It started with his own family. Now, Elfatih Abdelnabi helps refugees all over the world reunite with theirs.

Elfatih Abdelnabi never expected he would end up in Seattle. In fact, at first, he didn’t even know where Seattle was.

Abdelnabi was born in Khartoum, Sudan, where he lived an idyllic childhood growing up with his large family of three brothers and three sisters.  That is, until June 1989 when the Sudanese Armed Forces, with support from the National Islamic Front, took over the democratically elected government in a coup d’état.

“Our life just turned upside down,” says Abdelnabi. “We used to own a house, a car, we used to go to nice schools, you know, so, exactly that middle class kind of life, but then all of a sudden, when the coup happened, everything changed.”

The new Al-Bashir government banned all political parties, imposed strict dress limitations for women, and eradicated the free press.

Abdelnabi, along with his family, were harassed for their political beliefs and activities. His father lost his job, they lost the house and their family of nine started separating because they couldn’t all be safe in one place.

Once he made it to the United States, Abdelnabi had only one thing on his mind —helping get his family members get there, too.

Eventually, Abdelnabi was offered a position as Immigration Assistant; today his current position is Manager. In his role, Abdelnabi provides direct services to refugees arriving in Seattle and oversees the Immigration department. He is also actively involved with IRC’s new branch in Spokane to start providing effective immigration services, which are in high demand in the area, by hiring, training, and supervising the immigration team.

Because IRC works to support refugees in all areas of their life: education, health, safety and economic empowerment, Abdelnabi’s team of colleagues under the Housing & Development Team also arranges housing logistics for the Seattle co-sponsorship program, which opens up opportunities for volunteers to get involved in IRC.

Immigrations service, says Abdelnabi, is more than just knowing how to fill out an application. “Clients, they come to us from a lot of different backgrounds, and have a lot of different needs, but the same need is always about safety. It is all about family.”

Having been through it, Abdelnabi knows this well. That’s why he is able to bring not only what he’s learned sponsoring his own family to the role, but also the depth of his lived experience as a refugee. This means a lot to his clients, who even call him family.

“It takes a lot of emotions to work with immigration clients. I try to advise my team or my new people, try not to be emotional when listening to their stories, but it is too hard.”

Read the full article about Elfatih Abdelnabi by Amber Cortes at Global Washington.