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February 08, 2010 (QOL)
The Alberta Somali Community Center and the Canadian
Somali Congress recently hosted an advocacy awareness
event for the Canadian Somali community in Alberta.
This event was meant to present three urgent tasks that
the community will focus on in order to deal with some
of the challenges that it is facing in Alberta.
Advocacy tools presented by the Canadian Somali Congress
will be utilized in order to achieve the desired results
in the near future. The three main tasks are:
1.
Raising the mandatory
school attendance age from 16 to 18 years of age in the
province of Alberta. This measure has already been
successfully introduced in Ontario. Under this plan, a
16 year old who refuses to attend regular classes may be
exempted from doing so but will still be compelled to
obtain training in a trade such as carpentry, metalwork,
welding etc.
2.
Work with the Alberta
Attorney General and Solicitor General to ensure the
allocation of adequate resources necessary to deploy
prosecutors and homicide detectives in order to resolve
the murder cases of 24 young Canadian Somali men in
Alberta
3.
Work with the city of Edmonton,
the province of Alberta and the government of Canada to enable
the full funding of much needed services in the Canadian
Somali community in Alberta. The focus of the community will
be on those services that will lead to the full integration of
Canadian Somalis into the mainstream of Canadian society.
The community will engage
elected officials and media in order to publicize these
issues. Petitions, telethons, parliamentary submissions,
voter registration drives, email days of action, letters to
the editor, demonstrations and many other advocacy tools will
be utilized in this endeavour.
Please click on the link
below to listen to the speech given by Ahmed Hussen, National
President of the Canadian Somali Congress at this event. This
two-part speech explains the importance of political, media
and grassroots advocacy. Mr. Hussen also presents a roadmap
of change that will be utilized by the community as it strives
to bring about a positive transformation of this already
dynamic community :
Click Here for the Images from the Events
Youth For Change events Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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