Spreading the education: Somali association formed

Grand Island has a new organization to assist Somali residents. It’s called the Nebraska Somali Community Association.

Yasin Ali, a 17-year-old senior at Grand Island Senior High School, filed the incorporation paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office Wednesday in Lincoln. He’s also working on a non-profit filing for the association.

“My mission is to provide assistance to the Somali community to be self-sufficient,” Ali said. “It’s kind of exciting — it’s a big thing.”

Grand Island’s Somali population totals about 500 people, he said. Most have come from Minneapolis, although the newest Somali immigrants are coming from Columbus, Ohio. Virtually all work at the JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant.

“About 90 percent of them are illiterate,” Ali said. “They need help for translating. They need help for education.”

Ali spoke with the elders of the local Somali community and decided to establish a formal organization that can provide such help.

While some Somali immigrants have enrolled in English classes, even more have not, he said because they lack reading ability in any language. Ali plans to organize English classes for Somalians that are conducted largely in oral Somalian.

Ali attempted to get office space at the St. Stephen’s Community Center, but it was full. The association’s inaugural office will be located at the Masonic Temple, 217 N. Locust St., Suite, 205. Office space there has been donated for two months.

Ali will be staffing the office over the summer, but once school starts again in August, he will rely more on assistance from his co-incorporator, Samatar Ali, who is not related to Yasin Ali. Samatar Ali was a doctor in Somali and is currently looking for work in Grand Island.

Ali said those Somalians with an education, such as himself, should work to help those without.

“I want to help with cultural differences and translating,” Ali said. “ I have the ideas and commitment and I’m going to get this done.”

Nebraska Somali Community Association

Contacts: Yasin Ali and Samatar Ali

Address: 217 N. Locust, Suite 205

Phone: (308) 390-8407