Category: Somalia

234 Leyla Hashi

7/12/2020

Leyla was born in Somalia. Her family became refugees and moved to Boston when she was four years old. Later they moved to Maine when she was twelve. This past spring she graduated from USM with a Bachelor's Degree in communication. Her dream is to be a journalist. You can hear her former work on her podcast called Refugees of Portland and this summer you can follow her work at Amjambo Africa, the newspaper created for Africans in Maine.

A few years ago Leyla took her 90 year old grandmother back to visit in Somalia, now as Americans. She details that experience with rich personal insight. And imagine her grandmother's surprise when she learned that Leyla was to be USM's 2020 commencement speaker.

Music: "Baby" by Xariir and Xiis, Somali singers.

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233 Abdi Iftin

6/28/2020

This is an hour-long (two part) interview with Abdi Iftin, author of Call Me American. He came to the US in 2014 and became a US citizen in January 2020. In this interview he talks about his memoir which details his epic journey from Mogadishu, Somalia to Maine.
Abdi speaks about things that are sometimes considered taboo like being black in Maine, FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), religion and politics.

Currently, Abdi is a student at Boston College getting a bachelor's degree in political science while promoting his book and working on a movie based on his book.

For more background on his life you can listen to his 2017 interview on New Mainers Speak. Click here.

Music: A2VT (Africa to Vermont) sings "Faas Waa"

Part I of 2 part series, aired on 6/28/20

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Part 2 of 2 part series, aired on 7/5/20

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232 Safiya Khalid

6/14/2020

Safiya Khalid came to the US in 2005 from the Hagadara refugee camp in Kenya. She, her mother and two younger brothers fled Kismaya, Somalia due to war and civil unrest.
Sixteen years later, Safiya is a Lewiston City Councilor (Ward 1) and Community Resource Coordinator at Gateway Community Services. She holds a BA from USM in Psychology and is also a graduate of the Emerge Maine program to help women organize and run for office.
World Refugee Day is June 20, 2020 and Safiya understands what the issues are for immigrant families who have lived with feet in both worlds. For more information on Maine's refugees click here.

Music: "Waving Flag" by K'naan.

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162 Abdi Iftin

12/17/2017

Abdi was born into a war zone in Mogadishu, Somalia, thirty years ago. He learned English from movies and told everyone he was going to be an American someday. In 2011 he left Somalia and became a refugee when he was being forced to choose between being a soldier or being killed. Once in neighboring Kenya, there was just more fear and no peace for refugees from Somalia.
Times were bleak, but Abdi got lucky and won the diversity visa lottery from the US government for a green card. (For more information listen to this link: "Abdi and the Golden Ticket," an interview from 2015 with Ira Glass on This American Life).
Today Abdi is a translator for Catholic Charities, is a student of Political Science at USM, and speaks at public events all around the state of Maine. If you find his stories compelling, keep your eyes out, he is writing a book about his unbelievable life experiences.
Music: "Faraskaagi Laga Badi" ("Your Horse Lost the Race"), a favorite of his father's.

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160 Zahra Abukar

11/26/2017

Zehra Abukar is originally from Somalia. She lived there until age eleven when her family moved to Turkey. There she learned to play in a new language and live in a new culture, often among other immigrants there. In 2014 she and her family moved to Portland, Maine. Zehra completed a year of high school before attending Southern Maine Community College. In college she studies business, runs the Multicultural International Student Association, works and dreams of creating a line of "Cover Girl" fashions, for Muslim girls who want to be both stylish and modest. However, she knows life can offer unexpected changes so she just stays positive and open to the options.

Music: "Haldhaa" by Fadumo Cali Cilmi

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138 Abdifatah Ahmed

4/23/2017

Abdifatah Ahmed left Mogadishu, Somalia in 1992 at the age of fourteen when civil war disrupted his education and family. He lived in a new refugee camp in Kenya for over a year before being resettled to Cambridge, MA where his family was reunited.
Abdifatah worked very hard and was driven academically. He received his Doctorate of Pharmacy fourteen years ago from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
Recruited to Maine in 2003, he has worked in Portland, Topsham and Lewiston/Auburn where he now lives with his wife and five children.
Abdifatah is an advocate for people living in poverty and cares about encouraging others to engage in civic life and good health choices.
Music: Somali National Anthem Soomaaliyeey Toosoo.

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103 Naima Abdirhmon

5/22/2016

Naima was born in Mogadishu, Somalia and moved to the US when she was six years old. She attended Portland Public Schools and the University of New England where she studied pharmacy.
Naima now works as a pharmacist, but also opened a child development center called Arwo a year ago. She speaks about the center which is located at 1037 Forest Ave., Portland, ME. It serves children from 6 weeks to 6 years old and strives to "nurture capable, healthy and happy children."

Music: "I Wanna Be Like You" from the Jungle Book Soundtrack.

nms_103_naima_abdirhmon-_somalia_-_may_22_2016.mp3
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066 Ahmed Mohamed

7/19/2015

Ahmed was born in Somalia and lived most of his first seven years in a refugee camp in Kenya called Dengahaley at Dadaab. This is where Ahmed learned to love the feeling he got from playing soccer with friends. In 2005 his family moved to the US and soon settled in Lewiston and later Portland, ME. Being a good student, Ahmed was encouraged to apply to Waynflete where he was accepted and is now entering into his senior year, still playing soccer with a passion while learning about the power education can play in a person's life.

Music: Somali Instrumental Music

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038 Seynab Ali

11/16/2014

Seynab is a farmer who recently completed the NASAP (New American Sustainable Agriculture Program) training on Fresh Start farm in Lisbon, ME. She brought her farming skills from Somalia and has learned how to run a farm and business in Maine, alongside 25 other New Mainers, under the umbrella organization Cultivating Community. (www.cultivatingcommunity.org)

Seynab lives in Lewiston with her husband and children and takes her vegetables to three farmer's markets (Damariscotta, Kennebunk and Lewiston), offers CSA farm shares and sells her vegetables wholesale to local camps and restaurants. She also takes English classes and weekly citizenship classes.

nms_038_seynab_ali_-_somalia_-_november_16_2014.mp3
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007 Abdi Yousaf

4/13/2014

Abdi shares his stories about what it was like growing up in Maine in an immigrant family, what education means to his family, and some of his hopes for his future.
He also characterizes how he perceived Somalia when he visited there last summer with his family--a child of the diaspora sees third world Somalia with first world eyes.