Sheikhnoor Adan feels privileged to have the opportunity to receive an education that his ancestors did not have.
“Most of our parents right now are not able to spell their names,” Adan said.
Adan, 23, came as a refugee to the United States in 2007 and is now part of the staff of the Somali Bantu Community Association, a non-profit group formed in 2004 to help Somali Bantu refugees in Central New York. He is the After-School Program supervisor.
This program helps Somali Bantu students learn English and finish their school assignments. Now, 168 students are in the program.
The Association offers this program in partnership with Syracuse University. Volunteer mentors from the Office of Engagement Programs at Hendricks Chapel tutor the students.
Meredith Nackley, an SU student and the International Young Scholars Program assistant, says they work with a wide arrange of students. “Some kids have been in school for a while and just might need some brushing up on certain things,” Nackley said. “And then we also have kids who come in knowing very, very little — knowing next to nothing when it comes to English.”
She has witnessed much progress by many students in the three years she has been working with the program, she said. “I’ve seen many of the students definitely make leaps and strides of improvement,” Nackley said.
But the Somali Bantu Community lacks the funds to give enough help to students. They barely have the money to buy chalk and erasers, Nackley said.
Most of the funding for the Association comes from individual donors. The rest of the money is contributed by organizations like CNY Community Foundation and Gifford Foundation.
Now, for the first time, the Association expects to getmoney from the government. It was selected to receive a grant from the New York State Office of Citizenship and Immigration, said Abdullahi Ibrahim, the director of the Somali Bantu Community Association.
The Association also provides other services for Somali Bantu refugees like housing assistance, interpretation, and cultural activities. It serves over 95 families who have arrived in Syracuse escaping the violence of the civil war that broke out in Somalia in 1991.
Adan, the After-School Program supervisor, recalls the horrors that Somali Bantus live in their country. “In our country there is killing, robbing, taking your stuff, people robbing your mother or your sister in front of you,” said Adan. “There’s a lot of things that when I remember I cry by myself.”
(Bianca Graulau is a junior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism and political science.)
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