Peer group hopes to keep young Somalis on the right track

With the summer months approaching, 21-year-old Mustafa Sharif of Rochester is getting anxious.

"I need your attention, guys," he said recently to a group of 15 Somali high school students gathered at Bear Creek Apartments in southeast Rochester. "We need to plan ahead -- plan for the summer."

Sharif, a Mayo High School graduate who attends Winona State University, knows the problems summer can bring for Somali teens in Rochester. It's a time when drug dealers try to pull kids into their groups, he says, putting newcomers into situations that can get them into trouble and possibly into jail.


In an effort to keep kids on the right track, Sharif has pulled together a group of high school students from around the city who play soccer together, help each other with homework, go on field trips and, most recently, plan summer volunteer activities in the community.

"We've got to help each other and stick together," said Abdi Alasow, 17, a Mayo High School sophomore, expressing a sentiment shared by many, if not all, in the group. "If we aren't friends with each other, then we will hang with the drug dealers, and they will influence us."

The group has been getting together for around a year as an experiment by the Rochester International Youth Organization, an after-school program that Sharif founded two years ago.

It's a drop in the bucket, Sharif acknowledges, but he hopes the leadership training he provides the group will help them become leaders in their own right, multiplying the positive effect of the group among other Somali young people. Down the road, Sharif says, he wants these boys to be adult leaders, serving as board members, police officers, professionals, lawyers and doctors.

There were no peer groups like this in Rochester for Somalis growing up here in the 1990s and even more recently, said Salah Mohamed, 26, of Rochester, who serves as a soccer coach and mentor for the group.

"This is a huge opportunity," he said.

Since Sharif asked the group to start planning for the summer, the boys have compiled a list of positive things they can do in the community. The list includes mowing lawns, giving seniors rides to the grocery store, interpreting for Somali seniors, reading mail for them, and helping them fill out applications.

By keeping the boys busy with positive activities, Sharif is hoping that responsible action becomes second nature.

"We try to save them without them thinking about it," he said.

Source: PostBulleting