by Iyana Robertson
In 1982, Brooklyn native Bisi Ideraabdullah suffered the stillborn death of her daughter after being turned away by a hospital while in trauma. With great discontent in America as a whole, including the immense racism of the times, Ideraabdullah decided to move to Liberia, West Africa with her husband Mahmoud and four children. Immediately upon their arrival, she formed an outreach agency, which she named Imani House, after her deceased child.
Twenty-nine years later, Ideraabdullah, 65, continues to operate the organization, which still serves Liberia and is now headquartered in New York. With programs ranging from literacy and job readiness classes for adults, to after-school programs and camps for children, Imani House is now larger than ever, with the vision and hard work of Ideraabdullah as its driving force.
The mid 1990’s had brought raging war to Liberia while Ideraabdullah had begun her mission. She, her husband and five children were threatened with grave danger when the takeover of Charles Taylor brought rape, murder and looting into the town of Monrovia where they lived. Faced with the difficult decision of leaving the home she built, Ideraabdullah chose to send her children back to America and stay behind. Circumstance and further danger led Ideraabdullah to return to America a few months later in 1996.
Once back in America, Ideraabdullah devoted herself to keeping Imani House alive, and immersed herself into her work relentlessly, to deal with the pain of leaving Liberia, where she considers her home.
“It helps to have post traumatic stress disorder, because you do not stop working. You do not want to sleep, because you dream about the things you saw,” she said. “You just want to work.”
Iderabdullah’s self-diagnosed post-traumatic stress led to Imani House helping to improve the lives of impoverished inner-city youth and immigrants. Having specialized in literacy training for 22 years, Ideraabdullah placed adult literacy programs in the forefront of the American Imani House operations and later expanded to serving over 4,000 people between the two continents.
Ideraabdullah was never a stranger to helping others. Raised by her grandmother as a small child, she witnessed philanthropy as early as she could remember. She had always been aware of the power to change people’s lives.
“I was never taught that one person couldn’t changes things. My grandmother was the kindest person. I grew up with her as a small child and watched her,” she said. “We don’t realize how much our children are watching, but the way they learn to walk and talk, is the same way they learn to care.”
Now, Ideraabdullah is teaching other children to care. From Imani House’s roots in Liberia, Ideraabdullah had held a particular fondness for reaching out to children. IN the midst of the war, she opened her own home as an orphanage to those suffering from starvation and wounds from violence. In Brooklyn, Imani House now offers homework assistance, athletics and performing arts programs for students from pre-K to 6th grade.
The Imani House office resembles a hole-in-the-wall on 5th Avenue in downtown Brooklyn. With a small, faded sign printed on a small sheet of paper, the door to the cramped space leads into a dedicated environment. As the fold-up wooden desk creates access to the office, African art, maps of the world’s continents and the office’s cluttered décor runs parallel to the eccentric character of the organization. Small signs on the wall dictate Iderabdullah’s affirmation of her organizations significance. One in particular reads: “GREAT MEN OR WOMEN ARE KNOWN BY THEIR DEEDS, NOT THEIR PROMISES.”
At Ideraabdullah’s desk, awards of recognition of Imani House’s outreach adorn the wall, alongside her certificate from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business for non-profit organization management. Her small workspace is also filled with pictures of her family. In one simple space, Ideraabdullah’s life is aesthetically summed up, with work, family and success serving as cornerstones.
The tight shift at the Imani House office is complemented with the stern yet compassionate presence of Ideraabdullah. Much like her demeanor, sincere eyes and a warm smile are the most telling features of her face. Donning a headscarf with a Kente-like pattern around her braided hair, Ideraabdullah’s connection with her home country is ever-present. With wrinkles almost absent from her light brown skin, her age is well concealed.
As she held a meeting with the coordinators of the after-school program, Ideraabdulla gave instructions as well as accepted suggestions. She also asked a slew of questions about the staff, delving as deeply as possible into the management of an upcoming event, while offering her continued flow of wisdom.
“If you’re not reliable, you’re just not going to make it to the level you want to make,” she stated to about personnel.
Claudette Spence, the new administrative assistant at the office, became involved with Imani House after hearing Ideraabdullah speak at a women’s wellness conference. Immediately drawn to and impressed by the mission of the organization, Spence pounced on the opportunity to help with the open office position. Having worked in the office for just one week, Ideraabdullah’s leadership inspires her.
“For the magnitude of the work she has done in Liberia, and the work she’s done in Brooklyn for 14 years, she exemplifies what a leader is,” she said. “Setting the tone, that’s what a leader does.”
Ideraabdullah’s grandmother was not the only woman that inspired her to be the leader that she has become. She considers Harriet Tubman to be her mentor, having exhibited strength that she does not believe she herself could ever match.
“Just thinking of her in those swamps, and how I hate to be cold and wet, and how I certainly don’t like snakes and the darkness, I think ‘How did she do that,’” she said. That example of strength for a greater cause motivates Ideraabdullah to help others with no regard to recognition.
In the future, Ideraabdullah hopes to loosen her reins on Imani House in order to write a memoir. She admits that she will always help others, and refers to the need as a disease.
“To go through what I’ve gone through, you have to be a little nuts. I call it eccentric, but it’s really nuts. After all is said and done though, I have lived the life I wanted to live,” she said. “I don’t want to die and say I was here for nothing and I don’t know where yesterday went.”