– a poem by Fady Joudah

My daughter

wouldn’t hurt a spider

That had nested
Between her bicycle handles
For two weeks
She waited
Until it left of its own accord

If you tear down the web I said
It will simply know
This isn’t a place to call home
And you’d get to go biking

She said that’s how others
Become refugees isn’t it?

–from “Alight” by Fady Joudah (2013)

(find it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1556594224)

About the poet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fady_Joudah

http://hiiraan.com/news4/2013/Jun/30042/refugee_influx_spurs_action_on_mutilation.aspx

Demand for female genital mutilation prevention and support services has ”significantly increased” in Victoria due to a rise in migration and refugee settlement, the Health Minister, David Davis, has warned.

Mr Davis has written to federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, urging her to match state government funding of $900,000 in 2013-14 for the Family and Reproductive Rights Education Program, to meet growing demand for female circumcision support and prevention services.

”The changing demographic pattern of this settlement requires increased efforts in responding to FGM [female genital mutilation] and providing support to disperse settled communities,” Mr Davis said. He said a cost-share agreement with the Commonwealth would let the program ”significantly increase its reach and effectiveness.”

”I think this issue is a very serious one,” he told The Age.

”There’s obviously a number of cultural sensitivities and we need people who can reach across these cultural divides.”

The extra money would be used to implement a professional training course for health professionals, another dedicated FGM clinic in a public hospital in outer-metropolitan Melbourne, a leadership course for young women and improved data collection.

Jacinta Waters, the acting director of women’s health services at the Royal Women’s Hospital, runs Australia’s first nurse-led deinfibulation clinic, which has repaired the effects of the circumcision of 33 women and seen 90 women for consultations since it opened in 2010. She said there had been an increase in women visiting the clinic in the past six months.

The clinic opens every second Friday and nearly all the clients are from African countries, including Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan.

About 30 per cent of clients are pregnant and need to be deinfibulated – or opened up – to allow for a natural birth. ”They can have mental health issues, sexual difficulties, urinary concerns, they may require sexual counselling. The procedure is the easy bit, the eliciting of that sensitive information in a cultural sensitive environment is the difficult part.”

Ms Waters said she was not aware of female genital mutilation occurring in Victoria. But she said counselling was provided for parents in the post-natal section of the hospital about the legal restrictions and health impacts of the practice on baby girls.

”We tell them it is illegal in Australia, and it is illegal for your family member to take the baby girl overseas to get it done.”

A spokesman for Ms Plibersek said the Department of Health and Ageing would discuss with the Victorian government ways to collaborate on the delivery of services. He said the federal government had doubled its grants for non-government organisations to tackle FGM to $1 million and the minister would ensure the issue was on the agenda at the next ministerial Standing Council on Health.

”The Commonwealth would welcome additional investment by all states and territories on FGM as a national priority. The usual process to determine Commonwealth and state and Territory cost share arrangements is through joint ministerial discussions.”

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086183

Kenya: Kenya will host a major international conference in August to discuss on modalities of repatriating more than one million Somali refugees to their country.

The conference, which will be held in the second week of August, will be co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya, Somali and UNHCR with the International Organization for Immigration (IOM) being invited.

Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed Monday revealed that a group of international organisations are already mapping out safe places for the refugees to resettle; saying the exercise will be conducted in the most humane manner.

Ambassador Amina said that currently there are over one million Somali refugees, of which 600,000 are formally registered.

She said that the organisations have already compiled documents and reports on the places of origin for the refugees, a half of whom he added crossed the border to Kenya in the last two years.

“What I am happy about is that 50 percent of these are willing to voluntarily return but we want to do it in an orderly and most humane manner which upholds the dignity to our visitors,” the minister said.

She was speaking at a Nairobi hotel where the ministry hosted a breakfast for envoys from Asian countries who are accredited to Nairobi.

Ambassador Amina took the opportunity to lobby the Asian countries to lender support to Kenya’s efforts of repatriating the refuges some who have called Kenya home in the last two decades.

“We are seeking your support in ensuring we have an appropriate level of support to enable them resettle peacefully in their homeland,” she told the ambassadors.

Somalia has been without a stable government for over twenty years now following the ousting of dictator Said Barre with Kenya bearing the brunt of its neighbors’ instability as refuges fled into the country.

Kakuma in Turkana and Daadab in Garissa refugee camps are some of the biggest in the region, hosting hundreds of thousands of Somalia and Sudan nationals. Another significant number of Somali refugees live in Nairobi.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Fatima Shoria spelled her last name out loud in English and then looked to her friend and, at the moment, interpreter sitting to her left to make sure she had it right.

In an office room at the Lincoln Community Center, Nasra Ibrahim smiled and nodded. Yes, she said, that’s how you spell it.

Shoria had waited a year in Mankato just to have the opportunity to learn to spell her last name, among various other things that most of us take for granted. She was on the waiting list for the preschool program at Lincoln Logs Learning Center for her son, Idiris, so she could begin Adult Basic Education classes, including English as a Second Language.

Finally, last September, she got the call that there was a spot open, and she and her son started coming to Lincoln every day.

Idiris is now chatting away in English, which is fun for Shoria to see. For her, the road has been tougher but no less enjoyable, she said.

“I’m old, and I cannot be like him,” Shoria said in Somali through Ibrahim. “His brain is like recording. It was empty when he came here. Now it’s always recording.”

The big smiles from Shoria as she talks about being able to read mail that comes to her house, or understanding how to do basic math, are even more moving when she recalls what it has taken for her to get to this point.

Born in Somalia in the Bantu tribe, made up of mostly poor and uneducated citizens, her family and tribe didn’t believe girls or women should go to school. Violence from the war was all around her, and so to protect her, Shoria’s family arranged for her to be married at the age of 13.

The couple left their families in search of a safer place to live, walking for months from city to city. Along the way, Shoria gave birth to the couple’s first son.

They decided Yemen would be a safe place to stay, so they saved for months to raise the $100 per person for the boat ride in the late 1990s, only saving enough for Shoria and her 4-month-old baby.

It wasn’t until she was on board that she realized it was a “smuggler’s boat” that would not be able to dock on shore without being shot at by the Yemeni Navy.

When the Yemeni shore was barely visible, the driver ordered everyone off the boat, forcing them to swim to shore. Shoria didn’t know how to swim and had her baby in her arms when she jumped into the water in panic.

She remembers struggling to stay afloat and having to let go of her son. The rest of the swim was a blur, but she remembers someone grabbing her baby and swimming him to shore. She remembers nearly drowning and being rescued by someone who helped swim her to shore.

After four months in a refugee camp, her husband joined them. In the time the family was there, they had their second son, Idiris.

With help from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the family left the camp and came to the United States, arriving in St. Louis, Mo., in August 2010. After 10 months there, the family moved to Mankato in August 2011 with another family who was headed here.

Outreach staff helped the family find an apartment and helped her oldest son enroll in school. He’s now a high school student at Mankato East, taking English-language learners classes to help learn English.

She was also told about Adult Basic Education classes at Lincoln and was encouraged to enroll.

Shoria was thrilled. Since she was a girl, she had dreamed of getting an education, so she registered right away for transportation and preschool for her son.

But because of the lack of space in Lincoln Logs, she waited a year before they could attend.

Now it’s been six months since the two started school at Lincoln, and she’s already moved up one literacy level. Shoria knows her name and address. She can fill out a form. And she has short conversations without an interpreter.

She can grouse about the weather, for example, and let you know that math is awfully tough sometimes.

In a recent class led by teacher Joni Gilman, multiplication was the lesson of the day.

“Ten times any number equals that number plus a zero at the end,” Gilman instructed a group of about half a dozen students. “What’s 10 times 6?”

Shoria wrote 60 on her notebook and showed the teacher.

“That’s correct,” she said.

Coming to Lincoln is the best thing that’s happened in her life, she said.

“When she first came here, she didn’t know how to recognize her name,” said Ibrahim, who works in reception and does outreach for Adult Basic Education. “And now, she said, ‘I can write my name. I can spell my first and last name. I can recognize my kids’ names. When mail comes, I can tell who it’s going to.’”

Shoria knows she has a long way to go. Her plan is to eventually attend college and perhaps become a nurse. For now, she’s focusing on the basics — computer skills, math and, of course, English.

“I’m having a good time,” she said.

http://hiiraan.com/news4/2013/Jun/29782/somali_mom_getting_education_at_lincoln.aspx

Brisbane Times
Monday, June 10, 2013

Wearing a pinstriped suit, Abdirahman ‘‘Abdi’’ Mohamud sits in a worn office chair talking frenetically on his mobile phone.

About 12 minutes south of Brisbane’s CBD, Mr Mohamud’s convenience store is nestled on a sliver of Beaudesert Road, Moorooka, unofficially christened ‘‘Africa town’’.

The kilometre of road here is a testament to the virtues of second chances.

Surrounded by an eclectic mix of soaps, hair products, rugs, pressure cookers and clothes, Mr Mohumud welcomes visitors to his store with a broad grin, ushering them inside with the wave of a hand.

‘‘Come, come,’’ he says.

When he realises this reporter is at his door he taps the leather seat beside him, while still talking in his mother tongue.

As his phone conversation ends, Mr Mohumud slips off his brown sandals and crosses one leg over the other.

The father of nine was born in the city of Baidoa, south-central Somalia.

His beaming smile gives no clue to the horrors he witnessed in his home country – the horrors of seeing children starving in the streets, fearing at the same time he would not be able to feed his own sons and daughters.

‘‘It was the ‘city of death’,’’ he says.

‘‘The bones of the people were lying everywhere. There was the whole village, around 2000 to 3000 people, perished. It was heartbroken. Nobody can imagine.

‘‘It was genocide. It is beyond to comprehend what it was like.’’

Before arriving in Australia, he was held captive by the Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, who was to gain world notoriety as the antagonist in the film Black Hawk Down.

” I never find difficult being in Australia,” Abdirahman Mohamud says. Photo: Michelle Smith

‘‘I had started university when the civil war began and worked with the international community, including the Australian Defence Force, because I spoke English,’’ Mr Mohumud, 46, says.

He joined 1000 Australian peacekeeping soliders as an interpreter. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Australians’ deployment to Somalia under Operation Solace.

‘‘After the United Nations left the warlord kidnapped me, but I was able to flee to Kenya,’’ Mr Mohumud says.

After a year in a refugee camp, Mr Mohumud and his wife, Odpi, and their six children boarded a plane to Australia, courtesy of the Australian High Commission.

The young family arrived in Brisbane on December 4, 1998.

‘‘It was like my birth date,’’ Mr Mohumud says.

‘‘Australia is the lucky country. The good thing about Australia is they have a culture that is open-minded to everyone, and they are good to hosting people.’’

Mr Mohumud started driving a taxi the following year.

Within six years, he had saved enough money to open his own business, and had another three children. He’s now a grandfather.

‘‘I never find difficult being in Australia,’’ he says.

His grin broadens when he speaks of daughters, Masra, 27, Amale, 23, Hani, 21, Kowther, 20, Adni, 12 and Arafo, 9, and his sons Abdima, 17, and Abdi, 16.

They are completing degrees in medical engineering, business, psychology and international relations.

However, other Somalian refugees have struggled to settle in their new home.

Mr Mohumud explains grievances between tribes and communities have traversed oceans.

He established the Somali Development Organisation to unite his community, while helping those in his home country.

‘‘I decide to link them. I tell them the only thing to success in this country is unity,’’ he says.

He now acts as a translator for Somali refugees, helping them seek medical treatment, legal aid and financial assistance.

He also teaches them the ways of the land.

‘‘I put a lot of effort to explain to them Australia is a country for everyone, same rights for everyone,’’ he says.

While working with the troops, Mr Mohumud became familiar with the Australian sense of humour. He tries to explain this too to the new arrivals.

And in the afternoons the small business owner is also a tutor, helping local children with their school homework.

He believes in paying it forward, ‘‘because I witness the pain of the poor’’.

He sponsors families still living in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp.

‘‘We send a lot of money,’’ he says.

‘‘Then those families support more families.’’

For his service to his community, Mr Mohumud has been awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia.

‘‘From July, I will include my name O.A.M,’’ he says with a chuckle.

‘‘I am so proud.’’

www..visionarena.wordpress.com

http://hiiraan.com/news4/2013/Jun/29677/somalia_calls_on_south_africa_to_protect_immigrants.aspx

voice of America
Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Somalia Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon is calling for South African President Jacob Zuma to take urgent action to prevent more violence against the Somali business community in South Africa. The call follows deadly attacks the past week against foreign business owners in Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. 

Somali shopkeeper Abdi Ahmed died in the worst way imaginable, according to his brother Issa, who stumbled upon his dying brother shortly after they were attacked by a mob last week in the South African city of Port Elizabeth.

“His body was mutilated,” he says. “There were wounds from knives, stones, and machetes.”  He says, “you would not think he was killed by human beings.  My brother was killed by animals; he looked as if he was eaten by a hyena, not human beings.”

Ahmed is one of dozens of Somali shopkeepers who have been targeted in South Africa recent months.  The Johannesburg township of Diepsloot also recently saw violence against Somali shopkeepers.

This killing and others like it in South Africa has prompted Somalia’s prime minister to call on South African President Jacob Zuma to intervene to protect the community.

President Zuma’s spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment, but the youth wing of his ruling African National Congress has condemned the attacks and called for action. 

“I think there needs to a serious education that happens with our communities, especially, that we have always been seen as being an integrated society.  A well-integrated society is part of Africa.  And I think that is the education that we need to bring about, and also try and encourage our people and educate them to actually be tolerant,” said ANC Youth League spokesman Bandile Masuku.

Braam Hanekom is director of the non-profit group People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty.  The group works to protect and promote the rights of all refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants in South Africa.

Hanekom says the Somali community is definitely often targeted because they set up cash businesses in poor areas, but he disputes newspaper accounts that referred to the killings as a “genocide.”

“It is true that there has been a really a shockingly high number of Somalis who are being murdered by criminals and targeted.  Sometimes there are clear indications that competitors are involved in the assassinations and murders and lootings, muggings.  But to classify it as a genocide is quite a harsh terminology, because the attacks are very much to do what Somalis are doing rather than what they are,”  Hanekom said.

Port Elizabeth resident Dino Jilley has lived in South Africa for nearly half his life and is provincial chairman of the Somalia Association in South Africa.  He says South African police are largely not to blame.

“Ninety percent of the policemen, they are not happy what is happening and they are fighting 24 hours day and night,” he said. “They are not happy, they are doing their job.  But you will get 10 percent who say, ‘Ah, at the end of the day, you are a foreigner, you come to this country, you must expect the consequences, you must expect whatever problem will face you, we have got nothing to do.’  But the majority, I would say – because I grew up in this country – the majority I would say, the police are working, working hard and trying to do their job.”

And in some ways, Hanekom noted, the problem also lies in Somalia.  The nation has been in a state of violence and chaos for more than two decades, prompting refugees to flee in droves.