African Development Center

If you would have asked me as I was fleeing from the bullets and artillery shelling during the beginning of civil war in 1991 South Somalia, whether or not I could imagine someday attending an 18-month Executive Education at the Harvard Kennedy School, I would have said “Are you kidding me? Get out of here!”

I am truly blessed to not only have survived the wrath of Somalia’s harsh and long civil war, but to have all of the wonderful opportunities and accomplishments thus far in my personal and professional life: raising a wonderful young family in this great state of Minnesota; furthering my education with an MBA in financial management from the University of Saint Thomas; learning invaluable skills and tools throughout my banking career; and then being able to start the African Development Center of Minnesota (ADC) in order to build wealth for whole new generation of community members – some of whom have similar experience of fleeing from civil war and not knowing if they will survive.

I truly try to live by the adage: “to those whom much is given, much is expected.” I am extremely fortunate to have survived, but never forget that there are millions of people living around the globe in fear, and without a consistent source of food. The dire circumstances for those living peacefully in Somalia is disheartening, and we in the Diaspora have to do whatever we can to find peace for the country, and bring help to the starving children, women, and men.

Harvard is just an awesome place to study. The Achieving Excellence in Community Development program that I am a part of is a renowned executive education for the leaders of community development organizations across the nation. There are fifty of us in this program, coming every part of this country, in order to work on the performance challenges of each organization.

We’ve come together for periodic sessions throughout the 18 months, with our most recent sessions starting on Monday, September 26th at 7:45 a.m. What has been the most transforming learning experience about this training is the fact that all of us are working on our organizational performance challenges in a very specific manner while we were all leaning and discovering new frame-work and new tools to address our challenges.

The days were long and readings were heavy.

The networking with other executives around the nation is the highlight of the program, because all of these executives are accomplished, smart individuals who truly care about their community and the future of this country. These executives and their boards and staff will play key roles in reviving the financial condition of the country, and specifically the health of the communities within this nation.

My session ended around 1:00 p..m. on Friday September 30, 2011 and I flew back home on Friday evening.

Next week, I am traveling to Denmark. I have received an invitation from the US Embassy in Denmark, to visit Copenhagen and Aarhus, in order to meet with the Somali-Danish community, the Embassy staff, the business community, elected officials, and the larger community. I will be blogging throughout the trip and I hope to make the blog interesting and entertaining for you.

Thank you for following up on my blog. Please don’t forget to help in any way that you can financially and otherwise for the continued work of the African Development Center of Minnesota.