After suffering nearly two decades of almost daily beatings from her husband, Ethiopian-born Tsehai Wodajo fled to a domestic violence shelter three years ago.
But she didn't understand the laws protecting battered women and was uncomfortable with the shelter's procedures. Terrified and confused, she left on the second day. "I cannot fit there," she said. "I went back home."
It would be a year before the social worker managed to leave again--a year, she said, she would not have endured had the shelter staff understood the barriers of language, culture and isolation she faced as an African immigrant.
Now, a facility with just such a staff is on the way.
Refugee Safe Haven, a home in West Hollywood scheduled to open in the fall, will be the first domestic violence shelter in the country for African immigrants, say national experts.
"There is such a need for this," said Gerri Rosen of the African Community Resource Center, the Los Angeles advocacy group behind the project. "We don't have a great understanding of the background and cultural differences that African women bring. We have good [shelters for] Latin support and good Asian support but not African."
The Los Angeles housing department has approved a $648,000 city grant to purchase a 4,500-square-foot home in West Hollywood for the shelter, said Laurie Weir, a manager in the department. It will be open to all women, but will be designed specifically for African immigrants, Weir said.
The funding is expected to be approved soon by the Los Angeles City Council, she said.
Organizers are raising $400,000 to outfit the five-bedroom home with the furniture and facilities needed for a shelter, said Dr. Nikki Azebe Tesfai, director of the African resource center and the lead advocate for Refugee Safe Haven. Women will be able to stay as long as six months.
Nearly 200,000 cases of domestic violence were reported in California and 62,278 in Los Angeles County in 1998, said Linda J. Berger, executive director of the Statewide California Coalition for Battered Women.
But she said underreporting is widespread.
"This number should be at least doubled, and that's especially true for an immigrant or refugee population because they have a mistrust of law enforcement," Berger said.
There are about 130 shelters for battered women in California and 25 in Los Angeles County, she said. Most in Southern California have Spanish-speaking staffers, and several are operated specifically for Latina and Asian immigrants.
