by Sharmaarke Abdullahi
OTTAWA – On Saturday, January 30th, over 300 youth, young professional’s parents, and community partners participated in the 5th annual Awakening: Reviving the Spirit of Somali Youth conference at Ben Franklin Place.
Awakening celebrates the achievements of Somali-Canadians while also providing a platform to raise awareness and create dialogue to discuss community challenges. The theme for this year’s conference was “INSPIRE” with the sub-themes, “Disability Is Not Inability” & “Global Engagement”.
This year’s Awakening conference had a total of 4 speakers, followed by an interactive panel discussion with all the speakers, live entertainment, and of course the award ceremony.
As the program got under way, the atmosphere was electric and the air was full of inspiration. The first speaker, Mohamed Doli who is the first Somali-Canadian Lawyer, talked about the many obstacles he faced as a person living with a physical disability and how his physical disability never limited his aspirations to pursue Law school. He also spoke about his endless “pride of being ethnically Somali” which helped him navigate some of the racism he faced both in law school and in his practice. Mr. Doli ended his talk by empowering the audience to dream big.
Kowsar Mohamed, a human rights and community activist who also lives with a physical disability shared her experiences with the crowed. She spoke candidly about how being true to yourself can often lead you to your true calling. She also encouraged the audience, to have confidence to achieve your goals, to persevere when faced with adversity, to have passion, to be authentic and adaptable, to ignore the naysayers and she ended her speech with a memorable quote by Steve Jobs “those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world will probable change the world.”
The next speaker Hodan Ibrahim, a young entrepreneur, Co-Founder at Think Disrupt and CEO at Ummah Venture electrified the crowed with her speech. She shared her personal journey of how she founded 3 businesses with the audience. She also spoke openly about some of the ups and downs that come with being an entrepreneur. Finally, she encouraged everyone to “just do-it” – “go after everything you deserve and don’t hold back anything. Don’t allow fear of change (good or bad) to prevent you from moving your life forward. Don’t let fear of success prevent you from achieving everything you deserve. Don’t let fear of the unknown prevent you from doing what you know you should be doing. Don’t let yourself be unhappy now for a future feeling of ‘happiness’ or ‘satisfaction’ that will only last for a few minutes. “Hodan Ibrahim.
Finally, the keynote speakers Abdi Barud who is a trained Social Worker and the Executive Director of the Global Diaspora Forum highlighted the importance of local and global engagement. He shared his deep passion for working with the Somali community both in Bristol, UK and Somalia. Abdi also talked about the importance of civil engagement in the Diaspora. “One of the ways in which we can change the negative perception of Somali’s in the Diaspora is by giving back and getting involved locally. We need to speak up for environmental issues, Indigenous issues and women’s rights not just the Somali issues” – Abdi Barud. Lastly, he underscored the importance of Somali unity both in the Diaspora and back in Somalia, regardless of where you were born or what your tribal affiliation might be.
“I have been attending the Awakening conference since the first year and this year was by far my favorite because the entire program was great.” –awakening conference participant.
This year’s lifetime Achievement award was presented to long time community activists Amina Ege and Abdirahman Hilowle while the Community Engagement award was presented to Nora Elmi and Mohamed Islam for their continued commitment to youth engagement.
“I have no way to express how happy and proud I am of the work you are all doing. It’s pioneering, truly. I pray I see Awakening go to other places around the world. It’s so needed.” Hodan Ibrahim
All in all this year’s Awakening event was a huge success thanks to the hard work and dedication by the Awakening team.
To learn more about Awakening: Reviving the Spirit of Somali Youth or to support this initiative please visit: https://www.gofundme.com/zagvzjhk
About the writer
Sharmake Abdulahi is the winner of the 2016 Black History Ottawa Community Builder award for volunteerism, community leadership and engagement. He is second right in the above picture.
