|
|
 |
| |
Somali youth a target
• ON behalf of the Somali Youth Development Resource Centre (SYDRC) and the Somali community in general, I would like to send my profound condolences to the family, friends and relatives of Sharmaarke Hassan.
Our thoughts and prayers are with them. These are testing times for our community and the wider society in general.
I hope that the whole borough would join me in sending our most deepest condolences to Sharmaarke’s family and would also join me in condemning the ridiculous stories written about him.
I have anxiously read many media stories about Sharmaarke which I was deeply shocked and disgusted by. In times of loss and despair families should be comforted with courtesy and forbearance. Instead, there was an onslaught of distorted information which had an adverse effect on the overall horrific death of a teenage boy. By no means should the media use their weight and influence to limit the seriousness of this shooting.
Sharmaarke was a lovely boy who wanted to do well for himself and his family. He wanted to turn his life around and finish his sixth form so he could attend university. A frequent user of SYDRC – he loved sports, especially football, which we provided for him. He would always talk to his mentor about the street life and how he did not want to get sucked further into it. He was one of those boys that we were proud of, a young man with a bright future.
I went to visit Sharmaarke at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead the day after he was shot in the head. The bullet was still lodged in his brain and doctors were too afraid to operate on him. An operation would have either killed him or left him permanently disabled. It was a huge risk to take and surgeons were reluctant. As they took him off life support we all hoped he would pull through and breathe on his own. Our worst fears confronted us. He stopped breathing.
The shocking aspect of the whole incident is the indiscriminate targeting of Somali youths. This is also reminiscent of the late Mahir Osman who was targeted by knife-wielding youths from Tottenham just for being Somali. Imagine going to the ICU at the Royal Free and witnessing a teenage boy dying, his father at his side with blood red eyes, a number of mothers screaming, crying and grabbing on to you asking you to do something, anything. This is what I had to go through and I wish I never have to do again.
The problem is that I had warned that this was coming (Robbed Youth: We’re growing up with crime, April 10) and have spoken to many councillors. Unfortunately, I was right. It only took a month after I warned Camden Council for a teenager to get gunned down in the streets of Camden.
I fear that the cries and warnings from Camden residents will continue to fall on deaf ears.
What is the basis upon which we are going to go forward? When we dealt with the tragic murder of Mahir Osman two years ago we talked to everyone, including Camden youths, the police, Camden Council, parents of both Camden and Tottenham youths. We only did so once they were accepting of a certain basic principle, which was that a lasting peace should be brokered between the youths of both boroughs. Nothing came overnight – it was hard, tiring and sometimes we wanted to give up. However, we persevered and through negotiation we came to a ceasefire. Nothing has happened since and we are very thankful for that.
Now we face a huge and difficult task. I think everyone should understand the frustration my organisation goes through that, on the one end, we have an internal war on our streets. On the other end, we have a non-compliant local authority. Council leader Keith Moffitt promised to fund us at our event last week, but we need more than words, we would like to see this become a reality.
We will also be speaking with Afro-Caribbean organisations, Operation Trident and the Metropolitan Police. We worked hard to defuse the tension between Tottenham and Camden Somali youths. I am optimistic that our internal problems can be solved. However, we need a collective effort and not empty promises. The community will is, in fact, there. What is necessary now is to get the plan to see that will translated into action, which is what Camden residents want and what we want.
I would like to take this opportunity to ask all the Somali youths in Camden to exercise restraint. These are testing times for us and we must not give in to the temptations of revenge. We are all in this together – we are all one.
Awale Olad
Chair, SYDRC Dowdney Close, NW5
Wrong man
• IT is somewhat ironic that the person you misidentified and wrongly reported as being “executed in alley shooting” is a youth worker who is thankfully very much alive and continues to help prevent tragic incidents of teen violence.
Unfortunately the present policy and practice of the council is to cut and refuse grants for general youth work to those very areas (such as Castlehaven and Gospel Oak) where violence occurs. Cracking down on young people after tragic events of violence and death is far too late and not very effective. What is needed is an increase in activities to prevent young people becoming part of the gang violence culture in the first place. Now there has been a change of political leadership on youth issues in the council it is time, hopefully, for a radical revision of how much funding is provided for preventative youth work and a new decision making process that involves local people, councillors and the police.
At Queen’s Crescent Community Centre we run a wide range of youth work programmes but could do so much more if we had been given council funding.
MR Farrant
Chair, Queen’s Crescent Community Association Ltd, NW5
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
