- My name's Fowzia Adde.

I am originally from Somalia.

I was born in Mogadishu.

I arrived to Moorhead area, 1997, December.

I left my country when I was around nine years old.

In 1990, Somalia, we had a war that started.

First, it was a coup who was overtaking the government, but then it turned out to to be a civil war.

And then I came to Kenya.

We were 3,500 in our refugee camp.

It used to be called Hatami Refugee Camp in Mombasa.

So there is a refugee system that when the refugee community are misplaced, countries, commonwealth countries, then come and if they have a space and ability to take them, and it takes a process.

You have to fill out forms, you have to go through interview and health, also a screening.

And so that's called the vetting.

After the vetting, then you will go with the country that will take you.

Because the refugee camp I was in, most of them was settled here in the Lutheran Social Services.

And then me alone, I was settled in Washington, DC.

So once we arrived to United States, we start communicating.

"Where are you?

I'm in Ohio.

I'm in North Dakota."

So this communication, I told them about my struggle and how I'm working 7-Eleven in the nighttime, in the morning, I'm working housekeeping, and I can barely afford my life.

And they told me, "Well, you know, here in Fargo, Moorhead is affordable."

At that time, apartments were like 425 for two bedrooms.

So I catch the Greyhound.

For new Americans, this area, it's easy for them to navigate because of being in a small town.

It gives you that opportunity that you needed to catch up.

Even though it was not a smooth ride because it's a new culture, new ways of life, new language, so you have to work hard to catch up with the people who were there before you.

What surprised me the most, it was the ethnicity culture in America.

The black and the white and the racism.

They were hard for me to swallow.

I first didn't know what skin I was in when I came to America.

I was told I was a Black woman.

And so some of the things that slowed me down was being a Black woman.

I couldn't wrap around my head what it means.

So I did not allow that to come through me.

I just focused forward what I wanted to do and how I wanted to grow in this community.

When you're a refugee, you have two different mind.

You just came from a hardship.

You just came from a war and living in the worst way of life, and all of a sudden you are in world where they're ahead in technology, ahead in everything.

So there is a human, what they call ability, inside of you that kicks in and says, "You know what, we can do it."

I started my family here after I arrived to this area.

I got married in 1998, September.

I had my children here.

I have four boys and four girls.

They were all born here and their story of my life.

They're part of me now.

And I took them back home to show them what kind of place I came from.

It's in my plan to show them and for them to understand.

Yes, they were privileged, but not to take it for granted what they have.

Yeah.

I run an organization that's called the Immigrant Development Center.

I'm the Executive Director and part of the founding fathers of the organization.

It's because there was, at the time when I came, there was not enough nonprofits who are focused on working with new Americans to start business and be self-sufficient.

More focus it was in social service, but there was no, "Okay, what kind of skills did you have before?

And what can I do to make sure you get your foot at the door?"

And working with workforce issues, making sure people get to the right position of job.

There is a lot of new Americans refugee community who have background, educational background.

They had their own life before, but when they come here, people think they just belong to the entry job.

That's not true.

They have abilities.

Immigrant Development Center was one of the first organization that focused on economy development, and we were a leader on that.

And I wanna leave footsteps for the refugee women who are coming here similar to me to really keep it going.

I mean, keep it trying every day.

That's the footstep I wanna leave behind.

Because all this hard work I do, it's for the next refugee woman who will walk in my shoes to really understand that America has a lot to give.

You just need to find it.

Yeah.

- [Presenter] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.