Emma Wozniak, Columbus Dispatch

Hamida Ouali (right) is part of a team at the RIC that helps immigrants become Americans At left is RIC executive director Emelia Sheeley and in the center is Hakima Bouaboud They met Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 at the RIC offices on Old Henderson road. *Photo: Doral Chenoweth/Columbus Dispatch*

Hamida Ouali stood among the aisles of her go-to Kroger, having walked to the store to buy milk for her morning cup of coffee. It was a day like any other for Ouali, a 45-year-old Algerian immigrant working for a local nonprofit that serves other immigrants in Columbus' Riverview Drive community.

A woman suddenly approached Ouali, waving her phone and asking for help. It wasn't long before Ouali found herself scheduling a Medicaid appointment for a woman she barely knew in the dairy section of her neighborhood grocery store.

This interaction wasn't all that uncommon of an occurrence for Ouali, either.

"I'm not surprised about that," Ouali, director of programs for the Riverview International Center (RIC), said as she reflected on that day from months ago. "I'd go to Walmart, any place I go, they show me all their documents, their phone, pictures. So I'm not surprised. I'm used to that."

By "they," Ouali means Columbus' Algerian community, which already totals more than 2,000 as of 2023 and is predicted to keep growing. Ouali said more than 6,000 Algerian immigrants are expected to come to the United States next year through the Diversity Visa Program, and she projects around 1,000 or more will settle in Columbus.

Through the annual program, the federal government uses a lottery system to give green cards to as many as 55,000 people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States, yielding hundreds of thousands of applicants from around the world, said RIC Executive Director Emelia Sheeley. Applications for DV-2027 opened Oct. 2 and will stay open for roughly a month.

Aside from the area's affordability when compared to larger U.S. cities, Ouali said the biggest driver of Algerian immigrants to Columbus may just be herself.

"When I started working here at the RIC, I find my card, my information, spread in Facebook and Instagram: 'If you want to go to America, there is Columbus; there is someone there who can help you. Her name is Hamida,'" Ouali said.

The story of Ouali and Columbus' Algerian community

After winning the visa lottery and moving to Columbus in 2019, Ouali's relationship with the RIC began with her as a recipient of its services. After a year, she started volunteering for the nonprofit. By 2021, she had started working there as a community care advocate.

Ouali said she received dozens of emails from people in Algeria, telling her they wanted to move to Columbus and asking her about life here. To this day, Sheeley said the RIC gets phone calls directly from Algeria, with callers even thinking the nonprofit is an organization just for Algerians.

"When we hired Hamida, it was suddenly like all the Algerians are coming to the office," Sheeley said. "It used to be some Algerians, some Moroccans, some Bengali — lots of people. Suddenly, it was lots of Algerians, and a lot of them would come, and the only word they could say was 'Hamida.'"

In the past year alone, Sheeley said the RIC has served more than 2,000 people from 56 countries. Algerians made up more than 1,100 of those individuals, with the nonprofit seeing around six new Algerian families every week.

"They feel like there is some hope here," Ouali said. "If you go to a place, you know someone there, you can feel comfortable to talk and to share your needs."

That was the case for Hakima Bouaboud, who lived in Algeria before winning the visa lottery and moving to Columbus in 2023 — but not before trying out American life in New Jersey. Ouali learned of Bouaboud through a family friend and initially encouraged her to come to Columbus, but Bouaboud's flight to the East Coast was already booked.

After struggling to find fellow Algerians beyond her own family in New Jersey, let alone specialized resource and advocacy groups, it didn't take long for Bouaboud to contact Ouali and take her up on her offer.

"I didn't find any center or anyone to help, for rent or for work," Bouaboud said. "[So] I changed the direction."

"When she went to New Jersey, she didn't find herself," Ouali said of Bouaboud. "She called me when I came back here, she said 'Hamida, I want to change what things I can do.'"

Neither Ouali nor Sheeley expected Ouali's role in the RIC to take on the size and scope that it has, but Sheeley said she's not entirely surprised that Ouali's "fame has spread."

"After six months working here, I feel like 'Oh, people coming just for me, just asking for Hamida,'" Ouali said. "This made me, I think, proud, feeling like I can do something for the community. I can be someone leading them here, showing them the ways to be successful, to start a new life here."

Though Ouali said her relationship with Columbus' Algerian community can feel like a huge responsibility, she's shown no signs of burning out from it yet.

"I'm not tiring," Oual said. "When I go to sleep at night, I feel like I'm doing something good for the community."

Reporter Emma Wozniak can be reached at ewozniak@dispatch.com or @emma_wozniak_ on X, formerly known as Twitter

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