Samsam Mohamud

I am the 33-year-old mother of 4 children. The oldest is 11, the youngest just a few months old. I have a husband as well. I come from Somalia, but Haringey has been my home for 17 years now. It’s such a nice borough to live in, so multicultural and mixed. Most of all it’s amazing because everything you need is here, and for this reason you won’t miss your original home.

I am the founder and chair of North London Somali Community Association, based in Chestnut Centre. We work with Somali families and youth, especially young women. We give them activities and workshops to help them integrate in the community. To be honest, I believe it’s a very important job. When I first came here I was a teenager and I attended a sixth form school for girls. Since I didn’t know the language and there weren’t sport activities, I found it really difficult to mix with others and also I couldn’t do that well in my qualifications. Since maths doesn’t involve English I was upper-intermediate in that class, but apart from that I didn’t really achieve anything. Besides, my mum didn’t speak English either so she couldn’t ask for information about after-school clubs and other activities.

I have learnt from my experience and my aim is to help those who need help, to break the cultural barrier. I support people by providing them with the right information about communities. If I didn’t do that, I know that many young people could fall in the danger of taking drugs. I want to educate young women that soon will become mothers. My goal is to make them better parents than my parents could be. I would suggest future leaders that they don’t just say “I’m a leader, follow me”: the word is bigger than that, to be a leader you need to really try and reach as far as you can. Then, if you are a good leader, you will certainly be able to greatly support other people. There might be problems: as for my experience, I have had difficulties in fundraising, but in the end you can overcome them.