Daily Times

In late May, Sulekha Ibrahim opened the doors of Healing Path Wellness Services, the mental health clinic she runs in South Minneapolis.

The clinic had been closed for weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic. She and her staff were eager to get back to work, meeting clients in person.

Two days later, the clinic burned down.

“People broke in, vandalized the space, destroyed it and set it ablaze,” said Ibrahim, a 28-year-old public health nurse who founded the clinic. “It´s obviously devastating for us and our clients. We were all so excited to finally see our clients again after COVID-19, and then the fire happened.”

Opened in 2018, Healing Path focuses on offering culturally sensitive wellness services to marginalized populations. Most of its clients are older Somali immigrant and refugee women living in South Minneapolis. Many experience PTSD, depression and anxiety as a result of devastating trauma during decades of civil war in the East African country as well as the challenges of displacement and resettlement that “fragment” their lives, Ibrahim said. The pandemic and protests sparked by the death of George Floyd – who died at the hands of police about 2 miles from the Healing Path Clinic – mean that the city´s black and immigrant residents are in critical need of mental health support, the clinic´s staff say.

“I´m heartbroken because what we have is a very unique kind of practice,” said Kimberly Dillon, a licensed drug and alcohol counselor who is one of 12 professionals at the clinic. “It brought me to tears, because we worked hard to create a comfortable, safe space for our clients.”

The photos depicting Somali culture that Dillon had hung on her office wall are gone, as are her clients´ knitting projects that she had proudly displayed. The walls and furniture are charred. Computers and files have been destroyed. Not a single room was spared fire and water damage.

The clinic was one of hundreds of businesses damaged during the unrest that broke out in late May in the neighborhood, the fiery epicenter of the now-global movement for justice in the police killing of Floyd. An early tally reported well over $55 million in estimated damage to the city.

“They left their homeland to come to a safer place, and it´s now like going back to that time,” Dillon said. “It´s retraumatized them. That´s a tragedy in of itself.” Regardless of the damage, the clinic´s staff members say they support the protests. Many of their clients do, too.

“What happened to our building was unfortunate, but we can repair and rebuild,” Ibrahim said. “But what happened to George Floyd – his life can´t be restored. We still really believe in the movement.” Somalis, who are almost all Muslim, have been at the forefront of the uprising, with many drawing comparisons to the police violence and abuses of power their families left behind. Minnesota is home to America´s largest Somali diaspora, a largely immigrant and refugee population displaced by violent civil war and political instability over the past three decades.