visit Lewiston to learn about improving their knowledge in everything from engineering to community leadership.
The 25 visitors are recipients of the 2017 Mandela Washington Fellowships for Young African Leaders, a competitive honor awarded to help Africans learn about public management practices. The fellows range in age from 25 to 35.
The visit is sponsored by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center of the University of Maine in Orono. The visitors will spend three hours in Lewiston meeting with African immigrants who have made the city their home. The 25 leaders are finishing their sixth and final week in Maine.
Their visit is significant, said Fatuma Hussein of the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, formerly the United Somali Woman of Maine.
In Lewiston “they will make connections, then go back to Africa and apply what they learned,” Hussein said. While here, local African immigrants will meet with them “to show them where we have been, where we are, and where we are going,” Hussein said.
She hopes they will draw inspiration from seeing the community African refugees now have in Lewiston, “to see it can be done.” When building a new community, a new organization, a new business or venture “there are bumps in the road,” Hussein said, adding that’s OK.
When the Somali immigrants arrived in Lewiston 17 years ago they had nothing, Hussein said.
“We were a displaced people. We now have a strong community. We have built so much with the help and guidance of our friends. It’s incredible,” she said.
The African visitors and Lewiston refugees will talk about what’s gone right and the struggles of integrating into a new culture.
“It will be mutually beneficial for both groups to meet with and learn from one another,” said Kim Crowley, the social media intern for the Mandela Washington Fellowship program.
The 25 African leaders are from Botswana, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Togo.
Areas they are working in include climate change, conservation, agriculture, health care, education, energy engineering including oil and gas, entrepreneurship, mental health, water development, water research and water management, public health, maternal health and counseling, and wildlife conservation.
Dr. Jonathan Rubin, director of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, said the visit is historic.
The public is invited to join a public reception at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Lewiston Public Library’s Callahan Hall, where the visitors will be welcomed by Lewiston Mayor Robert Macdonald.
Before the community meeting, the fellows will meet with and talk to Lewiston youths, network with community leaders, enjoy ethnic foods and tour Somali stores.