Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Interviews with Bantu boys in Balboa Park
Survival and the memory of a little boy
Twenty-six-year-old Hassan Sheighei lost his leg in a gun battle ten years ago in Somalia. He was walking to the store when he heard gunfire. He saw someone running, and the Somali enemy mistook him as their intended target.
“It was always war,” he said. “They would take your mommy and daddy and beat them up, asking where is their money, where is their food.” Sheighei arrived in the U.S. with his dad and believes his mom is still alive in Somalia.
The Bantu boys and their families came together on June 8 at a Balboa Park fundraising event for the San Diego chapter of the Somali Bantu Association of America.
The association was formed by Somalis who came to the U.S. before the last decade’s wave of refugees. Their mission is to help the refugees make a “successful cultural and social transition into the U.S.,” says association president Said Abiyow.
As young boys in Somalia, they escaped with their lives to refugee camps in Kenya. With no knowledge of the English language or American culture, the United Nations helped them seek refuge in the United States. The transition was made even tougher in that the Bantu do not speak Somali. They speak a variety of native and tribal tongues.
The Bantus are the largest ethnic group in the northeastern peninsula of the African continent. Their communities continue to face “ethnic cleansing” in Somalia.
Because they were old enough to remember their homeland, I asked several of the older boys what needed to change. They each said nothing would change in Somalia; that it is a country with no peace or security. Each one said they have no desire to ever return, even though they may still have family there.
On June 8, the Somali women cooked and served food for the gathering. The event was hosted by the Jamie’s Joy Foundation — a foundation created in honor Jamie Morgan Mychael Bratton-McNeeley, a six-year-old boy who died in a car accident on La Costa Avenue in Carlsbad ten years ago.
As this year’s chosen charity, the foundation’s event raised thousands of dollars to give to the Somali Bantus.
“It’s something Jamie would have enjoyed supporting, “ said his mom, Elene Bratton. Mayor Bob Filner attended and presented a proclamation naming June 8 “Jamie’s Joy Day” in San Diego.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Interviews with Bantu boys in Balboa Park
Survival and the memory of a little boy
Interviews with Bantu boys in Balboa Park
Survival and the memory of a little boy
Twenty-six-year-old Hassan Sheighei lost his leg in a gun battle ten years ago in Somalia. He was walking to the store when he heard gunfire. He saw someone running, and the Somali enemy mistook him as their intended target.
“It was always war,” he said. “They would take your mommy and daddy and beat them up, asking where is their money, where is their food.” Sheighei arrived in the U.S. with his dad and believes his mom is still alive in Somalia.
The Bantu boys and their families came together on June 8 at a Balboa Park fundraising event for the San Diego chapter of the Somali Bantu Association of America.
The association was formed by Somalis who came to the U.S. before the last decade’s wave of refugees. Their mission is to help the refugees make a “successful cultural and social transition into the U.S.,” says association president Said Abiyow.
As young boys in Somalia, they escaped with their lives to refugee camps in Kenya. With no knowledge of the English language or American culture, the United Nations helped them seek refuge in the United States. The transition was made even tougher in that the Bantu do not speak Somali. They speak a variety of native and tribal tongues.
The Bantus are the largest ethnic group in the northeastern peninsula of the African continent. Their communities continue to face “ethnic cleansing” in Somalia.
Because they were old enough to remember their homeland, I asked several of the older boys what needed to change. They each said nothing would change in Somalia; that it is a country with no peace or security. Each one said they have no desire to ever return, even though they may still have family there.
On June 8, the Somali women cooked and served food for the gathering. The event was hosted by the Jamie’s Joy Foundation — a foundation created in honor Jamie Morgan Mychael Bratton-McNeeley, a six-year-old boy who died in a car accident on La Costa Avenue in Carlsbad ten years ago.
As this year’s chosen charity, the foundation’s event raised thousands of dollars to give to the Somali Bantus.
“It’s something Jamie would have enjoyed supporting, “ said his mom, Elene Bratton. Mayor Bob Filner attended and presented a proclamation naming June 8 “Jamie’s Joy Day” in San Diego.
Comments