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Click here to enlarge this photo Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette Guled Kassim, Ahmed Ali and Mumin Barre of the Somali-American Community Association discuss a point at Caribou Coffee in Silver Spring, a typical Friday evening hangout for the African immigrants. |
When Hussein Aden came to the United States to visit his brother in 1989, he thought he would be back in Somalia within a year.
Aden, who had intended to become a teacher, was taking a break after law school to visit family that he had not seen in years. But within his homeland, conditions changed swiftly, and little did he know that he would never have the chance to return to Somalia again.
In 1991, the Somali government was overthrown, the country was plunged into civil war and Somalia was divided into factions, many controlled by opposing warlords.
‘‘It was a shock. I never imagined that kind of destruction would happen. We hope year after year after year” that the situation will get better, Aden said.
Ahmed Elmi, the chairman of the board of directors of the area’s Somali-American Community Association (SACA), which seeks to help Somali immigrants throughout Maryland, has a similar story.
He came to attend George Washington University in 1983, but as he completed his degree, his country was reaching the breaking point, and he could not return.
Although their lives took dramatic turns in 1991, most of the Somali immigrants in Montgomery County have long since established themselves in the community. They were, in a sense, the lucky ones. They had a chance to obtain an education, to leave their homeland before the situation completely exploded, and could thus forge successful new lives.
But as refugees arrived and continue to arrive in the 15 tumultuous years that have passed since the government was overthrown, the Somali community realized that something had to be done.
The Somali-American Community Association, a non-profit organization, was formed in May 2004 as a response to the growing need to connect the Somalis in the community with each other, and to help newly arrived families adjust to their new lives; the new location, the new language, and the new culture.
Mumin Barre, a member of the SACA board who also came in 1983 to get his master’s and a doctorate, said that SACA attempts ‘‘ to tackle the needs of the community because we’ve been here for so long.”
Yusuf Adem, another member of the board who immigrated in 1980 for higher education, said the organization seeks to create a ‘‘foundation for newcomers.”
New Somalis in Montgomery County tend to be sponsored by a family in the area.
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Click here to enlarge this photo Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette Hussein Mohamed (right) of the Somali-American Community Association smiles as his son Abdiaziz Ahmed (left), 8, embraces his cousin, Yonis Mohamed, 3, at home in Silver Spring. Their walls are decorated with Somali flags and keepsakes.
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One example of a family needing the organization’s help was a family living on public assistance in Takoma Park, where the parents had no idea how to take their three children to school.
‘‘We hate to see someone in an apartment who doesn’t know who to call, who to ask” if they have questions, Adem said.
‘‘It’s not something we can just ignore, close our eyes, our ears to,” he said.
Many 20- to 30-year-olds within the Somali community are suffering from what Guled Kassim, another member of the board, calls the ‘‘residual effects” of being displaced.
‘‘There’s a low sense of self-worth,” Kassim said. ‘‘They spent a good deal of their time in shelters and in refugee camps,” and because of this, their standards are to get their basic needs met: food, water, shelter.
‘‘There is no bar set,” Kassim said. They need ‘‘to have a sense of self-worth that raises the expectation.”
Kassim and his family fled from Somalia in 1985, coming to the United States in political exile. He was only 10 when his father, a minister in the Somali government, clashed with then-president (and dictator) Siad Barre.
His family settled in Montgomery County because his brothers were here and it was close to Washington, D.C., where his father had connections.
SACA recently received grant funding to create three mobile family learning centers, based in libraries or community centers in three areas of the county. There will be a student program to help the Somali youth with schoolwork, with college preparation, and to create a plan for a career. There will also be a program for under- and unemployed adults, especially women, which will provide computer training, job development, and high school equivalency diploma preparation sessions.
‘‘When you offer the service, people will come. The need was really getting desperate,” Elmi said.
SACA is seeking to reach out to the Somalis throughout Montgomery County and Maryland.
‘‘We want to keep that closeness for the whole community,” Adem said.
On July 1, SACA held an event at Fairland Recreational Park, where it invited Somali families to come to register for the family learning centers, to have health screenings, and to have fun and meet other Somali families in the area. Around 250-300 people attended the event, which is in its third year.
Like other immigrants, they are concerned about the barriers between the first-generation and second-generation Somalis. Children of immigrants, with parents who do not understand the system and cannot lay down strict rules, often run into trouble, Adem said.
Large groups of refugees taken from camps in Kenya are taken in by the U.S. government are dropped in areas like Baltimore, where the need for cheap labor is higher, Elmi said. Montgomery County is too diverse and already has many immigrants, and would not be a suitable place for a large group of refugees, he said.
SACA also helps the refugees access services offered by the local government and community based programs.
‘‘As long as there is a problem, as long as this crisis is raging, Somalis are going to be fleeing,” Adem said.
Source: Gazett.Net (Maryland Community Newspaper Online)
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