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Mastora Bakhiet has spent the past two years building a non-profit organization.
Now she’s given it a home.
The Darfur Women’s Peace and Development Network will have an open house Sunday in its new office on South Calhoun Street.
The ASK Ministries Inc. clinic operated there until it closed abruptly a year ago, and the building reopened in late summer as Calhoun Center: A Cooperative for Non-Profits.
A former exam room is now Bakhiet’s office, its walls and curtains decorated with colorful cartoon dinosaurs originally meant to put young patients at ease.
Bakhiet is grateful for the space, as incongruous a setting as it is for an organization that deals with the aftereffects of genocide. Rebel groups and government-supported militias have been waging war, with devastating effects on the civilian population, in the Darfur region of Sudan since 2003.
Bakhiet was forced to flee her home in Darfur in 1996 and has lived in the Fort Wayne area for almost five years.
More than 1,800 Darfuri refugees were accepted by the U.S. State Department in 2006, but that number has decreased in the past couple of years. About 145 Darfuris were resettled over the past two years, according to the State Department.
Bakhiet and other refugees have estimated about 300 Darfuris live in northeast Indiana. The State Department said it has not resettled any Darfuri refugees in Indiana this year or last, but it’s possible some have moved to the state on their own.
The idea for her non-profit organization grew as she worked for other organizations as an advocate. The plight of women left behind in Darfur – often with no job skills, fending for families as heads of their households – moved her to take action.
“We are directly connected to our relatives in Darfur, and we couldn’t help them or send anything to them,” she said.
Bakhiet wanted to create an organization that would advocate for those women and their families as well as for the Darfuris who have fled Sudan as refugees.
Bakhiet believes she has a natural ability to connect with people, but starting a non-profit is never simple – especially when the economy is on the brink of a recession. And especially for someone who speaks English as a second language.
She pored over books and Web sites, studying non-governmental organizations. The first form she sent to Indianapolis to apply for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status was rejected.
Bakhiet kept trying.
“I found that building an organization is not easy,” she said.
She enrolled in service leadership and management classes and enlisted the help of the Reclamation Project as a fiscal sponsor. On Nov. 5, 2007, the group was founded with two other Darfuri women.
The organization had sponsored rallies locally and in Indianapolis and has connected Darfuri women to Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne students for tutoring. Its young but active history made it an ideal candidate for the Calhoun Center when the group approached the center’s board about being a tenant.
“Darfur Women’s Network is really exactly what we’re trying to do in terms of helping new organizations get on their feet,” Calhoun Center board secretary Leslie Raymer said. “Our job is to help them move their mission forward.”
The center has about half a dozen tenants now who pay a flat rent rate, which Raymer would not disclose. The Calhoun Center board meets annually in September, when it evaluates the status of its tenants, she said.
The concept of Sunday’s open house was new to Bakhiet, but she embraced it as a way to introduce the community to the Darfur organization and its new home.
Some friends told her that opening an office was unnecessary, but to Bakhiet, it is a way to have a presence in the community.
“It is very, very important place,” she said. “I believe that is part of our entity.”
So far, the Darfur Women’s Peace and Development Network has no money to hire staff but has a fortunate abundance of volunteers.
One of them is board member Stephanie Johnson, who hopes area residents will take advantage of the open house to learn about the refugees who are living here in the community.
“I think there is some surprise to find that we have refugees from Darfur,” she said. “I like that they’re trying to bring awareness, that we can help them help their families back in Darfur.”
