Senior program makes old friends of new friends

Maria Elena Baca, Star Tribune

Ahmed Kamara, 81, and Vince Hamann, 74, quickly developed a strong trust since Hamann began volunteering with Senior Companions in August.

Volunteers offer companionship and help to older citizens who want to stay in their own homes, and often forging strong, lasting bonds

By MARIA ELENA BACA, Star Tribune

Last update: May 4, 2009 - 10:36 AM

Ahmed Kamara introduces Vince Hamann as his brother. Hamann retells tales of Kamara's life as a government official in Sierra Leone, and a harrowing midnight escape from murderous insurgents with as much gusto as if they were his own stories.

The two men have known each other only since August, but have developed a bond of friendship and trust. The men met through the Senior Companion program of the national Senior Corps, administered locally by Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. Hamann, who lives in Columbia Heights, is 74; Kamara is 81.

"Instead of having someone to keep me company, I have found a brother," Kamara said. "It is as if I have known him for years."

In meetings every Wednesday morning, they head out in Hamann's white station wagon to Kamara's medical appointments, to shop, to see the sights nearby. They have lunch. And they talk.

When the national Senior Companion program was conceived in 1974, it was meant to give companionship to senior citizens who otherwise might spend their days alone. It still serves that function, but has the added benefit of supporting older people who want to stay in their own homes, said Sara Enright, a Senior Corps program manager.

These days, about 400 volunteers such as Hamann serve five to seven clients each, across the state. About half of the program's $3.3 million budget comes from the federal government. The rest comes from state and local sources.

"Volunteers say they know they're helping," Enright said. "It also helps them to feel like they're making a difference, and it gives them a sense of purpose and accomplishment."

And bonds like the one Hamann and Kamara share aren't unusual.

"They do make a difference in people's lives," said Ann Kusie, site supervisor for the program in Coon Rapids, relating a story of two women who met through the program and who stayed in touch even after the client left the area. "They become a very important person in those people's lives."

Kamara doesn't live alone; he shares a townhouse with his daughter and a granddaughter, who toddled into Hamann's arms when he entered the room one day last week. But Kamara does need help with errands, and he wanted to make American friends.

In Sierra Leone, Kamara was a member of parliament and minister in that country's departments of Interior, Works, Education and Sports and Information. He'd been out of government several years, but his political connections made him vulnerable when war broke out in the early '90s.

"Once a partisan, always a partisan," he mused.

In 2001, Kamara joined his daughters who already lived in Minnesota, and became a U.S. citizen in 2005.

But he's had health problems, and the life he now knows is nothing like his life as a politician and businessman in Sierra Leone. He's needed help navigating the U.S. health system, for example. And he doesn't drive. Just as Hamann admires Kamara's life story, Kamara raves about his friend's generosity. Lunches are supposed to be Dutch-treat. But Hamann seems to be king of the 2-for-1, and Kamara never has to pay. Once, Kamara said, when Hamann saw him leave the house without gloves, Hamann "forgot" his own gloves there, only to disavow them later.

And Kamara is only one of five seniors Hamann sees. He has regularly scheduled visits Tuesday through Thursday, and leaves Monday and Friday open in case someone needs a ride to an appointment those days.

"It fills a need," he said. "They don't have anybody, so if I can do it, I'll be there. I put myself in their shoes, on a couch in a house, would I like someone to pick me up? Sure I would."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409

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