Somia Ibrahim (Paddington Development Trust) UK

My family and I have lived in London since 1995. I have three children. I worked in Sudan as a social worker. When I came to the UK, I decided to put my skills to good use. I worked as a volunteer at the Sudanese Community Information Centre in North London. While I was there, I initiated the Sudanese Youth Project. My work background has given the opportunity to work with a wide range of organisations in different capacity. I have worked with a number of different minority ethnic groups, mainly with the Migrant Refugee and Community Forum. I was in the steering group that was created by the NHS called the Women Health Project, in which the MRCF created a film sharing the awareness of FGM throughout the community, which included Uganda, Congo, Eritrea and Sudan. We also helped women from different ethnic backgrounds to support them in accessing health services, raising their awareness about their health, health rights and organising health sessions. From 2000, I started off with Sure Star by attending a parent’s involvement group meeting, where I met other local parents and I was a member of the Sure Star management board.  In 2001, I was working as an advisor and interpreter for Arabic speakers in the British Refugee Council, assessing clients with language difficulties. At the end of the year, I was working at the Bayswater Families centre in Westminster as an advisor (support and general advice to clients). From 2001-2006, I worked as an IAG for the Notting Dale Technology Centre in North London, to raise the profile of NDT amongst users and providing information to ethnic and domestic back ground residents across Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster borough, especially unemployed women and young people supporting them to access the service available in the area, creating links with different agencies according to their needs and support the students to participate in training and assess their needs. Also, identifying their barriers and to break the social exclusion by integrating into society. We then moved to Bahrain, where I worked at Dilmon International School (2006-2008) as an ICT Teacher. From 2008 – 2010 I worked as a deputy head teacher in al Wisam International School. From 2010-present I have been working as a head of student service at Paddington Development Trust.  My role in PDT is to Provide advice and guidance to students about different courses our organisations offers, Recruiting students through different marketing approach as well as building partnership with external organisations, Building relationships with internal and external staff members and Managing and maintaining the company database and ensuring the data is accurate, Handling students’ issues with regards to their course or financial payments and Supporting students within their course whether they would like to progress into further education or getting into employment.
MSc in Refugee Studies, South Bank University