DETROIT—Even after 31 years, the Arab American and Chaldean Council’s founding members Salman Sesi, Dr. Haifa Fakhouri and Fr. John Badeen continue dedicating their lives to benefit the ACC, which provides more than half a million services annually to the needy ranging from job education and training, behavioral health to dental care facilities for the youth.  

Arab American and Chaldean Council founding members Salman Sesi, Esq., First Vice Chairman Fr. John Badeen and President and CEO Dr. Haifa Fakhouri at the ceremony. Photo courtesy of ACC

In a commitment to honor Fakhouri, Badeen and Sesi for their hard work and all they have contributed, the ACC’s Board of Directors unanimously chose to name the ACC Detroit Headquarters, Youth Creation and Leadership Center and Artisana Adult Learning Center after them. 

“It’s sort of a monument to remember my contribution and what we did to this community,” Badeen said during the Building Dedication Ceremony at the ACC Youth Recreation and Leadership Center on Dec. 17.

According to Sesi, the ACC began operating with a limited budget of $20,000 and now has a multi-million dollar annual budget. 

Today the ACC hosts 40 outreach centers. “When we started 31 years ago we had one little room,” Sesi said.  

Brenda Schneider, who spoke at the ceremony, said in the beginning the ACC operated with a single associate and a part time secretary.

The ACC’s primary focus is making the lives of refugees easier. “We have to take into consideration the steady and continuous flow of Arab and Chaldean refugees that have fled the Middle East to seek a new life here in southeast Michigan and all of our honorees have given selflessly of their time and their love to create a new safe haven for these refugees as they fled their homeland, where they gave their homes, their money and they left their families behind to seek a new place in which they could live. Their love for their homeland and their people led them to join forces with one another and provide opportunities for acculturation and well being for people like themselves and for their heritage,” Schneider said. 

Despite ACC’s success Dr. Fakhouri continues to dream big, and says her next goal is to establish a headquarters in Oakland County.  When asked to give advice to women Dr. Fakhouri, who said she’s faced a lot of challenges, responded, “Achieve the impossible and not to let their guard down. To continue to dream and achieve what they need to achieve.”

She never expected the ACC would become what it is. “It was a dream and it just turned into something far beyond what we expected,” Dr. Fakhouri said.

Sesi says ACC’s success is a part of the vision the founding members started off with.

“We had a vision to build something for the needy people. Our aim was to help the poor, to help the needy and to solve the problems that they were facing at that time. I’m very proud, this is a great honor to be bestowed upon me before the work and services that I have rendered to the Chaldean and Arab community at large and I am very pleased to do it until the last day of my life,” Sesi said. 

Fr. Badeen acknowledged Dr. Fakhouri in his acceptance speech, “All we did is lay a foundation but the one person who has carried the load over the years was Haifa Fakhouri. If it wasn’t for her this organization wouldn’t be what it is today.”

Scheider says Fakhouri is a role model to everyone in the community including executive women and all little girls who want to look at what they can accomplish.

“We walked the walk and we did the talk in rough times and good times; we worked together despite all the challenges that we faced, the cuts in funding, the problems in the community, the difficult times we had to endure. We continued and we achieved what we wanted to achieve … and the job is not finished yet,” Dr. Fakhouri said.