There is just a tiny hint of spring in the gentle breeze. The sun plays hide-and-seek in the clouds as Bernard Nyakiba escorts a visitor through the remnants of last year’s harvest on a small, muddy plot of land near the Green River in Kent.

Here are the leftover stalks that grew corn used to make ugali, a type of corn meal that is a staple food for many of the people of East Africa. There are the yellow flowers that bear seeds of collard greens - seeds that are harvested and then sown when the weather is ripe for planting. And here is sagaa, or spider flower, with edible leaves rich in protein and other nutrients, such as potassium, that can help regulate blood pressure.

In Kenya, where Nyakiba taught high school, agriculture is routinely taught as a core subject. Students are given a small patch of land and graded on their skill in bringing their crop to harvest. Today, he works for Wakulima USA, a small nonprofit organization based in Kent, Washington that supports African immigrant and refugee families throughout the Puget Sound region. Named after the Kiswahili word for “farmer,” Wakulima’s programs connect people with the land, with their culture and with each other.

A sign on Nyakiba’s desk sums up his philosophy: “Everything is figure-outable.” As a program supervisor for Wakulima, his role is to figure out how to support the organization’s community-based workers as they work with clients who are navigating complex systems in a new and very different culture.

Nyakiba helps community-based workers connect clients in Pierce and King counties with services in housing, legal assistance, food, healthcare, childcare and employment. “We realize that many of our community members have health problems, problems related to social needs,” he says. “They don’t have transportation or insurance, so we try to connect them to those services so they can improve their health and wellbeing.”

The challenges immigrants and refugees face can frequently have harmful effects on their mental health. Wakulima works with therapists who practice culturally relevant therapy in both Kiswahili (the most widely spoken language in East Africa) and English.

“Wakulima primarily serves East African, Kiswahili-speaking immigrants,” says Nyakiba, who originally began working with Wakulima in 2020 as a Kiswahili translator. “If you want clients to access the services, we have to translate into Kiswahili so they can easily understand what we are doing.”

Nyakiba assigns clients to the community-based workers, then helps those workers support their clients. “I chair weekly team meetings, so we can share the experiences that the community-based workers have during the week,” he says. “We discuss how to overcome the challenges that they have faced. And we discuss the way forward.”

Wakulima is one of 14 organizations currently partnered with Elevate Health’s Community Care Hub to support the vital work of community-based workers and improve local health and wellness outcomes through community-based care coordination. Since being founded in 2018, Wakulima has grown both its farming acreage and its social programs. Reflecting on the growth of Wakulima, Nyakiba remembers what first drew him to the organization. “I am a teacher by training,” he says. “In my (previous) career, I engaged with students, helped them learn, grow and achieve their dreams.”

At Wakulima, he says, he’s found a perfect match: “This is what I believe I was called to do - work with community members and help them achieve their dreams.”

ABOUT THE STORYTELLERS:
-> Writer Debbie Cafazzo is a Tacoma-based freelance journalist and communications professional. She was a reporter for 25 years at the Tacoma News Tribune where she covered education, health care, breaking news and a variety of other subjects.
-> Photographer John Froschauer is a Tacoma-based photographer who has shot for the Associated Press for nearly 30 years. He also recently retired from Pacific Lutheran University where he served as the campus photographer for more than a decade.

Rooted in Care: Wakulima's Bernard Nyakiba manages community-based workers serving East African immigrants