FEBRUARY FUNDRAISER 2019 – week ONE

February Fundraiser 2019 is well underway, and at the time of writing (first week of Feb) we’ve already raised an incredible £29,000! That’s a result of your creative challenges & events, so well done to everyone involved!

London

We recently caught up with Hibo-Misky (SYFI Exec, general badass and part-time playwright) to talk about City Somali Society’s The Great Play, where she had a huge part to play (quite literally!)

“The Great Play is all anyone can talk about… how did you happen to get involved with it?”

The Great Play was such an amazing opportunity for me. I was working closely with City SomSoc as their SYFI institutional representative and the idea sprung to mind in a meeting we had months back in November. We toyed with the idea of packing out The Great Hall, a 442 seat venue, the largest in the university. Riwaayads are traditional entertainment that go as far back as Somali history was recorded, as we have a culture to be oral storytellers. The committee were dedicated in pulling off an amazing production for February Fundraiser. I wrote the screenplay for the play in a fortnight after numerous meetings with the committee members. There were numerous topics we wanted to touch up and highlight in the play that link to some of the great work done by SYFI Outreach for example tackling knife crime and street culture as well as mental health in our community.

“What was your personal highlight of the night?”

I had so many personal highlights that night. Coming out from backstage to see the entire hall filled was so heartwarming. I was elated to see my fellow SYFI members and loads of friendly faces in the first couple of rows. The performances put on by some of the actors and actresses on the night were incredible. I had the opportunity to witness an incredible evolution of one particular actress who was too shy to even rehearse in front of us at the start; she made me so proud when she not only faced her fears of stage fright but also delivered an authentic and frankly humour-filled brilliant performance that brought the crowd to laughter. I’m proud of all of them Mashallah and seeing their excited faces before the show started backstage and at the end when they realised the feat of their accomplishment was extraordinarily hair raising.

Midlands

A fruitful first week of February Fundraiser for SYFI Midlands. SYFI’s first ever kick-off event in the Midlands event brought together the region’s Somali societies under one roof in Birmingham.

The event was brilliantly hosted by Hadi, SYFI Midland’s VP and our event officer Hamza. A representative of African Relief, locally known as ‘Adeer Yusuf’ came down to give insightful information about the charitable work the foundation carries out.

The audience members also took part in the much anticipated challenge- the labour simulator. Brave contenders, each hooked up to a labour simulator, were put on the spotlight for general knowledge rounds. The rules were simple – get the answer right and you’ll be exempt from the pain of virtual labour. Not shockingly, the audience were very entertained seeing the losers writhe in pain. The following day, Aston Somali Society kicked off the charity campaign with an intense football tournament which featured 15 teams who braved the chilly weather to participate for charity. University of Warwick Somali Society hosted an insightful and intense shaax and sheeko where a lot of different views were brought to the table on Monday. Elsewhere in the Midlands, UWE Somsoc held a lovely bake & crafts sale on campus which included homemade lip balms and cakes on Thursday. Customers were treated to tasty baked goods by iKrams Kreations. Also later during that day, University of Birmingham (UOB) SomSoc hosted a collaboration event, ‘Weakest Link’, with 4 other Midlands Somali Societies (University of Leicester, Coventry, University of Warwick and Aston University). Each SomSoc battled head to head to compete for a place as Somali Society’s Strongest Link, which ended up going to hosts UOB! Aston Somali Society ended the week on an entertaining note by hosting ‘Games night 2.0' which featured games such as ‘what’s in the box?’ and charades.

North

So what has SYFI North been up to this week?

The launch was kicked off by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Somali Society where they had a debate night exploring a range of topics important to Somali youth. The event was attended by a lot of students from the Northern universities and the president of the North Committee Musab Mohamed gave a speech on the importance of the February Fundraiser. On the 7th Feb, University of Sheffield had an amazing quiz night which lasted ten whole rounds with a mystery prize for the winner! The quiz night as you can imagine was very competitive but all for a good cause. Across the Atlantic at University of Toronto, they have started their fundraising on the 4th February with a very popular bake sale at their downtown campus. More events are planned for later in the month so stay tuned!!

(Highlights curated by Amin (SYFI Midlands), Ayan (SYFI North) & Sofiya (SYFI London)