English Articles

calgary herald—- When he arrived in Montreal three decades ago, the only job Hussein Warsame could get was as a bookkeeper, despite his newly minted MBA from an esteemed U.S. university. “They fired me after four days,” he says with a laugh. “They told me I was too slow.” That early setback only fuelled the ambitions of the Somali-born man …

By Mila Koumpilova StarTribune When Sahra Noor first visited People’s Center Health Services, she was a harried college freshman and the single mom of a toddler. She had arrived in the United States two years earlier after spending most of her teenage years in Kenyan refugee camps. She returned to the center last summer as the chief executive of what …

You might be surprised to figure out you are doing these five destructive things that will ultimately ruin your relationship with your spouse. When I got married, I was amazed at the instant, overwhelming sense of responsibility I felt to love and care for my husband. Suddenly, a huge part of someone else’s well-being and happiness was largely affected by …

Isn’t it amazing how we can tell when a true leader walks into a room? They command attention. They possess a certain aura that makes them stand out. They have influence and are wonderful communicators. Everyone loves them because of their charisma and their strong display of power. But it’s not only power that makes a leader great, because power …

In the years following the attacks of 11 September 2001, it is not surprising that Western security forces and authorities clamped down hard on the money transfer industry. Fearful that some remittances being sent to countries in eastern Africa, the Middle East and South Asia could be being used to fund terrorist activities, a number of smaller money transfer companies …

ARGEISA,  (Reuters)… Somalia’s breakaway enclave of Somaliland formally opened its first commercial bank on Sunday, as part of its effort to attract foreign lenders. President Ahmed Mohamed Silanyo officially inaugurated Dahabshil International Commercial Bank in Hargeisa, calling it a “vanguard for national development and progress”. Somaliland, in the northeast of Somalia, has not been recognised internationally. In 2012, it established …

In 2011, drought hit Somalia hard, triggering a famine that ultimately killed some 260,000 people. Now, after a poor rainy season, the Food and Agriculture Organization is warning that the country could be on the brink of another famine. To find out more about the current situation in East Africa, we spoke with Degan Ali, the Somali-American executive director of …

We tend to think of stress as an immediate problem: The boss hovering over our desks; the mad dash to the subway at the end of a long day. And in the short-term, stress makes us feel irritable, anxious, tense, distracted and forgetful. But that’s only part of the story. Over time, elevated levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, can …

After years of conflict, a group of Somali expats have returned home to set up the country’s first soft drinks company. Using a South African brand and locally grown fruit, the company has created its own soda flavours. Melanie Ralph reports   This soda company in Somalia is putting the fizz back into the countries’ troubled economy. Soda King is …

Saudi husband tells his bride he wants a divorce during their wedding after seeing her face for the first time when the photographer asked them to pose for pictures The wedding was taking place in the Western Saudi town of Medinah Neither bride nor groom had met face to face before the ceremony So when she lifted her veil to …

Get ready to see more of  Oprah this Oscar season! She produced and costars in Selma, a film  about Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1965 march for voting rights – and the movie (out 25 December) is winning big buzz after its first screening this week. But it wasn’t the easiest film to pull off – starting with casting one of …

Ismail Ahmed setup WorldRemit after becoming frustrated with the inadequacies of traditional players in the remittance industry. The Somali-born London School of Business MBA graduate routinely sent money home to his family, often at a high cost and with little flexibility. He went on to work at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to help tackle fraud and compliance issues …

“This training has given me confidence in myself and my skills to go out and make a living on my own,” says 22-year-old Hawa Osman. “The programme has given me access to skills and training that was previously unavailable to me,” she adds. Hawa and 27-year-old Farhiya Mohamed, participated in hospitality training courses offered by the Vocational Training Centre (VTC) …

The 3rd Annual Islamic Banking Summit Africa (IBSA Djibouti 2014), which opened today at the Djibouti Palace Kempinski, saw more than 200 leaders in the international Islamic banking and finance industry engage in detailed discussions that focused on ‘capturing the Africa opportunity in Islamic finance’. The two day event, held under the official support of the Central Bank of Djibouti, …

It was 2005 and then 21-year-old Hani Jacobson was visiting family in St. Cloud. The Somali-American’s stay was supposed to be temporary. But after filling in for her sister at her job at the Whitney Center, fate had other ideas. “My first impression was she was beautiful, hard-working and smart,” said her husband Nathan Jacobson. Nathan was volunteering at Whitney …