Our Team
Founder
AIS was founded by Asfaha Hadera, an Ethiopian refugee admitted 4 decades ago, under the U.S Refugee Resettlement program. Asfaha dreamed of giving back to America on behalf of the thousands of refugees entering the US and envisioned a life in service to the African Diaspora. In 1981, from his Bronx basement apartment, Asfaha launched African Services Committee which he would go on to run with Co-Executive Director Kim Nichols, for the next 42 years.
Asfaha has advocated self reliance; he has helped direct the refugee and immigrant community in supporting newcomers, helping disenfranchised community members find permanent housing, health care and educational opportunities. Under Asfaha’s leadership and with the aid of likeminded Ethiopian community organizations in the U.S, the Reagan Administration was persuaded to increase the quota of Africans granted entry to America with refugee status.
In 2003, With African Services Committee running smoothly in New York and recognizing a need in his native Ethiopia, Asfaha returned home to establish community health centers strategically located based on both lack of existing services and number of at-risk populations. To further extend access to healthcare, in 2007 Asfaha initiated the “The Seven Tents” a mobile clinic with the unique capacity to reach even the most remote. Asfaha, who as a young boy lost his mother during childbirth, and was raised by his eldest sisters, has always been passionate about reproductive health education for the girls of Ethiopia, he dreams of one day building a maternal hospital in Mekelle in his mother, Ilfenesh’s name. Asfaha calls both Harlem, where he resides with his wife Kim and orange cat Comet and Mekelle, Ethiopia, home.
Asfaha Hadera
Founder
Kim Nichols was Co-Executive Director, for more than 3 decades, of African Services Committee, a community-based organization founded in New York City in 1981. Today, it is the oldest and largest African health services organization in the United States. Based in Harlem, African Services provides health, housing, legal and social support services to over 10,000 newcomers each year. Its programs address the needs of recent immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers affected by war, poverty and the AIDS, TB, and viral hepatitis pandemics.
Kim has developed a range of HIV, tuberculosis, and STD diagnostic testing, prevention and care programs to meet the needs of African and Caribbean communities. She has guided African Services’ mission in community health, developed its expertise in HIV prevention, testing and care, and was instrumental in expanding its HIV, reproductive health, and nutrition services to multiple sites in Ethiopia.
She has been integrally involved in both New York City and global AIDS advocacy, as an AIDS activist, and has been involved in fundraising and responses to HIV and other health crises in Africa and Latin America for more than 30 years. Her policy interests include development of NGO health services capacity and guarantee of access to fair share of government funding for HIV/AIDS, TB, and other health services programming, benefitting the most disenfranchised, particularly women and children. She believes that small is beautiful and has imparted the concept ofseeding projects carefully and scaling up judiciously to her staff and colleagues.
Kim served as North American NGO board member of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board from 2003-2005 and served on the Communities delegation to the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria from 2002-2004. She has served on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program of the New York State Department of Health and on the New York City Commission on HIV/AIDS. She has an MSc in Biochemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MPH in Epidemiology from Columbia University, and an MS in Acupuncture from New England School of Acupuncture.
Kim Nichols
Mebrahtom Haftu
Regional Director
As a maternity and reproductive health professional, Mebrahtom has dedicated his career to making a difference in the lives of women and families. Mebrahtom obtained his first degree in 2012 and has since worked as an instructor at three prestigious universities in Ethiopia - Jima, Aksum, and Mekelle. Through hard work and dedication, Mebrahtom has achieved the academic rank of Assistant Professor.
Mebrahtom’s research work focuses on gender-based violence and conflict-related sexual violence, and has had the privilege of serving as an advisor to the Tigray Regional Bureau and Bureau of Women Affairs on gender-based violence prevention and response. Currently, Mebrahtom is honored to serve as the Regional Director of Afrikin Services International, where he continues to advocate for the rights and well-being of women and families in need.
Mebrahtom is passionate about his work and committed to making a positive impact in the field of maternity and reproductive health. He looks forward to continuing to contribute to the advancement of women's health and well-being.
Your gift will support the sustained health and well-being of the most vulnerable. From the peasant farmer with little access to nutritional support, to the most at risk urban dweller seeking free and confidential HIV/STI testing & treatment, AIS welcomes all.
Contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowable