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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Somali Crisis Touches MN

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Tuesday, August 2, 2011   

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL - The Twin Cities are home to the largest Somali expatriate community in the United States and, as the famine deepens in the Horn of Africa, they are mobilizing to help. Oxfam says severe drought and the world's worst food crisis has put 12 million people in desperate need of assistance.

Semhar Araia, the Horn of Africa regional policy advisor for Oxfam America and a Minneapolis native, says the Somali community is now established in the Twin Cities and in a position to help, for a couple of reasons.

"That's their integration and involvement in the Twin Cities, so as a Minnesotan I've watched how the Twin Cities has changed and grown."

Araia says the Somali community in the Twin Cities has started to organize community meetings and other outreach activities to draw attention to the growing human tragedy in Somalia.

She says Oxfam is now responding to the crisis by providing life-saving water, sanitation services and food, but that takes a lot of money.

"I think that the best thing that people can do is to actually donate money and support the good work of organizations on the ground that are providing life-saving assistance."

The United Nations estimates that a billion dollars is needed to stave off a major humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia.

Araia says the best way for people to help is to donate to recognized agencies that can get aid to those suffering. More information can be found at www.oxfamamerica.org



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