African Services Committee

Service Organization of the Year

 

 African Services Committee is a multiservice agency based in Harlem and dedicated to assisting immigrants, refugees and asylees from across the African Diaspora.The organization serves more than 12,500 African and Diaspora clients each year through its Harlem-based health and social services programs. African Services  Committee has developed operations in Africa and established a groundbreaking HIV testing and care programs in Ethiopia, providing free VCT services to over 30,000 people per year. 

 

African Services Comittee was founded by Asfaha Hadera. 

  

Mr. Hadera brings a deep commitment to community organizing and public advocacy on the social and public health issues facing immigrants and refugees. He experienced first-hand the realities of refugee life, leaving his home country of Ethiopia in 1977 for refugee camps in the Sudan, before emigrating to the U.S. in 1979.

 

Asfaha founded the organization known as the Committee to Aid Ethiopian Refugees in May of 1981, which evolved to become African Services Committee in 1993. As Co-Executive Director, Mr. Hadera has been recognized by many political, social and public health institutions as a major influence behind the oldest and largest African health services organization in the United States. 

Asfaha’s vision has motivated African Services Committee to collaborate with a variety of other African community-based organizations in the U.S. and Africa to further democratization and human rights. He is a 2004 winner of the Emigrant Foundation Award and recipient of the 2005 Ronald Reagan Gold Medal. He has been recognized by the Congressional Black Caucus for his successful advocacy for increased African refugee resettlement quotas in the U.S. He also received a proclamation from the New York City Council for outstanding service to the community. He was trained in social work at Adelphi University and has a diploma in child developmental psychology.