Our Services
Our Current Programs
The programs at Horn of Africa aim at empowering African refugees in San Diego to become productive members of their new communities and achieve self-sufficiency while preserving and promoting their dignity. Our current programs include:
Health Access Initiative
The longest-running program of the organization. Health Access initiative includes Prenatal Health, health insurance enrollment, Access to a medical home, and case management. We work with pregnant women and mothers of small children to enroll them into one of the existing health insurance programs such as MediCal or Healthy Families. Program follow-ups ensure ongoing program participation.
City Heights Business Development Program
Intensive workshops for aspiring and current East African business owners on how to obtain credit and access capital, how to start and expand a business, and how to market and advertise effectively. We collaborate closely with the International Rescue Committee.
Steps Program
An innovative economic development project managed by Horn of Africa in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Chicano Federation, and San Diego State University with support from Price Philanthropies and the San Diego Foundation. To date, the project has supported the development of over 55 small businesses and has created 125 jobs for East African refugees, most of whom are women.
Childcare Training Initiative
A comprehensive training program assisting refugee women through the process of obtaining a family daycare license. Designed to help refugee women create their own micro-business or become a licensed daycare provider. This program allows refugee women to obtain all of the proper tools and training to become a licensed daycare provider.
Provides instruction in child development, health, nutrition, and safety as well as business basics and record keeping. The program also includes full infant, nutrition, and adult CPR/First Aid and Childcare Health & Safety classes. City Heights Business Development Program
Refugee Case Management
Intensive one-on-one assistance for African refugees and refugee families in San Diego, assisting with access to mainstream services such as energy cost assistance programs, nutrition, and food security
program, job development, and unemployment benefits.
Supporting Asylum Seekers Project
Individualized support for East Africans seeking asylum and those granted asylum in San Diego. Services include cultural orientation, resource support, and assistance with accessing available benefits and mainstream services. We work with several law firms that assist Asylum seekers such as Casa Cornelia Law Center, Southern Immigration Project, and The California Wellness Foundation.
Early Childhood Readiness
HoA provides access to preventative healthcare which in conjunction with prenatal and well-baby services gives our children a good start. Parents are provided with one-on-one parenting instruction and facilitated parent-child interactions which support parents as teachers and protectors and lead to increased school readiness for our children. We are able to operate this program under a generous grant from the San Diego Foundation.
City Heights Youth Leadership Program
A State of California-funded program that introduces refugee and immigrant youth to State Parks and Outdoors through field trips. The program also trains youth to become leaders of tomorrow. The program includes workshops, field trips, and sports.
San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition (SDRCC) - Activate, Connect and Engage (ACE) Youth Leadership Project
To engage youth and families from multiple refugee communities in a ground-up initiative to identify and understand factors that influence youth substance use, and to develop innovative substance use prevention programming that is culturally rooted, healing centered and promotes positive connections with peers and young adult role models. The SDRCC Activate, Connect and Engage Youth Leadership Project includes the following activities: (1) community engagement, assessment, and education, (2) youth activism and mentoring, (3) peer support and leadership development. The Project will be implemented by five ethnic community-based organizations supported by University of California San Diego Refugee Health Unit.
This program is a collaborative effort headed by YMCA. This program helps people get licensed to be FCC providers, expand their license from a small to large license, expand services to non-traditional hours, or begin caring for infants and toddlers. CCIP builds home-based child care and improves the quality of care through assessment and analysis, recruitment of providers, technical assistance, and facilitation of educational opportunities. Other collaborative members include Chicano Federations, International Rescue Committee and San Diego State University.
National Peace Conferences
Ethiopian Diaspora Peace Conference, July 21-22, 2023
On July 21-22, 2023, the first Ethiopian Diaspora Peace Conference was held at the University of San Diego’s Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. The conference was attended by diverse Ethiopian diaspora members drawn mainly from the Somali, Oromo, Amhara, and Tigray communities. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, Ranking member of the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Ambassador Mike Hammer, US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa delivered keynote speeches. We thank Congresswoman Sara Jacobs who took the time to grace us with the US government’s commitment to the people of Ethiopia. We also thank Ambassador Mike Hammer and Nora Dempsey, Senior Advisor for the State Department’s Office of Engagement for the Horn of Africa Diaspora. Ambassador Hammer shared with the community the US policy towards Ethiopia which seeks to encourage democratic governance, freedom of the press, respect for human rights, and regional stability in the Horn of Africa.
Horn of Africa will continue to promote peace and dialogue in the Horn of Africa through series of engagements with key stakeholders in the near future.
Ethiopian Diaspora Peace Conference 2023 (sandiego.edu)
Volunteer Opportunities
Do you have a passion for working with people? Or experience and skills in office management? At Horn of Africa, we have ongoing opportunities for volunteers to help directly in our programs for refugees and to assist around the office. Most opportunities can be tailored to fit your schedule. If you are interested, please contact us so we can schedule an orientation.
Donations Of Used Articles
- Toys for the graduates of our childcare training program.
- Office materials (binders, hole punchers, files) for the refugees starting businesses.
- A telephone system for our office.
- Two desks for our office.
Please contact us to arrange for delivery or pick-up.
Financial Contributions
As a non-profit organization, Horn of Africa relies on generous community members such as yourself to ensure the ongoing availability of much-needed services in San Diego’s refugee community. 90 cents for each dollar of your contribution go directly to those services. Each contribution is fully tax-deductible. To make yours, use our secure online donation process (operated through Google Checkout, which will allow you to choose a password for maximum security), or send your check payable to ‘Horn of Africa’ to our office address.
- Your $50 help pay for the CPR/First Aid training for one refugee woman.
- Your $100 help pay for assistance to one asylum seeker for one month.
- Your $250 help pay for one home visit of a family in need.
- Your $500 help pay for all expenses for one refugee woman to start her own family day care business.
Fundraising Opportunities
( AT NO COST TO YOU )