Meet Hirout Dagnew of Ethiopian Community Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hirout Dagnew.

Hi Hirout, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ethiopian Community Los Angeles, ECLA, was founded in February 2020 as a nonprofit by eighteen like minded, passionate individuals to help integrate Ethiopian immigrants, and others in similar situations, to the society at large. I became the first volunteer executive director in September 2020. We pivoted to a virtual nonprofit for the first two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Two years later, we won an EDI federal grant and bought our first office in South Los Angeles. We serve the bilingual Ethiopian communities living in the Greater Los Angeles Area. We are currently working on renovating our office space and are looking forward to launching our mission centric services in-person soon. We are primarily a membership organization and rely on our supporters, small business sponsors, our corporate funders, and government and foundation grants to fund our services which are free. Our programs, services, and events are run by forty plus skilled, passionate volunteers.

During the first two years of the pandemic we were busy livestreaming expert panels on health, education, and mental wellbeing. We formed a coalition with other black migrant groups and together with the leadership at Kedren Clinic played a vital role in reaching underrepresented groups to facilitate the vaccination of three thousand people over a three week period.

The last three years we have partnered with about twenty-five other nonprofits and county offices to meet the varied needs of our communities. We are currently focusing on immigration services, mental wellbeing services, workforce development, and serving our Older Adult populations. We tap all our skilled volunteers from within our bilingual communities.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We launched our programs and services during the height of the civil war in Ethiopia caused by ethnic strife and the tension there was reflected in our communities here. As a nonpolitical and nonreligious nonprofit we served everyone and at times we received a backlash from activist groups. As a virtual nonprofit we struggled to reach our special populations-youth and older adults. We overcame these difficulties by forming partnerships with the National Parks and Recreation to offer a Saturday youth soccer clinic and worked with a local Senior Center to offer bilingual older adult support services. Mostly though, our in person workshops, cultural events, and fundraising galas have been well attended.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We specialize in serving our Ethiopian immigrant populations some of whom do not speak English. We are proud of our weekly One Stop and our call center which is open seven days a week. We respond to a variety of social service needs, employment referral requests, and translation services. We also get frequent requests from local schools and clinics and offer translator services. We host social mixers and intergenerational picnics to break social isolation. We host monthly support groups, and offer free virtual Amharic classes to anyone interested in learning our script. As cultural stewards we are preserving, transmitting, and evolving cultural knowledge across generations. We create space where people are seen and celebrated, and our youth feel rooted and our elders respected. With our volunteers as brand ambassadors we remove financial, linguistic, and cultural barriers and are busy building the next generation leaders.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
What drives our success is our volunteers’ commitment to our mission and willingness to learn from mentors. Staying competitive in technology, marketing, public relations, and having a strong communication and fundraising plan has helped us grow too. . My advice to those starting out is to join a nonprofit peer leadership group, maintain close relationships with corporate sponsors, and keeping up with online learning. The work in our sector is hard but it is also the most satisfying!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://eclosangeles.org
• Instagram: Ethiopian_communityla
• Facebook: ethiopian-community-los-angeles