News

Amana researches how Bristol's Somali community is coping with autism

submitted by Poushali Mitra
January 28, 2011

In UK about half a million people have autism,reveals the National Health Service website.

But this statistics perhaps does not include the growing Somali population as there has been very little or no research done to find out the spread of autism in this newly arrived community in UK, especially in Bristol.

Amana Education Trust, with the help of National Autistic Society (NAS), is the first organisation to look into this matter.

Nura Aabe, the key person behind the Autism project in Amana, says: “Autism is a new word for the Somali community. Back home, no one knows about it. When families started to migrate West, along with many new things they came to know about the existence of autism.”

A new centre to protect migrant rights opens in Bristol

Submitted by Poushali Mitra

On 10 December, 2010 a new migrant’s support centre –Migrant Rights Centre Bristol (MRCB)- was inaugurated to help migrants adjust better with the multicultural environment of the city.

Christien van den Anker, Director of MRCB, welcomed the opening of the centre on the Human Rights Day – 10 December. “The centre will cater to the needs of migrants in Bristol. We will provide support, advocacy and campaign to protect the rights of migrants who are often made to work in exploitative circumstances,” said Christien also a Reader in Politics at University of the West of England.

Cllr. Sue O’ Donnell, the chair of Community Cohesion and Safety Scrutiny Commission, said: “The launch of MRCB is welcome news especially after the Bristol City Council agreed to endorse the city’s status as City of Sanctuary on 16 November 2010.”

Wish all the best to our friends from UWE

Haweya IsmailHaweya IsmailHaweya Ismail, a Masters student in Intercultural Communications at UWE, has just completed her two months work –placement with us. We will miss her a lot! She was very helpful in guiding our clients on matters of education. These two months were really resourceful experience. Amana gave me the opportunity to work closely with the Somali community and understand their problems, something which is beyond the class-room theories. I am grateful to UWE for funding my internship,” sums up Haweya.

 

Somali community gathers to pray for Abdi

On 31 October members of the Somali community in Bristol gathered together in memory of Abdirisak Mohamoud, an 18-year-old student, who died last July succumbing to a single stab wound when rival boy gangs broke into a fearful fight in Stapleton Road.

Organised by Amana and local Somali mosques, the meeting was hugely successful in drawing attention towards the Somali youth’s perspective in dealing with street violence and knife crimes.

About 300 people—mostly young members studying in college and schools— attended the meeting to pay homage to Abdirasak. The victim's junior in Fairfield High School and also the chair of Somali Youth Forum (SYF), Abdi Salaam, presided over the meeting and discussed the many challenges faced by the dynamic Somali youth in Bristol today.

Local community experts, including imams and experienced youth worker such as Ibrahim Messiah, stated how knife crime and street violence is increasing at an alarming rate in Bristol.

We need your help to keep the ball rolling at SYF

Somalis without football is like fish without water. So at Amana we take great care to let the youth of the city have access to the best football facilities.
We are training up at least 50 teenagers in our weekend football sessions held in the City Academy ground. We are grateful to Prince Trust and Football Foundation for helping us to buy all necessary equipments as well as hire fitness centers.
But funds are drying up and we need your help to keep this going.

Solve generation-gap with our Parents Group experts

Amana is currently running a parents mentoring program—Parents Group — every Wednesday evening.
“The generation gap between the British born Somalis and those belonging to our age group—the parents—who migrated from Somalia is increasing rapidly,” says Mumin, the co-coordinator of the Parents Group at Amana.
“To bridge this gap, we decided something needs to be done to bring the two generations closer. A discussion table for Somali parents was the best available solution,” adds Mumin. Be it school or fear over kids getting bullied in school, our mentoring group is prepared to help you out.

Adult Education Department starts new courses in 2011

Funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the adult education programme at Amana has been a great success.
The department came to being in June 2006 when Somali migrants were settling in Bristol in large numbers.
Three years on and having secured the appropriate funding for a three-year period our education department is well on the way to achieving great results. We have formed some very positive partnerships and will continue in this vein while identifying further training and provision to suit the needs of the community.

“At present we are working with at least 70 Somali adults. Next year we are hoping to start accredited Level Two courses which will include Teaching Assistant and ESOL classes,” said Geoff, manager of the Adult Education department.

Weekend Supplementary School is now back at Amana

Now that the academic year has started fully, its time that we should think once more about providing our children with some extra help in getting better results in school. To achieve this, we have re-started our Supplementary school once more in the first-floor of our office from October 16. The school’s primary target is to help Somali children attain better marks in English language. Lessons in Maths and Science are also available.