With a compelling origin story and an evolving mission, Alaafia helps Milwaukee's African-immigrant women

A social club started to help African immigrant women adapt to life in Milwaukee has evolved into a nonprofit that addresses not just the social needs but the wellness needs of the city’s growing African immigrant community.

Ethleen Peacock founded Alaafia Women's Corporation in 2015 to provide services for African women living with sickle cell disease . But she found that some of those women also were experiencing domestic and sexual violence.

“Most disabled women, people just don’t believe them,” Peacock said when it comes to gender-based violence, especially for those living with sickle cell. “That's the problem. So, it is important for me to speak up, because I have a voice.”

Peacock’s own experiences with sickle cell disease led her to start Alaafia.

Sickle cell is a life-threatening genetic blood disorder that causes frequent infections and severe pain. About 100,000 people in the U.S. have the disease, with more than 90% of them being Black , according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Diagnosed with the disease as child in Sierra Leone, Peacock, now 35, was basically looking at a death sentence.

Her grandmother, who raised Peacock and whom the nonprofit is named after, refused cultural practices that called for her granddaughter be taken to a witch doctor to be cured. Instead, she took Peacock to a hospital. But still, appropriate sickle cell care wasn't available.

“I would have been dead if she listened to all these people,” Peacock said. “That’s the reason I’m still alive. So that’s why I want to pass on this education because it is important. It will save someone’s life.”

When Peacock immigrated to the U.S. in 2013, she noticed a lack of culturally competent resources to help people with sickle cell. She said she was denied medical benefits because her sickle cell type wasn't severe and had few hospitalizations. That's when she knew she had to do something.

It came in the form of a social club.

Peacock and three other women — all from Sierra Leone — started it to help other African immigrants navigate the state’s social services system. But as the group encountered more women experiencing domestic and sexual violence, Peacock realized the club's mission needed to change.

She had her own experience with gender-based violence. As a young woman in Sierra Leone, Peacock was assaulted twice, including while at work at a television news station.

“I just couldn't take that anymore,” she said.

Here in Milwaukee, she found other immigrant women struggling to report abuse to authorities. Many come from patriarchal cultures where they have few rights and laws aren’t designed to protect them. In their home countries, Peacock said women are often discouraged from leaving abusive relationships or are told by police “to settle it within the family.”

“Most don’t have the education that the United States doesn’t have that same culture,” Peacock said, adding that their immigration status also makes women hesitant to seek police help.

“We started educating people that your immigration status doesn’t matter when you are a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault,” she said. “The system is designed to help you.”

When the demand for services became than the social club could handle, it became a nonprofit in 2021.

Alaafia got its first grant from the state’s Department of Children and Families to create a virtual sexual violence center. A virtual space ensured privacy and made it easier for African women to seek help. Most, Peacock said, are reluctant to share their struggles with other women publicly.

“As African women, we don’t want people to know our business,” said Peacock, who also used social media to host candid talks about women rights.

As the only agency serving this population, Alaafia’s clients and reputation in the domestic violence arena grew along with the clients and the services it offered. But the most vulnerable for abuse are immigrant women with sickle cell, she said.

Sickle cell can be a debilitating disease that can prevent a person from working and living independently. That makes individuals, especially women, reliant on caregivers and susceptible to physical and sexual violence. Abuse can be emotional, financial or even withholding medication, Peacock said.

She said it's important to reach these women and let them their rights now that they're in the U.S.

“If you don’t want to go to the police, we are fine with that," Peacock said. "All we are telling you is there is a way out of abuse. And we are going to navigate that for you.”

Part of that is connecting with local resources to ensure women get the help they need. That includes finding emergency housing, securing gift cards to buy groceries or allaying fears that their spouse or partner won’t come after them.

Alaafia’s services have since expanded more — to provide educational outreach to religious leaders and African braiding salons about domestic and sexual violence. Peacock also does cultural competency training for social service providers to better help African-immigrant women.

Alaafia got a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation that focuses on sickle cell research to determine the disease's impact on patients' lives. Another grant from University of Wisconsin-Madison's Wisconsin Partnership Program funds health care navigation services, including support in finding and using resources, preventive care and mental health support.

The initiative's broader goal is to get immigrant women to prioritize their health, Peacock said, noting that most put their family's health above theirs.

“They do all the cleaning and cooking. They don’t take of themselves at all,” she said. "When you have a chronic health condition, there are so many resources for you. We want to educate them about that. We want to navigate the system for them."

Peacock wouldn't be able to operate a nonprofit like this in Sierra Leone. For her, the American dream means being able to help survivors of domestic and sexual assault and educating about sickle cell disease.

“Me coming to the United States and having the opportunity to have this business is a whole different kind of feeling," she said. "It is a kind of hope for people living with sickle cell. I’ve done it and you can do it."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: With a compelling origin story and an evolving mission, Alaafia helps Milwaukee's African-immigrant women