African Development Center

The international recognition and relationships that ADC has built these past few years was once again evident in the recent visit by delegates from Aarhus, Denmark. Organized by the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, Laurie S. Fulton, this week-long trip to Minneapolis was a part of a greater effort to address the issues and obstacles to integration and co-existence in that nation.

Earlier this summer, the Ambassador met here at the African Development Center to learn of the work being done in the Twin Cities Metro, as well as throughout Minnesota, to harness the entrepreneurial aspirations and personal drive of new Americans, particularly from East Africa. This is an extremely important topic for Denmark, as it has also seen a substantial growth in immigrants and refugees from this part of the world, and is working to better address this growth.

Ambassador Fulton was so impressed by the work and successes of ADC, that she worked to create opportunities to travel and share experiences and best practices. The first of these opportunities was for ADC Executive Director, Hussein Samatar to to accompany a delegation from both Minneapolis and St. Paul to travel through Denmark and discuss with local officials and communities about possible strategies and initiatives as “an exchange of ideas between the Minnesotan-Somali community and the Danish-Somali community” according to Mr. Samatar, in order to promote discussions on how to create economic development opportunities in Denmark, especially for new immigrants.

As a follow up to this, a delegation from the second-largest city in Denmark, Aarhus, traveled to the Twin Cities to tour and meet with various officials in the region. Monday, October 24th, ADC hosted their first day here with a tour of several key sites in the West Bank neighborhood and beyond.

After taking a quick tour of the ADC building and meeting staff, Samatar and Communications and Fund Development Manager Matthew Holm took the delegates first to the Wells Fargo Metro South Branch where they met with Branch Manager Ali Bulhan, as well as other staff members of the new American community. This meeting was important for not only addressing lending and banking issues of this community, but also for the reason that this branch is led and largely staffed by members of the East African community.

Next the delegation visited the Gargar Urgent Care Clinic, an ADC business client, where they met with head of the clinic, Dr. Mohamud Afgarshe. Afgarshe took many questions from the interested delegation, and highlighted the importance of having a Somali-speaking healthcare provider for patients, as it brings a sense of comfort and trust necessary for effective healthcare. He also spoke about the many health issues unique to this new community, such as Tuberculosis and Malaria, due to their travels. Dr. Afgarshe mentioned that his clinic will be adding the services of a Somali-speaking surgeon next month for minor procedures.

After waiting to no avail for enough taxis, Samatar asked a member of the community stopped at the clinic to assist in transporting part of this delegation to the next destination, which he agreed to generously! A quick move of child car seats, and 7 members of the delegation were squeezed in this van for the trip to Karmel Mall, the largest Somali-Minnesotan Mall in the state.

Mall Owner Basim Sabri met with the delegation and eagerly showed them around the mall. Among the many businesses highlighted was a wholesale shop that specialized in making sambusas, a meat filled, triangular Somali pastry which they sell in large quantities to local restaurants, as well as other establishments who have received funding and technical assistance from ADC.

Finally, the delegation returned to the ADC office for an evening reception with ADC staff and invited members of the community. Delicious food was catered by Afro Deli & Coffee, and featured speeches by :
• Hussein Samatar, welcoming the delegation to Minnesota and speaking briefly about his exciting trip to Denmark .
• Edward Messmer, Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen. He was one of Mr. Samatar’s hosts on his trip to Denmark. Mr. Messmer spoke about how much he has enjoyed his trip so far to “such progressive cities” and that he enjoyed speaking with all the businesses they toured.
• Jacob Bundsgaard, the Mayor of the City of Aarhus representing the Social Democratic Party. He spoke about the amazing work being done here in Minneapolis and how they would like to replicate that in his city. He also said that before he left Aarhus, many of his Somali residents told him that “every Somali in Denmark knows someone in Minneapolis!”

In all, this was a wonderful opportunity to once again share in the work of the African Development Center of Minnesota, as well as highlight the success of this new American community across the state of Minnesota. ADC hopes to strengthen this international relationship in the future, and continue to share experiences and strategies.

For more photos from the tour and reception, visit our Flickr page.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

The international reach of ADC continues this week, as the U.S. Ambassador to Norway, Barry B. White visits the Main Office on Thursday, November 3rd.