We met with Mohammed ahead of Refugee Festival Scotland 2021. Mohammed volunteers with the Yemeni-Scottish Foundation, who held an event during the festival to promote Yemen’s culture and heritage.
My name is Mohammed, I’m from Yemen. I’m 27 years old. I live in Glasgow just now. I’ve been living here for around a year and 5 months so I’ve not really been any place other than Glasgow.
I’m a breakdancer, a beatboxer, a kickboarder, so I love hiphop. Back home I was a major part of Da TnT Crew, which stands for Thrillers in Town. We participated in Arabs Got Talent in 2013 and that was a great experience for me and the rest of the crew members.
I reached the UK beginning of 2020. I tried reaching out to some crews and hiphop communities here, we were going to practice somewhere and I was excited for that but then lockdown happened and we couldn’t do it.
I gather information for Yemeni-Scottish Foundation. There are asylum seekers here who are in hotels so I am asking them what they need, what is it like living in a hotel, especially during Ramadan, last Ramadan was really hard for them so I’m finding out what they need for food, clothes and things like that.
I’m really ambitious. My passion is helping people, so I want to open an organisation and develop a vulnerable country – like Yemen – hopefully when things are better there and there is no war. I would like to open an organisation for youngsters so they can come there and learn some new skills and develop themselves. That’s what I want to do for the future. And, an orphanage. That’s going to be in Yemen, that’s what I want to do. Back home, I used to do entrepreneurship, I was good at it, so I hope in these coming years to build myself up so that I can actually help the people that I want to help.
I would tell people who are struggling, to be strong because this is what life is and it’s temporary. Everyone is struggling. I’ve been through a lot, especially in this year and a half. I felt like I was alone, no family, nobody, you know, when you’re far away from home it feels really bad but I’m just going to tell everyone that from my experience there’s a theme that came through. Just be strong. Look out for yourself. It’s all about self-growth. We have an opportunity here in Scotland, we can be something and do something with our lives.
There is just one more thing I need to say. I would love to tell everyone, every refugee, every asylum seeker, everyone struggling here, I would like to tell them we don’t have to stress over things we cannot control. Because this situation, we could never control it ourselves, we have to prioritise the things we can actually control.
Yemeni-Scottish Foundation is a group of young people living in Scotland who felt there is a need to represent Yemen’s culture and heritage and to be active individuals in the Scottish community.
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Image: Ben Wiens.
