Wellington Somali Community Association

The Wellington Somali Community Association shares some of the background to their work, and the challenges they faced getting incorporated.

"The Wellington Somali Community Association is here to foster the wellbeing of our community members"

The Wellington Somali Community Association was given an official legal status earlier this year on 22 March 2002. The Association's concern is assisting the new comers and those who were already in the country New Zealand, in terms of social, education and cultural diversity.

In the late eighties a few Somali men were the first settlers to Wellington. They came to New Zealand as asylum seekers. Since then more have come as refugees and for family reunification. Most of these people have settled in the main cities like Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The Association is currently running language and culture classes for Somali children at the weekend. This is the biggest achievement that the Somalis in Wellington are proud of, teaching our kids their culture, the heritage of Somalia and also understanding how the New Zealand system works. This is thanks to those who have worked hard and contributed their time at the weekend classes, especially the young Somali men and women.

The current leader of the Wellington Somali Community Association and his colleagues are working very effectively to bring Somali community members together, thus we (Somalis) can see our dream come true: every society has it's dream in the future where we will all stand in this society as people from New Zealand.

What was the challenge?

The biggest challenges we faced setting up the Association were:

A. Getting a constitution for our legal entity and the best way to follow? Do we follow the Somali traditional way to choose our representatives or do we follow New Zealand way? After long discussion vast the majority of Somali community who live in Wellington have chosen to elect their representatives the New Zealand way. We follow a democracy method, using polling ballots or rising hands. The person who gets the most votes will be the chosen person.

B. Bringing all Somali minds together was the hardest challenge, because back home in Somalia everything was in the government's hand whereas in New Zealand it is not. Here people can influence the government's decision. For example, some of our community members see having a community development organisation is a waste of time, because they think government should do everything for them. However, the governments, both local and central, acknowledge that there is a strong need to have community management bodies who run the day-to-day business for their community members.

C. Educating them about this organisation and it's a principles, including why have the Wellington Somali Community Association? Do we need to have one?

This organization has been around for eight months. Already there are many things that the Association has achieved. However there are many projects to do in the three years coming like having a Somali Social Club, setting up a support centre for our children, in order to get special assistance, more health awareness and educating parents.

The Association is gathering information from various channels, so the job of the executive committee assisting the Somali community members resettling New Zealand will be easier. By knowing other Ethnic communities and their culture also teaching ours is the only way of interacting people from different background culture, respecting, trust and understanding between communities.

"I want the Somalis to feel that they are part of this society" - Mohamud Daar, President

Somali Holidays and Festivals

The independent day of northern Somalia 26 June

The independent day of Southern Somalia and the unification 1 July

The Somali Youth Day 15 May

The end of Ramadan (Eid el fitri)

Eid el Adha 

(For more information on Ramadan and other Muslim festivals, see www.iman.co.nz/index_ed.htm)

Contact

Email somalinz@hotmail.com

© 2002 Wellington Somali Community Association.

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