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This global citizen serves Roanoke’s newest Americans.
Christina Nifong
Ahoo Salem
Ahoo Salem sits behind her desk on the ground floor of the Roanoke public library downtown. Through one wall of windows, she sees women and men from Haiti, Afghanistan and China greet each other as they gather for class. Through another, she hears laughter, as students from around the globe form friendships through their studies.
“The sense of community we are able to create here is the best part of what I do,” says Salem, executive director of Blue Ridge Literacy, a 34-year-old nonprofit whose focus is preparing non-English speakers for life in the US.
To Salem, every person who walks through the door has a unique set of gifts and challenges. She wants them all to shine in their new land.
“We talk a lot about ‘interwoven equity’ — making sure that everybody is matched where they are and given the services they need,” she says.
But she sees the bigger picture, too. The ways that invisible barriers can overwhelm someone not familiar with the city’s, state’s and country’s many overlapping systems.
For example: Emphasis is often placed on making sure that call-in services are translated into many languages. But Salem says that is only the first step. If someone can’t navigate the phone service to get to the language they need or if they don’t know a service exists, that translation can’t serve them.
Salem, 39, was born in Iran, and grew up in the midst of war, mass protests, and constantly shifting political and cultural expectations. She left her country, not to flee violence, but to see the world and further her education.
But soon the theories she was studying gave shape to her lived experiences. She became fascinated with the field of migration, first as master’s student in Sweden and later, earning her PhD in sociology in Milan, Italy.
“It was always very interesting to me to see how different countries have different limitations but also opportunities for people based on their structures,” she says.
Along the way, she met her husband, Salem farmers market manager Isaac Campbell, who grew up in the Roanoke area. And after years of “chasing each other around the world,” they decided to settle in the US.
They moved to Roanoke in 2016 and Salem immediately began volunteering as an English teacher at Blue Ridge Literacy.
“It really made me feel connected to something and valued,” she remembers.
She thought she’d prefer the rhythms of a big city. So she and Campbell spent two-plus years in the DC area.
But, by 2019, they were ready to return to the mountains, to family, to a less hectic pace. When the executive director position opened at Blue Ridge Literacy, Salem was excited to apply.
Leading Blue Ridge Literacy would allow her to practice what she had spent years researching: That community service organizations are central to immigrant success because of the bonds that new Americans forge in their classes and workshops, as much as the lessons they learn.
In her less than three years at the helm, Salem has navigated COVID, a tide of Afghan refugees, and now the uncertainties of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As challenging as this time has been, Salem says the result has been new solutions. Every afternoon, Blue Ridge Literacy now offers online classes, something that didn’t exist before 2020’s shutdowns. Blue Ridge Literacy also created a What’sApp support group for classmates studying to become US citizens, a step that has furthered strengthened ties among them. BRL was instrumental in bringing to life Roanoke’s first Nowruz festival, a celebration of spring observed in Iran, Afghanistan and countries across Central Asia, as well as their diasporas.
When asked where she sees her future, Salem does not hesitate. She shares that she recently bought her first house — in Roanoke’s Old Southwest neighborhood, close enough to walk to work.
After living all over the world, Salem has chosen to make Roanoke home.
The story above is from our May/June 2022. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!