AFRICAN PATHWAYS SOCCER VOLUNTEER BACKGROUND
Profile - Abdikadir Osman Hassan
Abdikadir has a long history of volunteerism and active community support beginning from the age of 13, and has shown his strong commitment and initiative for supporting and advocating for others even in times of personal adversity and challenges.
It was 1991 and 13 year old Abdikadir, was in the middle of completing his 10th grade, when he was forced to escape with his family from his home country, Somalia, to flee the devastation of the civil war. After arriving at a refugee camp between the border of Kenya and Somalia, Abdikadir, with his good English skills and motivation to help others, soon began volunteering and assisting those in need in whatever way he could: teaching English, acting as a translator utilising his Somali, English, Swahili and basic French language skills and assisting the international well respected medical organisation, Medicins Sans Frontieres as a community health worker. He spent two years actively supporting agencies and families in the refugee camp first as a volunteer and then as an employee. He also worked closely with the African Medical Research Education Foundation.
In 1993, Abdikadir with his sister, migrated to the U.S.A, where he was able to complete his secondary school, and qualify for his Bachelor of Education where he then taught Yr 10 Maths and Science at the local secondary school in Minnesota. Never content to rest on his laurels, he kept himself busy combining his teaching work with volunteer opportunities in his local community. Since arriving in Australia in 2006, Abdikadir has again looked to opportunities where he can combine his passion and love for teaching, soccer, community and youth work through joining the African Pathways Soccer Program as a volunteer. Nothing has swayed Abdikadir’s weekly commitment to the soccer program - his wife recently gave birth to his first daughter only 2 weeks ago, and despite juggling family commitments and adjusting to settling in his new home country, he still finds time and energy to give 100% to our program! Thanks Abdikadir!
Volunteer Profile – African Pathways Soccer Program
Name:
Abdikadir Osman Hassan
What sort of work do you do as a volunteer with African Pathways?
Match Supervisor for the African Pathways soccer program for Grade 2-6’s.
What motivates you to volunteer?
I have the passion and love for helping others. I always like to give back to the community.
What is the best thing about volunteering with the African Pathways program?
How wonderful the volunteers, staff and children are. It just motivates me to want to spend more time with the program and everyone in it!
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Reading, writing, spending time with my family, soccer, walk in parks, travelling.
What soccer team to you support?
A tough question! I’m a big fan of the English Premier League team, Arsenal.
If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
Peace. To make everywhere peaceful so that everyone can live happily. Also, I’ve always wanted to be part of a team that can abolish malaria in Africa.
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