The rise and boom of Eastleigh!

(VOA reporter and Eastleighwood director, Burhan Iman from left to right)

Eastleighwood Youth Forum is a youth led and media based NGO which first started as a movement in the year 2011 when the Somali community in Kenya came under malicious attack in both the media and publicly as a result of the suspicion that they were behind the terror incidents that were happening then in the country which came with the deployment of Kenya's forces to Somalia to fight an emerging terror outfit, Al Shabab that was being seen as a threat to Kenya's sovereignty and security.

Hostility came with these incidents where residents of Eastleigh started fighting on religious grounds as the non Muslim and Muslim youth engaged each other in running stone battle. Neighbours became enemies and there was no trust and love between residents like before. Public transport operators in the estate were torn between the two fighting sections as passengers forced fellow passengers of Somali ethnic out of buses on the grounds that they may be attacked.

A likeminded youth from the neighbourhood who were disturbed by this new happenings that were threatening the cohesion of their community came together to discuss what they can do to restore love and trust in the community. Burhan Iman and friends came with the idea of creating a movement all over the world to speak for the Muslims and show the world that terror has no religion and tribe. This movement later metamorphed into a something big where youth came together to discuss what was affecting them and their role in the society.

From the discussions of the youth, we came to learn that the main drivers of youth to crime were unemployment and poverty. This is where Eastleighwood Youth Forum was registered as an NGO so as to equip youth with skills that they can use to create employment and earn a lawful income without harming people and risking their lives and that of others.

Eastleighwood has a membership of over 6,000 youth and three offices in Nairobi, Mogadishu and Minnesota in the US. Youth are trained to develop their talents and commercialise them. We have an equipped film studio where youth make films and record music. Others are trained on painting, computer packages, video production, photography and fashion and design.

We have hundreds of youth who are today earning a living and are respected members of the society courtesy of Eastleighwood Youth Forum. Terror attacks and ethnic and religious conflicts are things of the past in Eastleigh and are not heard of for the last 3 years.

By Abdihakim Bare Hassan,

Communication and public relation officer,

Eastleighwood