In the spring 2015 A big step forward AarhuSomali held five meetings con- AarhuSomali cerning active partici- pation in society for Niels Højberg, CEO of Municipality, at a meeting Somali-Danes in Aar- hus, and about how Cooperation with Aarhus Municipality to get influence on the political and administrative levels in Aarhus Municipality. We invited experts on integration and advocacy from and from abroad. The meetings were arranged in cooperation with FO-Aarhus and with top officials from Aarhus Municipality taking part in them. At one of the meetings the CEO of Aarhus Municipality was challenged about more inclusion and responsibility for the Somali community in Aarhus concerning municipal integrational projects. This led to a series of roundtable meetings, with the members of AarhuSomali coordination comittee and top officials from Aarhus Municipality, headed by the CEO. Diversity in the City of Smiles

Four projects - with AarhuSomali project mangers AarhuSomali is an umbrella organisation for 13 Somali associati- With Aarhus Municipality and AarhuSomali as partners, ons in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark with 335.000 the roundtable meetings resulted in these four projects: inhabitants. A little more than 4.000, living here, have their roots Entrepeneurship: in , over half of them are children, most of them born in Aarhus. Focus on starting your own business Ali Yusuf talking about the entrepe- Jobs for Somali-Danes: AarhuSomali has existed since May 2010, where it organized its neurship project first big Somali Cultural Festival in The Concert Hall Aarhus with Creating network in order to get jobs 400 participants, half with Danish and half with Somali origin. for highly educated Somali-Danes Better image for Somali-Danes: In 2010 AarhuSomali also laun- ched the website aarhusoma- The Blue Stars - educated Somali- li.dk, which since has been tel- Danish young people fighting prejudice by telling their personal stories. ling about the life of the Somali -Danes living in Aarhus, called: Somali cultural festival: Blue Star Safaa Mohamed Ali tal- ”The City of Smiles”. Takes place in Aarhus July 2017 king to elderly people at a meeting www.aarhusomali.dk Somali cultural festivals Supporting education for children AarhuSomali has organized a AarhuSomali has organized homework cafés number of cultural festivals in for Somali schoolchildren, with economical order to enjoy our own culture support from The Ministry of Integration and and proudly present it to the Social Affairs. AarhuSomali cultural festival in 2010 rest of Aarhus, in 2010 and AarhuSomali has for Aarhus Municipality sug- Visit in Aarhus from USA in The Concert Hall Aarhus twice in 2013 with Maryam gested action and projects concerning anti- Mursal, Hadraawi and other Somali cultural personalities. radicalization and social problems related to -chewing. AarhuSomali has organized several public meetings with a wide range of For several years AarhuSomali has had a very good cooperation and dia- current topics, like the situation in Somalia and the Danish immigration logue with The Embassy of The United States of Amerika in Denmark. laws. Before parlamentary and municipal elections, in 2011, 2013 and 2015 we have arranged election meetings. Awards and public recognition Taking active part in society For the great effort with the homework cafés, Aarhus Municipality in AarhuSomali 2011 nominated AarhuSomali for the very prestigious Integration Award is working from The Ministry of Integration and Soci- hard to pro- al Affairs. vide better The same year Mulki Hussein, then mem- conditions ber of the AarhuSomali coordination for the So- Mohamud Jama, Ahmed Jibril, Daud Hussein and Abdirahman Iidle, committee, was nominated for the Da- malis living AarhuSomali, meeting with The Mayor of Aarhus, Jacob Bundsgaard nish award, ”The heroe of the year”, and in Aarhus in 2012 Mulki Hussein was nominated for and to encourage active participating in society on all levels. A very big the Aarhus Municipality Integration Mulki Hussein with the Mayor of Aarhus at the award ceremony obstacle for all this is the prejudice against in Denmark. Award. Taking part in the public debate In 2015 AarhuSomali was nominated to Fællesskabsprisen (The Commu- While the associations behind AarhuSomali have their own activities, nity Award) which is country-wide and very prestigeous. AarhuSomali is working on the political level with visibility in the public In 2017 the former spokesman for AarhuSo- sphere and in the medias. We have raised several political debates con- mali, Abdirahman Iidle, was awarded as ”The cerning racism and other important topics for the Somali minority. social activist of the year 2016” in social hou- AarhuSomali regularly takes part in the public debate, about how Somali- sing areas in es are living and behaving, in order to fight prejudice. This has been done Aarhus. with press releases, frequently quoted in the medias, and on the website Abdirahman Iidle awarded by aarhusomali.dk. The AarhuSomali spokesmen have often been interview- The Mayor of Children and ed for television, radio and newspapers - Danish and international. Youth, Bünyamin Simsek