Abdul Kamus

Abdulaziz Kamus was born in Harar and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He received his Masters of Industrial Management degree from Plzen Technical Institute, Plzen, Czech Republic.

Mr. Kamus has over sixteen years of experience in refuges resettlement programs in the United States. He started his profession as a job developer with the International Rescue Committee and assisted over a thousand refugees in direct job placement services. He played a key role in brining the African refugees to the main stream America job market. He participated in the formation of the first Ethiopian Community Based Organizations in New York City.

In 1993 he joined the New York Association for New Americans in the historic moment of the organization by resettling over 50,000 refugees from the former Soviet Union. The organization assisted in creating a city within a city in Brighten Beach, Coney Island and Queens. He assisted over five thousand refugees and immigrants in employment counseling, job orientation, acculturation and job placement services. He assisted over twelve ethnic non-profit organizations to be formed in the City. He became the Speakers Bureau Representative for the New York Immigrant Coalition at a time of major change of social service policies of the United Stated government.

While working at the New York Association for New Americans, he promoted the arts and crafts of African immigrants. In 1994, he worked in a joint project with the Schomberg and Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University. He became instrumental for bringing the largest number of the African Diaspora to participate in the "African Zion: The Sacred Art of Ethiopia" art exhibition. Over 36,000 people from all walks of life came to enjoy the beauty of African art in Harlem and according to Mr. Howard Dodson; it attracted the largest number of people to the Center for Research in Black Culture.

At Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York City, he worked with "Welfare to Work" program and assisted hundreds of disfranchised New York residents in assisting them to be self-sufficient. He out reached to the African community to participate in the employment and job placement programs.

As a volunteer program coordinator with the Non Profit Computing, Mr. Kamus distributed free of charge over 3,000 refurbished computers to Harlem and the Bronx faith based organizations. To close the gap of the digital divide, he shipped refurbished computers to Liberia, Kenya and Ethiopia. He assisted in establishing a computer lab at the Greater Baptist Church in Harlem and he taught Harlem residents basic computer software programs for over a year before moving to Washington, DC.

As a board member with the Parkchester North Condominium, he organized community meetings and encouraged low-income families to purchase their rental units at affordable price. He advocated at the board meeting to include the immigrant community in decision-making policies at the time of major renovation process in the history of Parkchester North Condominium of the Bronx.

In 2001 he joined ECDC African Community Center in Washington, DC as a Program Manager. He assisted over a thousand District residents in job development and skills training programs. He resettled the "Sudanese Lost Boys", Somali Bantus, Bosnian, Columbian, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Liberian, Sera Leonian, Congolese, Pakistani, refugees in the Washington Metropolitan area. Over sixteen years, he worked with refugees from over 30 countries.

He was instrumental in forming the Language Access Act (LAA) coalition to advocate on behalf of the African community. Mayor Anthony Williams signed LAA into law on April 21, 2004, making Amharic the first African languages to be the official languages of DC government. Currently, he is a board member with the Georgia Avenue Collaborative, DC North Magazine. He is a community advocate and he is using his experience and training in refugee resettlement programs, promoting opportunities for self-sufficiency to the underserved populations in the metro area of Washington, DC.