This story was co-authored by Katelyn Dendas.
On October 7, a warm beautiful fall day, HAKI Community Organization hosted a pop-up multicultural fair at Holly Farm Park in Southwest Portland to celebrate diversity and build community. The multicultural fair, attended by over 700 community members, provided opportunities for emerging businesses and local performers and space for community resources. The fair was strategically aligned to support the future development of a permanent multicultural hub in the West Portland Town Center.
HAKI Community Organization for East African immigrants stands for Humanity, Assistance, Kindness, Interculturalism (HAKI). “Haki” in Swahili means “rights” the individual has from birth including food, clothing, shelter and life’s basics. HAKI founder Mohamed Bahamadi created the community organization in 2018 to unify East African immigrants in the Portland metro area and to provide services and a place for all to call home. At HAKI, there are no barriers to services. The organization primarily serves people who speak Swahili, but no one is turned away.
“I'm here for anybody and everybody. We have food boxes here at HAKI Center, and we welcome anybody. Some will be driving, and they come for a food box, and we just give it to them. You don't know what they’re running through or going through,” Bahamadi said. “Maybe yesterday was good. Maybe they inherited that car from their parents, or last year they used to work a good job, good pay, but not now… HAKI is here for all the cultures and anybody who needs help.”
The HAKI Community Model centers on the power of one: if you give someone the tools and support, they will thrive and succeed. HAKI believes in individual dignity; that every person is precious, regardless of color, country of origin, belief system, or income.
HAKI serves a vast, multicultural group of people who believe in the common good of helping their neighbor. The organization stands as a resource for education, advocacy and empowerment. In 2022, HAKI applied for a Metro Southwest Corridor grant to build support for a permanent multicultural hub in the Southwest Corridor through pop-up events for community and workforce development in the West Portland Town Center.
Dance, art, food and community resources all in one spot.
The Holly Park Multicultural Fair
HAKI recruited and worked with 63 small or emerging businesses in the six months leading up to the fair. They provided workshops on how to start a new business in Oregon and assistance in obtaining permits for those interested in starting food businesses, as well as other small business support. The fair consisted of 29 small businesses, including five food vendors and 24 nonfood vendors. There were also nine nonprofits and government agencies in attendance, including Multnomah Library, Neighborhood House, TriMet, Community Alliance of Tenants and a Sharaya compliance real estate and loan manager from Guidance Residential.
The event was an opportunity for vendors who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, or have immigrant and/or refugee status. The diversity of Southwest Portland is one of the things that brought Citlalli and Eva Guerrero of KÜHÜ Tenango Embroideries to the fair.
“We live in Hillsboro, so we did travel here. We are not very familiar with this area, but we do hear that it’s very diverse. That’s mainly why we wanted to participate and be a part of [the fair],” Citlalli Guerrero said.
To remove barriers and create a supportive environment for emerging businesses, vendors did not have to pay any fees to sell at the fair. The Metro grant paid for all the upfront costs of the event, such as the purchasing of booths and electrical equipment and rentals such as the generator and portable bathrooms. The event featured several local performers who were also paid through the grant, including Ukrainian singer Boris Smolyansky, Russian singer Irina Myachkin, a group of Kenyan Massai dancers, another group of African dancers and a Taiko drumming group.
The grant also allowed HAKI to bring on three contractors from the community – Marina and Vasily Drots and Frank Mollel – to do the vendor engagement. HAKI opted to employ local immigrants instead of an event planner to effectively connect with the community and spot emerging businesses. This decision empowered Drots and Mollel to enhance their expertise in community and vendor engagement contracts.
Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran and State Representative Dacia Grayber were in attendance and “have been supportive of the work that's been going on in the West Portland Town Center for years and supportive of the immigrant and refugee community and trying to uplift those voices,” Terri Riggsby, HAKI general manager, said.
A permanent multicultural center
The West Portland Town Center Plan is a recently adopted area-specific plan that grew out of the efforts of the Southwest Corridor Equitable Development Strategy. The plan focuses on building affordable housing and maintaining naturally occurring affordable housing) as well as increasing mobility, safety, access, cultural anchors and economic opportunity.
A unique part of the plan is the idea of a multicultural center or multicultural hub. The idea was generated by Bahamadi, HAKI’s founder who was inspired by the Portland Mercado. The center would include free stalls or booths for vendors, permanent spaces for supportive services (such as Multnomah County Health and Community Alliance of Tenants) and a community gathering space. Affordable commercial space is also one of the goals of the West Portland Town Center Plan. One potential home for the multicultural center would be a space integrated into soon-to-be-built affordable housing in the West Portland Town Center. Bahamadi envisions the multicultural center as the ground floor or first two floors of a new development.
One community member supported the idea of a multicultural center in Southwest and said, “It would be really nice to have a community center here... It’s hard to find a venue to accommodate our needs… We have to go to other areas. I usually go to Northeast or Southeast for events.”
Another argument for the multicultural center came through a Center for Disease Control Social Determinants of Health grant HAKI received and worked on in partnership with the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. The grant found that one tool for improving health outcomes is having a multicultural center nearby.
“One of the things that was identified as a potential tool or resource for improving health outcomes is having a multicultural center. Having a place where people feel safe and included and respected, where they can meet with other people of both similar backgrounds and also different ones, right? Like learning from each other and having a safe place that actually does support health outcomes, good health outcomes,” Riggsby said.
Evghenia Sincariuc of Ukrainian Care, an organization that provides free bread to people impacted by the war in Ukraine said, “I think [the idea to have a multicultural center [here] is great. We need this. There’s a huge demand. I work also with different communities. Being with all these people under one roof, it’s incredible. I think sharing your culture and being with all these people who you live close to is really important because we have community, we become one family.”
Momentum and support are building for the creation of the multicultural center. Until then, HAKI plans on holding multicultural fairs to support emerging area businesses and foster community connectedness.
“[The event was] a testimony to the appetite for a permanent multicultural hub that includes social support services...We were able to show, if we build it, they will come,” said Riggsby.