“If you can’t help someone, then don’t hurt [hinder] them,” says Ahmed Abdi, lead bilingual communication support specialist (BCSS) at St. Cloud Area School District 742. It is a motto that Abdi has lived by, a philosophy instilled in him by his father.
Abdi was born in Somalia but grew up in Kenya due to civil war. Feeling passionate about education, he became a science teacher and then a supervisor for the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) a division of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (The UN Refugee Agency) working to stop FGM (female genital mutilation) in the rural areas of Kenya. By 2007, Abdi, continuing his work in education, followed his parents to the United States.
However, he had no idea the impact that he’d had on a young intern working in Kenya.
In 2002, Abdi met a young intern from the United States, Tori Hogan, who worked for Save the Children. Their conversation on the conditions in refugee camps and how aid was distributed to the camps inspired Hogan to write the book “Beyond Good Intentions, A Journey into the Realities of International Aid” It also became a film series. Hogan describes the experience as life-changing.
“I didn’t know I impacted her life,” says Abdi. “I went to the United States, and she came back to Kenya [to look for me] and was told that I was in the U.S.”
Hogan, determined to track Abdi down, came back to the U.S. and found him through Facebook. The two reconnected.
“She wanted to see me in person to tell me about the book and say, ‘thank you for changing my life,'” he smiles.
The pair did a book exhibition during the launch in 2012 and continue to stay in touch.
Within that same year, Abdi began working for District 742 as a special education paraprofessional. Staying true to his life motto of always helping people, Abdi, now a BCSS in the equity services department, coordinates all the translation requests for the District. Him being fluent in four languages is an asset to the District.
“There are no limitations to my job,” says Abdi. “Every day is different.”
He starts each day by checking in with every school in the District to ensure their needs for translations are met for that day. If there is a shortage, he fills in himself. Abdi loves his job.
He is now married with five children, three who attend Talahi Community School within District 742. In his free time, he loves to spend time with them, his wife and mother. Traveling is also a passion. He’s been to nearly all 50 states and is planning his next trip to Canada. He hopes to visit family in Norway within the next couple of years.
Education is such an important part of his life that Abdi is working to obtain his teaching license here in Minnesota to carry on what he started back in Kenya: to help everyone that he possibly can.
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