The three-day event was aimed at educating Somali youth and providing opportunities for leadership.

Minneapolis, which has the largest Somali population in the country , has recently seen gang violence, a series of murders and the mysterious disappearances of about 20 men, two of whom were charged with aiding terrorists. In hopes of finding ways to solve such issues, the second annual Somali Youth Summit was held at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Sunday marked the end of the three-day summit where hundreds of Somali youth discussed solutions to the problems facing the community.

Abdisalam Aato , the founder of the Somali Youth Summit, said the goal of the summit is to identify and tap the leadership potential of Somali high school and college students.

“We hope to create young leaders who can help solve problems in the community,” Aato said.

Abdulkadir Salah , the event’s coordinator, said after the problems were identified, the participants were asked to come up with concrete solutions for the problems, Salah said.

Islamic cultural identity and surviving peer pressure were among the topics discussed.

Salah said the Cedar-Humphrey Action for Neighborhood Collaborative Engagement (CHANCE) helped make the summit a reality.

“We think that empowering young people to address the challenges that we are all facing is the right place to start,” CHANCE coordinator, Merrie Benasutti said.

Mohamud Treek , co-founder of the summit, said the event helped young Somali-Americans learn how to become better leaders.

“There are conflicts within the community here in the U.S. and back home,” Treek said. “The only people who can solve such problems are the youth. So, they need leadership skills.”

Fatuma Hussein, a nursing student from Nashville, Tenn., said she has learned a lot about leadership.

“Meetings like this will, indeed, change the lives of many young people who simply need role models,” Hussein said.

University economics and literature senior, Abdulahi Hussein , said he thinks this year’s summit covered more issues that concern the community compared to last year’s summit, which he watched on YouTube .

“The speeches of last year’s summit were mainly about religion,” Hussein said. “However, this year we had a bit of everything that was significant to be addressed.”

Last year the summit was held in Columbus, Ohio, which has the second-largest Somali population in the United States .

Source: mndaily

BY Ibrahim Hirsi
PUBLISHED: 07/28/2009

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