Listen below to the story of Samafal Families Association, told by Kaltun Abdillahi, Founder of the organisation, which is currently based at the Ark, a converted building in Enfield that was set up to specifically host local charities that were doing vital work in the community.
Samafal Families Association (www.samafal.org.uk) is a vital resource for BAME communities, specifically for women with multiple barriers and their families. With a focus on fostering integration, Samafal offers a range of services from advice and employment support to adult education. Through collaborations with local authorities, job centers, housing associations, colleges and voluntary sector organisations, Samafal creates pathways to employment and training.
Kaltun Abdillahi is a force of nature, one of these people that gives you hope that things will improve in the world. She tells her story of how she grew up in North Somalia, became a nurse at the age of 13, moved to the UK during the Somali Civil War and worked toward a PhD at London Queen Mary University researching the use of antidepressants to treat skin cancer. Asked why she set up Samafal, Kaltun described:
‘The life I had and the life I see for these women who are in UK is totally different.’ ‘I came here as a refugee and I wish somebody helped me and put me on the right path. I had to find every angle that I did, by myself. So if I have got this experience, I don't see why I wouldn't give it back to somebody and say, well, this is the right Road for you.’
Her dad had always encouraged her education and early on she learned English and recognised it was a key barrier that migrants face in accessing basic rights, especially women who are unable to read a letter in English.
‘It's a basic right how to understand a bill, how to communicate. So my idea was, you need to learn English first, so that was the original idea. But also, I was an advocate for them, so I would read a letter, speak to the schools, immigration, etc. We still do that now: For every staff that I hired, I always used to say you must give at least two hours of your time to advocate for a family or two. So each week, we end up having a pool of about 20 hours.’
In 2004, she got her first contract with Enfield to deliver English language courses. It was a turning point for the organisation. Since then, she has ‘never looked back.’
The Ark Centre (Marsh House, London, N9 0UR)
In 2007, Samafal moved into The Ark, a former vacant shoe factory which was converted into a community facility. Enfield Council was awarded funding through a European fund to enable a space for voluntary sector organisations in the borough that were delivering children’s services. Of the original groups involved in the Ark from its inception 3 remain in the building: Samafal, ECYPS and Central African Youth in Enfield.
The conversion of the former shoe factory was built to the specifications of the organisations and includes a soft play room, training rooms, offices with the aim to create ‘a place that is family orientated.’ Although the spaces and designs required by the different organisations were similar, there was often a lack of recognition of the variety of organisations based at the Ark as ECYPS was the lead organisation and external bodies often assumed that all the other charities were simply part of ECYPS as opposed to organisations within their own right, with their own objectives, funding streams, challenges and requirements. However, there is no denying that having a dedicated space where similar organisations came together made a massive difference.
‘To have a space, that is specifically built for you. It was a huge success for us and we just flew once we got the building and became what we are now.’
‘I think the Ark was a very good idea from the local authorities’ point of view, to bring together all the organisations that are working with children’s services from the voluntary sector side.
It gave us a home where we can see ourselves and the communities that we serve also can see themselves as a Community. They could come in and go whenever they liked. There was always somebody available to interpret. There was always somebody who can be a signposted to. From an organisational point of view, we were settled where we could deliver our courses, where we could support the Community, where we could build the Community. So it was a home.
Particularly for a small organisation that we were at the time for some of us, for example, started off with just two people, but then we grew to four people, then we grew to nine people because of the space and the opportunities that the home has offered us.’
Today
At the time the Ark was set up, it was never set up as an entity, to this day there isn’t a consolidated website or public report that depicts what is happening in the Ark as a whole. No long-term plan has been agreed upon and the future of organisations at the Ark is now uncertain. Kaltun remains hopeful that a solution can be found, building trust with individual council officers is key to unlocking potential opportunities as well as being able to communicate the social impact that Samafal and the Ark as a whole have for the wider community:
‘Now I think there's always hope. What I've learned now is that you have to speak the same language as someone that you want to be working in partnership with. You have to be able to recognise that you have power and you have something to give as well as something to gain.'