A Conversation w/Iftin; CFO of Voices of Tomorrow

[00:00:25] Speaker A: Assalamu alaikum. And welcome back to In Minute Manor. This is Sophia. And today I am honored to sit down with a powerhouse in our community, Iftin Mohammed, the executive of Voices of Tomorrow. Through her leadership, Voices of Tomorrow has become a vital space for Somali families, especially children, to preserve our language, culture and identity while navigating life in the diaspora. Ifin is not only an entrepreneur and community organizer, but also a visionary who believes deeply in the power of heritage sustainability and and the next generation. In our conversation today, we'll explore her journey as a Somali woman entrepreneur, why holding on to our language is so essential for our children, what it takes to build a sustainable organization, and her dreams for the future of our community. Welcome, Iftin. [00:01:13] Speaker B: Good to be here. Thank you. That was a powerful introductory. Yeah, I hope I live to it. I'm excited to be here, excited to connect with you. It's been a while since you and I actually sat down and had a conversation, so I'm very excited and I'm excited to be in your space. Thank you for having me. [00:01:33] Speaker A: No problem. You want to get straight to it? [00:01:36] Speaker B: Let's get to it. [00:01:37] Speaker A: Okay. Can you share the story behind Voices of Tomorrow and what inspired you to start this organization? [00:01:44] Speaker B: So Voice of Tomorrow is now about 15 years old. Good God. When we conceptualized it, we were two teachers, me and Zum. Zum, who is my business partner, were teachers. We were working in classrooms and we saw that there was a disconnect from what we potentially in the U.S. call parent teacher interaction or parent interaction with the school. And what we realized was because they're our mentality back home is a teacher's a teacher and the teacher governs the school and the classrooms. And parents don't have nothing to do with it. Versus in the Western US Culture is parents are integrated into the classroom. They need to know everything that's happening in the classroom. They need to follow their child. They need to be the advocate for the child. So there was a huge disconnect between what we thought was teach versus what we came to the US So we just started as an advocate, just talking to parents, saying, hey, you know, you cannot be disconnected from your child. You really need to know what's happening. You really need to look at the curriculum. You need to look at what they're, what is being taught to your child. And of course, parents looked at us cross eyed. What the heck are we looking at? The curriculum? Isn't that the teacher's job? Right, but so that's how we conceptualized it. It was Again, just doing something that genuinely we saw as a problem. We're like, you cannot not be present for your child, and you need to be present for your child. So that's how we conceptualized it, and it just grew to its own beast. We didn't anticipate Voice of Tomorrow being the powerhouse at the center of our community learning and advocacy, but, hey, it was an accidental finding, and we love it. [00:03:53] Speaker A: Yes. So what about your, like, upbringing got you to even become a teacher? [00:03:59] Speaker B: So my biological mother was actually a teacher? Yes, and I always loved teaching. And it started young, you know, when we were in middle school just volunteering to be a tutor. Of course, my Somali parent, you have the three categories. You're either becoming a doctor, a nurse, or engineer, or the house disgrace. So I went to the field of nursing, and I tried it for three years, and when I realized I have a needle phobia, I was like, forget that. Let's try it. Just try teaching. So I started teaching at classrooms and tutoring, and I was like, okay, you know what? This is my passion. This is what I want. So that's how I got into it. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Why is holding onto the Somali language so vital for our children and future generations? [00:04:57] Speaker B: So language is powerful. People oftentimes underestimate the power of language. It's a different feeling when you walk into a space and you can understand what is being said. Right? You can understand the text, directional text, or written text. And information is processed and distributed through different languages. So what we realized was, as a Somali community, as an immigrant who. Immigrants who were new to this country, our children, was slowly, you know, losing the receptive and expressive language. And once you lose a language, you lose an entire heritage, entire identity. Well, oftentimes we say, you can create your own identity. Your history is part of you. And being disconnected from your history, being disconnected from your elders who could tell you fun stories, you know, riveting. What do you call it? Family information. Whether it's, like, history of what your parents used to do or your grandparents or your great grandparents. So language, what we realized is the root of the entire identity of the child is where it creates what we call a self. What is this called? Bicultural being. Right. And what we didn't want, what's happening in our current space, is that we have a lot of young teens that are disconnected from their world of Somali language. And because they're disconnected, they're easily susceptive to being programmed into doing things like they want to be outside more. Not to say there's nothing wrong with going outside. [00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:57] Speaker B: But they rather go hang out with their friends than talk to and hear about stories. And Somalis are known for oral story. We pass information through oral concept. [00:07:10] Speaker A: So, yeah, I feel like when you're growing up, like being first generation, like millennial, you take so much pride in not speaking your language and being different and like being Americanized. And then one day you get older and then you feel so embarrassed that you don't even know your own language. When you're a kid, it seems like it's never going to matter. And then you get older and then you don't even want to be around your own people because you're so embarrassed. [00:07:39] Speaker B: Right. And it's self shame, right? We guilt ourselves. And I have a brother of mine who will not even try. Like, I'm like, even if you sound stupid, if you feel like you sound stupid, try it. You know, Hoya matalo. Hoya mataano. Say what you gotta say, right? And say it like you mean it. And you know, it doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, but at least you're trying. And the more courage you have to try. [00:08:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:11] Speaker B: And the courage to be stupid or be looked at funny. [00:08:15] Speaker A: Right. [00:08:15] Speaker B: The better for you. We went to Somalia. I'm gonna divert and go to a story. So we went to Somalia and I took my little brother. And of course, you know, his Somali is not 100%, I would say about 65% is there. He can understand you completely when it comes to expressive language. It's, you know, he's there, but it's struggling, right? So he goes. And every time someone like talks to him, they were like, somali people are shameless. First of all, they will tell you exactly how things are, whether they hurt your feelings or not. Right. They don't believe in sugar coating things. And so they started attacking. They're like, why? So he felt so ashamed the first couple of weeks he was getting irritated, you know, he was like, how dare they tell me all of this? I can't believe it. Then finally I was like, you know, you need to be okay being ashamed, right? But do better talk to them. And the more you talk, the more, you know, you will feel more powerful when they start talking, whether it makes sense or not, just talk. And he came out. It was a. It was a three month, four month trip. And he came out loving the space, loving the people, their tenacity, their resilience, like gumption to wake up and, you know, conquer the day. So beautiful space. And language is important, you know, how. [00:09:51] Speaker A: Did you preserve it even though you came at such a young age? [00:09:54] Speaker B: Well, I'm with the generation where we call the Sewallahi group. So our generation, we have the receptive and we have the expressive, and you just have to talk. The more you talk, the more you preserve the language. Right? And the beautiful thing for us is our elders didn't talk to us in English versus now I am more like I became part of the problem where I'm talking to the kids in English, right? Because I'm like, I just gotta say what I gotta say, hear me say, right? But our generation, the elders, they didn't speak English. So that's all we heard. Right. And that's how you preserve it. Teaching, practicing, and ensuring that you committed to the cause. [00:10:43] Speaker A: Do you feel like Voices of Tamar is achieving its goal that you set up for it? [00:10:50] Speaker B: I think the first goal we wanted was to create awareness, the importance of language preservation. Like, yo, you really need to pause and talk to your child in Somali and not worry about English because your child will understand English because the mainstream is speaking in English. We accomplished that. We accomplished creating awareness. The more we talked about it, the more parents connected to it, the more the community connected to it, the more people start talking about dual language, both at the state level, federal level, as well as the city level, county level. And understanding that everybody, it was the village that came together, said, okay, we need to have more dual language practitioners. We need more dual language classrooms, right? It's not only Somali that's having issue is the Mandarin speaking children, the Spanish speaking children. So it's every, every immigrant that comes here that has a different language, that they need to preserve their language as much as they can. So systematically, Voice of Tomorrow created a space where we talk about this, right? And bring people who actually are the decision makers. And you see now in the elementary schools, they started doing dual language classrooms. We have our first Somali dual language classroom in the Highland school district. In colleges, they started giving courses in Somali so that people can receive the information. Just because you have hard time, you're a monolingual speaker, doesn't mean you can't be educated, right? We just need to pivot the way we look at education. So we created a space where everyone prioritized the individual's need rather than the systematic need, right? The institutional need. The institution always pushes out English, English curriculums, English practitioners. But now we're not all completely there, but in some places, local colleges and local schools, we have folks that reflect the community that's being served so if you have predominantly Spanish speaking community and you have children that are Spanish speaking children in the classroom, you should have someone who's a Spanish speaking teacher. Right. And if you don't, you're doing disservice to that cat. So having those tough conversations helped a lot. And I want to say we moved the needle a little bit, but we have a long way to go. [00:13:24] Speaker A: What would it take to get like Somali language taught the way Spanish is taught? [00:13:33] Speaker B: It takes a lot, right? I think one, I'll tell you because our program focuses on birth to 5 years of age. So prepping children for kindergarten. Once the child goes to kindergarten, they should know about 3,000 vocabulary words, right. They should be able to say three to four sentence word or more complex words like five word sentence. One of the things that we ran to at the earlier stage because we had to go and see is there a dual language curriculum. So Mali curriculum that currently exists that we could use at the early learning center stage. There wasn't. We went to Ohio. We know the Somalis are at. We went to Minnesota, we went to Ohio, we went to London, we went to had a gay sex. We went to Somali. Nobody was teaching at a young age. When you tell Somalia like a 4 year old should be going to school and learning, they will look at your cross eye. What is he gonna learn? [00:14:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:47] Speaker B: So what we saw that is in Somalia, because we went. When I went to Somalia and I was looking for curriculums and bringing books that I wanted to see what we could use and adapt for young children is the age of learning was starting at seven, six, seven years. Right. And their Somali, the curriculum that they had was so advanced even for a six, seven year old. So the curriculums that was being developed was that. So we had to go back and create our own. Like we had to use the curriculum that currently exists for preschool, adapt it to Somali. We were building the curriculum as we were running the program. Program. Because we were testing it out. Let's test out the alphabets. How receptive are the kids to the Alphabet? Teach them in Somali songs that you adapted like the Alphabet letters, but into also Mali letters. Right. And you know, teach the kids the days of the week in Somali and see adaptations. [00:15:55] Speaker A: I remember those songs. [00:15:56] Speaker B: Right. There was adults in that classroom that was learning along with the kids. Right. So we had to literally create our own curriculum and teach the kids from there on. What will it take? To answer your question, what it will take is really a robust system. Right. Right now the younger generation, I'm talking about My age, your age, who went to school, graduated as a teacher, or they have a teaching license, they technically don't have a credentialing or credential to teach Somali. Right. So it would be nice to have an accreditation process for teachers to go through and they become a dual language teachers. Right. And they actually teach the curriculum. Right now what we're working on is setting, creating a curriculum that could be used from preschool all the way to elementary school level to teach the baseline of children the sombal language so that they're able to retain it once you teach them the basics. We're talking about the basics. Days of the week, we're talking about numbers, we're talking about letters, we're talking about just five words. Ho, ano. You know, those things. When you teach the kid and you teach them how to use it, later on it becomes easy. Later on it becomes easy for them to transition from English to Somali. [00:17:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:28] Speaker B: So a systematic change is what's needed. Basically. [00:17:31] Speaker A: What was the significance of doing like. [00:17:35] Speaker B: That age group in order for you to preserve a child's identity? It starts at a young age. When you teach a child who they are at a young age, by the time they're five years, you cannot teach them nothing. They will tell you who they are. Right. Try it. Khalil is one of them. Try telling Khalil his name is not Khalil. [00:17:59] Speaker A: Right. [00:18:00] Speaker B: He'll be like, no, that's not my name. Yeah. He will tell you exactly that, what he is, how he is. And they're very vocal about it, right? [00:18:08] Speaker A: Yes. [00:18:09] Speaker B: And so that's why we started young age, just the foundation of the child, preserving the their identity, their dean, who they are as a culture, but then also instilling that in parents. When the parents start young, they're able to perpetuate that same cycle of teaching older age. So that's why we went young. Young. [00:18:36] Speaker A: I like that. Now let's get into the entrepreneurship side. [00:18:41] Speaker B: Yay. [00:18:42] Speaker A: What does? Well, first of all, right, when you were starting, you said you wanted to start so you could involve parents in kids education. And once you started Voice of Tomorrow, did you ever think it was going to turn like, as big as it is and be as sustainable? Because we don't see that a lot in the community, actually. [00:19:03] Speaker B: No, that's why till today, I'm like, I tell them, like, I don't know what we started, but this is a lot. This is a lot of work. 50 staff later and 200 subcontractors. Like, where are we going with this? [00:19:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:18] Speaker B: Where are we going? And it's a beautiful space to be in, to see what was once a dream, a vision come to fruition and have its own leg and arm. And it's moving. It's a moving beast. Granted, it was a lot of work. People often see the result, but they don't see the hours of labor and sleepless nights and the struggle and begging our families. Come on, you gotta volunteer, right? Free laborers. Yeah. We're standing on the backs of our families and our community who really pushed us to be in this space and believed in our vision. So, you know, it's a beautiful space. I didn't. We didn't till today. We were like, ah, about it. But we're thankful to be in this space. [00:20:14] Speaker A: What does Somali entrepreneurship mean to you and how do you see it being different from mainstream definitions of entrepreneurship? [00:20:24] Speaker B: Well, let me tell you something. Somalis. I love me some Somalis. We're a crazy community, but they, I love them. Somalis always believe that they got it right. They're so resilient. [00:20:41] Speaker A: You can't tell us nothing. [00:20:42] Speaker B: You can tell nothing. And anywhere and everywhere we go, right. We're creating businesses. Right. Take. What do you call it? Nairobi, Kenya. We went to Nairobi, Kenya, and I swear to God, 30 years later, the businesses that are thriving, multi millionaires that live there, that's a lot. Creating businesses for other, for the, for the country. [00:21:08] Speaker A: For the Kenyans. [00:21:09] Speaker B: Yes. Go to London. Oh my God. Go to Minnesota. Beautiful. Like, they are very business minded or individuals. They want to be their own boss sometimes, you know, it's a little bit of arrogance. You got to learn how to follow before you get late. Right. But hey, you can't tell us nothing. We want to lead, we want to be upfront, we want to try. And we're also. We're so not afraid. Yeah. I have a friend of mine who she, she wanted a business and she's like creating and designing and every year I'm like, okay, how are things going? I'm still working on the glitches. Five years later, how is it going? I'm still working on the glitches. And I'm like, what are you so afraid of? At some point you got to stop working and jump off the cliff and see where you land. I mean, you might, you might fail epically, but at least you know, you tried, Right? Somebody don't have that fear. We don't. We don't. We're literally building as we're trying to figure it out. Yeah. [00:22:11] Speaker A: And. [00:22:12] Speaker B: And that's the Beautiful, beautiful beauty about it. It's like it's a group of individuals that are self believing, like they believe in themselves, right? They believe that they can do it and nobody could tell them no. And they will find whatever loophole, right, that they need to cross in order for them to build the house. And it's a beautiful, but it's a reckless. I would say that some of us are reckless, yeah. But it's a beautiful characteristic to have the courage, the risk taking as well as the vision and aspiration. Somalius is different beings and I love them for it, especially in the entrepreneur. Now we got to do better, got to do better. They got their shit going. [00:23:01] Speaker A: I remember one time you said the first five years you were just building. It was last year I was talking to you. You said the first five years you were just building, you didn't really see anything. And then once you hit your 10 year mark, that's when you started seeing like progress. What made you keep going even when you don't see your envision? Like what made you not give up and say this is not working out? [00:23:24] Speaker B: Well, it was never an option. Like when there's an option to give up, you often, oftentimes people give up. Zimzum and I, it was never an option to give up. And it helped, I'll be honest, it helped to have a partner in crime, right? When I would be so low, Zimzum will be, will have her energy up, you know, like, come on, we gotta do this. She has ideas, you know, to cultivate. And then when she's low, I'm like, what the hell are you doing? Let's go. So it helped to balance both of us to propel this vision forward. But then also I think we were. Progress comes in small dosage, right? Oftentimes it's not monetary. The first year, the first two years, it's like, do people know each other, know us? Are they talking about us? [00:24:13] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:24:14] Speaker B: Whether it's good or bad, are they talking about us? Yeah, those were, those were our monetary values, our accomplishments that people know about what's up tomorrow, right? Are we, are we creating networks? Are we conversations? It has nothing, it had nothing to do with, you know, getting money, but it was more of are we doing work right in the community and as a teachers who are passionate about. We didn't go into this business trying to make money. First of all, as a non profit, you're just an employee, right? And the reckon we created this beautiful company with the idea that we need to do something about the problem that we're facing not to get paid. It was a beautiful. It was a good thing to have good, you know, salary. But we didn't go in there for the salary. We didn't go in there thinking about working, you know, have contracts with the state or city or whatnot. Right, right. We went in there. Are we doing good by the child? [00:25:26] Speaker A: Right? [00:25:26] Speaker B: Are we. Are we pushing the needles? Are we bringing people together? Are we advocating? Are people advocating for themselves? Because at the end of the day, we're not the only ones. We're just knocking on doors and opening the doors. But individuals of the community, the parents, the providers need to speak for themselves. Right? So that was what sustained us. Right. And, you know, after, you know, six years, that when we got our first, you know, contract to do a preschool program, that was the first, like, formal preschool program that we said, okay, now we have momentum. We can get staff going. We can push this vision forward, because now we have a team who could help us propel this. [00:26:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I wanted to kind of ask about you and Tsim Zim. [00:26:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:18] Speaker A: How did I know you guys work together, but how do you guys. What's the secret, basically? [00:26:25] Speaker B: To what? [00:26:26] Speaker A: Sustaining our relationship and also working together? Because sometimes you start something with your friend, and then the friendship might get messed up and it affects the business. So, like, I don't have a question written down. It's just something. [00:26:42] Speaker B: I can see where you're going with it. I think Zimzam and I, first of all, Zimzem has a good heart, right? And while I love her to death, we also fight a lot, her and I, at each other's throat, like, 50% of the time, because, you know, we're two different souls. You know, it was technically like a marriage. We're stuck together. We're gonna make this shit work. What is your problem? But then it also helped. Zim Zam and I were in the field together. We were friends way before the business. And she was always someone that would make me laugh. Like, oh, my God, I would be bawling out sometimes some stupid stuff we talk about. So we always had that energy where if someone I can go to that's not gonna judge me for who I am, that I can be by myself, she will correct me, because God knows she corrects me all the goddamn time, right? And I do the same for her. And there's no hard feeling, right? There's no malice in the relationship. So it helps to have that as a base. Now, when we got into business, it was A whole different beast, right? I. I'm very anal, meticulous. She's all like, you know, soft and kind, you know, I want to fire people. She wants to preserve people. Like, you know, we were always, you know, connecting. Connecting. But at the same time, at the end of the day, what set us separate is that we had ground rules. Here's our ground rule, right? We're family and friends outside of this business. When we are in this business, you are the executive overseeing this and I am executive overseeing that. It's two parts of the organization. And we're going to come together. When we're making decisions, we make the decisions together, right? If I cannot convince you why I want to do something, then we're not gonna do it, right? And we had the respect for each other to kind of have that boundary and sustain the boundaries. And we had many spaces. You know, Somalis, when you open a business, they think everybody in the family made it right, that they should get. The first people you need to watch out for is your own family, right? Is people come to you and say, you know, you know, and you want. So we have to create boundaries about everything. Boundaries about husbands, right? [00:29:10] Speaker A: When. [00:29:10] Speaker B: How they can interact in the business, how they cannot interact in the business. Boundaries for families who can hire them, who cannot hire them. Like Zimzum can never hire her own family. I can never hire my own family, but I can hire Zim, Zim's family and she can hire my family. And when I fire Zimzum's family, she never asks me what they did. And when she fires them, I never asked them, why you do that? And it was. We created those boundaries and we maintained those boundaries. And that's what helped us, right? Creating. And if things are not written, never going to happen if people cannot respect each other's boundaries. And look at the long term vision of the. The goal that you have is going to collapse on you, right? Oftentimes we see that people who do start as friendship, right? That they don't really have a good solid friendship. And friendship. And what we're talking about is trust, right? I'll tell you this, 16 years, not once does Zam Zam ever say, how much do I make every year? I'm like, hey, Zum, guess what we have? We got a raise. She goes, oh, that's good, right? And she never, she never questions. Things just arrive. And she trusts me to do my job, right? And not come after her and be malice or, you know, what is that word? Manipulative, right? And I Do the same. And oftentimes when people start businesses, they have one foot in and one foot out. Like they don't trust the person that they are friends with. And that comes through trials and errors. Right. You gotta trust the process, trust individuals, have authentic conversation, have some real tough conversations and boundaries, and then it's just sustainable. [00:30:59] Speaker A: What role does religion play in preserving his relationship and also business? [00:31:05] Speaker B: A lot. If you're not God fearing, you're not afraid of anything, right? I'll tell you a story. My son Idris, he was graduating from high school and I was like, hey, what do you want for graduation? Subhanallah. He said he wants Hajj. Yeah. And I feel like that was a way of Allah speaking through him to get me to go to Hajj. Because one, I was going through tough time where I was emotionally distressed. I just came out of divorce. I'm going through like work stress and all of that. And I just needed a breather. So this is six years into Voice of Tomorrow to see 2018. We go to Hajj. Yeah. And of course, when you go to Hajj and you're doing your tawaf and you're asking for forgiveness, you're also asking for, oh, Allah, give me. And that's halal. That's what I was asking. Like, allah, give me Rizq la swasa wahlal. I want to do right by you, so help me do right by you by guiding me and blessing me with all the things that are good in this world. So then we go to. We do our Hajj. We now we left Medina and then we're going. No, we left Makkah. We're going to Medina. Now when you get to Medina, you go to the Roda you've been to. So you know where the Roda is. And that time it was free. You can go anytime. Go to the Roda. [00:32:39] Speaker A: Pre Covid. [00:32:40] Speaker B: Yes, Pre Covid days. It was blessed days. So we go. I go and right around, like I go there right after Aisha. I stay there the entire night. I do my qiyamul. I'm just there at the Roda. At the Roda? Yes. [00:32:57] Speaker A: What? [00:32:58] Speaker B: Well, no, they kick you out, right? But there's like a space where you could sit and actually do. [00:33:04] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:33:05] Speaker B: And I would go like every time it would open, I would go do the rollout. So that was my thing. And every time, you know, I go there and be like, ya Rob, forgive me for my sins. But also, ya Rob, give me like a Rizq la swasa Alas, halal. So when I came out of the roga, I came back to the hotel and I get a call from Zimzum. She says, iftin, we got our first contract. I'm like, yeah, Rob, yeah. And that was our first contract we got with the. With the county. Now I have to go back and say thank you to Allah and ask some more because I was being greedy. So I go back and I'm like, ya, Rab, thank you for what you gave me and give me. All I ask is Rizq. That is. Yeah. So then I come back as well. Word to God, the second day she calls me, she was like, salamat, we got the second contract. Now we're sitting and I'm like, oh, yeah, mashaallah tawarakallah. So then I end up going to Chef Mustafa's lecture and said, Mustafa at that time was saying that, you know, you will be accounted for. It's like Allah was talking to me. You will be accounted for every penny that's given to you, and you will have to answer for that. So now I have to go back to the Roda. We're not about to do that, you know. You know, protect me from my own self. Because sometimes, oftentimes when we get money, we get so greedy that we forget ourselves, right? So I was like, ya, Allah, protecting me from myself and protect me from Shaitaan and make me the one that does right by the children, their staff, the community, right? [00:34:58] Speaker A: Yes. [00:34:59] Speaker B: So I came out of that Umrah, I called Zam Zam, and I was like, zam, we're going to hell. Like every dollar that we have. If I. If you said in your proposal that you're going to do X, Y and Z, you will do that X, Y and Z, right? And you will do right by the community, right by the child, and right by yourself staff, right? I rather. People like, like, I rather give people extra than they fraud me than me to like giving. Giving them a dollar sense less, right? So then we create a structure and system in place. We're like counting everything. If you said you're doing, you're doing 50 staff and 50 children. That's exactly what you're doing. Letter of the law. And we're not doing this because oftentimes, you know, Somali mentality is like, right, which is not true. Who gave you the audacity to steal from the Gaal, Right? You need to do right by them. So that's exactly what we do. It's like everything you do for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'. Ala. And the more you do that and it becomes a habit, it becomes a practice, the less you have to worry about and the more baraka that comes in your rizq and Alhamdulillah Al Shakur Allah. We see the. What do you call it? The seed. [00:36:27] Speaker A: I feel like that's one of the reasons why it's also growing and sustainable too. No. [00:36:32] Speaker B: Yes. [00:36:33] Speaker A: I love that story. I remember you told us last year before we went to Amura. [00:36:38] Speaker B: Yes. I hope you asked something good of Allah. Subhana wa ta'. Ala when you were there. [00:36:43] Speaker A: I got rushed. [00:36:44] Speaker B: You got rushed? Yes. [00:36:47] Speaker A: It was so. It happened so fast. Like the road experience. [00:36:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And they do that. They tend to do that. That's why you have to pause yourself, you know, and it's unfortunate, you know, but you gotta pause yourself. Yeah. [00:37:04] Speaker A: Looking five to ten years ahead, what's your vision for Voices of Tomorrow and the Tomorrow community at large? [00:37:10] Speaker B: 5 to 10 years. So we do have a 10 year goal and oftentimes that's one thing I didn't mention is you have to have a vision for the organization. Five years. Zinzim and I sit down and we're like, okay, where are we going? Where have we been? What we're trying to change, what is the solution? What is the problem? What is the solutions that we're trying to solve, hopefully. So now Voice of Tomorrow is sort of transitioning from direct services to more administrative work, which means we are creating spaces for East African communities to be able to do their own early learning program so that we can sort of do economic stability. Right. Ten years from now we have, we're dealing with some of the housing crisis that small entrepreneurs have. It's like family childcare providers who, who don't have their own home. Finding a solution for that. Creating more spaces for children to be housed in. Because center early learning centers are very like, you know, scarce now. Creating what do you call more robust curriculum, dealing with a lot of institutions. Because oftentimes they say if you're not sitting at the table, someone, you are on the table being eaten. Right. So what we hope to do is work more on policy and advocacy work and ensure that folks, we are creating bills and legislative policies that reflect us as a community. Right. And that the community itself understands their civic duty and they understand that, you know, you make changes through voting, but also engaging in policy work. [00:39:06] Speaker A: Right. [00:39:06] Speaker B: So hopefully 10 years from now, that's what we're doing, what we're going to be doing. [00:39:10] Speaker A: Can you tell US more about Zaif. [00:39:12] Speaker B: Ooh, my pet project, Zimzem and I pet project. So Zaif is a mental health therapeutic clinic, right? What we saw a lot of our kids, we often talk about generational trauma, trauma. Parents unknowingly passing trauma to their child and their child's development is hindered that way. So us Somalis, while we don't want to recognize it, we are very traumatized individuals, right? And we, we went through some horrific event. We lived in horrific space refugee camps. We suffered hunger, right? And we had never had the opportunity to pause and heal from our trauma and how it affected us, right? We had folks who were very wealthy who lost everything. We had folks who had large family, they lost their entire family massacred in front of them. And we never healed from it. We never dealt with it. When we came into this country, we had other problems we had to deal with. We had to deal with food, we had to deal with housing, we had to deal with learning. We had to deal with barriers. You know, now I want to say good. 25, 30 years later, living in the U.S. those of us who have the opportunity to develop, to create, what do you call it, we created a career for ourselves or we studied in the US we find ourselves dealing with anxiety. We deal with depression, drug abuse and all of that good stuff. And it stems from trauma, right? And so Zaif is a space where we are bringing practitioners, Somali, East African, Muslim practitioners, to support families and children that are suffering from mental health or behavioral health challenges. And we're very excited it's launching, we are creating, we're building a whole space in Tukwila dedicated for the therapeutic services. Come to the ruin cuttings sometime. I want to say February, I'll be there. Yes. And you know, if you ever need, the service is supposed to be free, right? So hopefully people could come in and not deal with the barrier of money and they still could get the services. [00:41:53] Speaker A: Did you see like the mental health crisis showing up within the schools and the parents and stuff? Or is this something you see outside of it? [00:42:01] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Let me tell you something coming out of the cope. So we always had issues with children who characteristic of behavioral challenges, right? And we had parents who were stressed out. We had parents who had children with autistic and they didn't know how to deal with it. So they, they started developing anxiety and would show up when they're dropping off their kids or when we do a home visit. And, you know, we didn't have the bandwidth to deal with that then. But it was something that we always created a resources for. Here's the resource. Go get some help. Go get some services. And parents always shy away from that because, you know, they feel like they should be perfect. There's nothing wrong with them. There's nothing wrong with their job. And so we didn't have, you know, the space to deal with that. Now here comes Covid. Covid, who, you know, just bulldozed. Bulldozed over us. [00:42:59] Speaker A: It did a number on people. [00:43:00] Speaker B: It did a number on people. Those people who are suffering from anxiety is now suffering from depression. There's kids who were having a small behavior challenges, are now having wide breadth of behavior challenges. We have, like, husbands who were financially crippled because there was no money. The divorce rate went high. Everybody was at each other's throat. It was just not it. Okay. [00:43:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:27] Speaker B: Now, coming off the COVID people didn't heal from that, but we saw more. I'm talking about we had to shut down classrooms because kids could not be handled right. And it was a statewide phenomenon. It wasn't only Somali community, it was the statewide phenomenon. [00:43:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:43] Speaker B: Like, we were talking to the school districts that were like, we had to shut down some schools classrooms because the behavior challenge and the separation anxiety from children was so skyrocketed. Yeah, yeah. So we started this project and, you know, just dealing with the kids, we're like, okay, let's help the kids out. So doing small dosage of therapeutic service in the classroom for children. Coming right after Covid. Right. So Covid, during COVID we were doing a lot of mental health therapy. When I looked at each other, we're like, first of all, we need therapy. [00:44:16] Speaker A: Yeah, Right. [00:44:17] Speaker B: And if we need our therapy, our staff needs there. Staff needs therapy. That means the parents need therapy, the parents need therapy, the child needs therapy. So we're going to get therapy. Please. So we took some. We did a little bit fundraiser. We had a small pocket of funding to get some, you know, therapeutic services for families, therapeutic services for our staff. And if our staff showed a sign of depression or anxiety, they were in that chair. Go talk to that person, please. You need to make sure you're healthy and, you know, don't shy away from, you know, mental health. It's okay for you to not be okay. Right. But we're here to help you. So we started doing a little bit of it during COVID because it was so dire. Right. Then we came off of COVID and we saw the children were like, okay, we cannot not do this. So part of our core values at Voice of Tomorrow is that the child can learn when they're healthy. If the child is not completely healthy, then they cannot learn. If the parent who's dealing with that child is not completely healthy, they cannot parent. Right. So what we. So that's how we started slow, but then it just grew to its own beast. And hopefully this would be a platform for families to engage and get more services to the community. To engage. [00:45:50] Speaker A: How do you navigate, like. Because we have, like, AP culture within Somali community. Right. So how do you navigate with, like, the shame of mental health? [00:46:00] Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, that's one of the. That's now, I think, more. Now more than ever, people are, you know, starting not doing, like, it's not app. You know, they hide it more. Right. But they recognize it's an issue. I think as a community, we did enough advocacy to create space where people can talk about it. But at the end of the day, I think people lie to themselves. Right. I saw there was this family that I went to visit, and the child was autistic. And, you know, when someone is autistic, their brain works different ways. You know, they don't like, you know, what do you call it? Wide breadth of spaces. They like heavy. Like, Kiddo, who is very autistic, likes to be weighted down because they have a spatial awareness issue and there's a light issue. Right. They're very sensitive to certain light or certain colors. So this kid. I don't know if I ever told you this, this kid started, you know, the house was not meant for him because the parents did not know he was autistic. So he started, you know, yelling started, you know, slap. Slapping himself to the wall because he wanted to feel something. The parent started calling the kid is possessed. So now they have Roqia. You know, nothing wrong with Ruqya. God knows we need it. So now there's like, uluma surrounding that. As I think at that time, the child was like 5 years old. And the ruqiyah is getting loud. And guess what? Autistic children don't like loud noise. Right. [00:47:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:47] Speaker B: So now, you know, when someone's possessed, they expect the person to talk, but the kid is talking. It's telling him to stop, stop, stop. The father's holding the child down. I mean, ignorance is bliss. So now we go. I go. Go into that house and we're. I accidentally. I don't know what I was doing that house, but I think it was. I was dropping off something. So I go there and I see the scenario and I'm like, now I'm thinking at that time. So I go, okay, maybe there's. And I observe. I'm like, maybe this is not right. [00:48:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:23] Speaker B: So I asked the mom, I was like, tell me what, like, what is wrong? Like, what, what signs did you see? And she started telling me all this. I said, did you ever consider that your child is just developmentally delayed? [00:48:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:34] Speaker B: Or he's autistic? And she was like, like, okay, let me teach you about autism. So I started talking to her about autistic tendencies and all this stuff. And I was like, well, the ROKI is not working apparently. Like, how many times did you do on this guy? He was like, I've been doing for him for the past, for the past two years. I was like, oh, well, well, is not working. Let's get weighted blanket. You know, get him a weighted vest. Dim the lights or change the lights to make sure it's like a softer yellow light, you know, protect him from noises or get him those noise canceling headphones and see what that does for you. And then of course, I'm not a practitioner who like, you know, specializes autism, but you know, as a teacher, you learn how to teach different children different ways. And that was just me coming in as a teacher. So I had to connect her to a practitioner. Like, this is the best person for you. Literally, I dragged my friend. I was like, no, you're gonna come and you're gonna go to this parent. I don't care how busy you are, you can teach her about autism. And we started teaching parents about autism, and parents started coming to the classroom. We used to teach it at High Point. That's how we started. At first it was teaching classes, and then all of a sudden, providers start showing up because they had kids that in their childcare and they were amazed about the developmental milestone of children, the different delays of children. So that just led to one another. Now people recognize developmental delays, right? [00:50:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:10] Speaker B: And they don't automatically assume the kids a possessed child. [00:50:13] Speaker A: Right. [00:50:14] Speaker B: So with. With that same mentality. I think as long as we create more awareness, create space for people to get help, I think mental health will also be in the same space next couple of years, I feel like. [00:50:30] Speaker A: So my people, they're also not like in denial. Like when they see something, they reach out to people. Whether it's like your mom telling your aunts or like your dad or something, you know, they always reach out to their ships, but no one just like acts like nothing is going on. And then I feel like that can be a good, like it can kind of lead you to getting answers from other people, you know, and then those. The right people can help you the proper way. [00:50:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, not even the ulamas. I was talking to the Shaykh Abdul Sakouni. I was like, yeah, we need to start doing khutbah on mental health, you know, and anytime that you guys get calls. Because the ulamas get calls about possession. [00:51:12] Speaker A: Right. [00:51:13] Speaker B: Anytime you get calls, can you do a checklist first? What is the signs and symptoms? But also our spiritual leaders needs to be taught the signs and symptoms of mental health so that when they're going into these homes and they do the raqiyas, nothing wrong with doing raqyas. God knows we need it. But they also have a checklist saying if the Quran is not helping, there is the mental kish. You can go to and help. [00:51:41] Speaker A: Yes. [00:51:42] Speaker B: That leads me to actually an event that's coming up. I don't think I told you about it. So Zeif is putting his first Somali mental health form where we're bringing both the ulumas and the practitioners. Right. And we're going to talk about mental health and how to perpetuate the same information as a community to dispel stereotypes. [00:52:06] Speaker A: I like that. I feel like that's really important because the mustis needs to be involved in things too. [00:52:11] Speaker B: Yes, yes. [00:52:13] Speaker A: Outside of, like Eid and Ramadan and. [00:52:15] Speaker B: Friday prayers in D.C. and, you know, each person has in the Alhamdulillah voices tomorrow. The work that we've been doing, the relationship that we've been cultivating, allows us to be able to convene conversations like this. And it takes really someone to say, okay, I need you guys to pause and come have a conversation about mental health. We need you to do a lecture about mental health, dispel the differences between spiritual healing and medicine, medicinal healing, and actually inform, educate. Because as a spiritual leader, there's a lot of misconception people have about mental health. And oftentimes the Somalis run to the spiritual healing first, which is a good thing. [00:53:06] Speaker A: Right. [00:53:07] Speaker B: But then once they go there and things are not what it seems, then they need to go also to the medicine as well. [00:53:16] Speaker A: Please don't stop. [00:53:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And both. Both ones are halal for them, and not one is haram for them. So bin the left, and we're gonna have this conversation. And yes, if I have anything to do about it, Sheikh Ahmed Noor and all of them, who is the leaders of this community will start having these conversations very soon. [00:53:37] Speaker A: Let me know, because I want to be there. [00:53:39] Speaker B: Yes, I think it's December 13th. Write it out. [00:53:42] Speaker A: December 13th. [00:53:43] Speaker B: December 13th. [00:53:45] Speaker A: I have an event that day. [00:53:46] Speaker B: Really? Oopsy daisy. Your events and my events are colliding. We'll talk about it. [00:53:51] Speaker A: We'll talk about it. [00:53:52] Speaker B: Yes. [00:53:52] Speaker A: Okay. This is kind of something I just want to throw away. I actually, like, went into therapy and stuff because of you. You know, a conversation we had. I remember back in. I'm not gonna tell the story, but back in 2020, when you said to me, you need to either find God or go to therapy. [00:54:13] Speaker B: Either. Or. [00:54:15] Speaker A: Either. Or. [00:54:16] Speaker B: Either or you better be saved. [00:54:18] Speaker A: And I was like, I'll try therapy, I guess. And I feel like. Because I did try it, and I'm, like, more stable now. Like, my mental health is more stable now. Now I am able to find God, you know? But I feel like when your mental health is not good, you don't even want to get near religion sometimes. So I feel like those two things go hand in hand. [00:54:40] Speaker B: They do. Because, you know, as we call. We talk about spiritual healing. Not spiritual healing, but we talk about ourselves, right? The self within us. The Roy needs spiritual connection. They need a higher power. Right. You cannot not work, move around this world and not know that there is a purpose, an intent for you to be in this. In this space, this now that you're in. Right. And oftentimes when we disconnected spiritually and we have what we call the meter, like your meter of spirituality depleted, you start exhibiting more out of balance. You're so out of balance, you feel it. Right? But the more you're connected to your creative, the more you're connected spiritually, the more your battery is there, and you can balance it both. So you can. You cannot do one without the other. And I'm glad you actually heeded my words. Yeah. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Yes, I. I learned that, too. It's like you can. You can read all the mental health books you want, you can do all the inner work you want, but if you don't have spirit like religion or spirituality, then it's nothing. You're just gonna keep hitting a roadblock. [00:55:56] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, why are you here? What is the purpose? You have a cycle. You see the cycle every day. People are born, people die. That's the cycle in between. What the hell are you supposed to be doing? Having a sense of purpose and having a higher belief also helps. May Allah guide you, protect you, and bless you. And. And those who are not, their spiritual batteries low. May Allah guide them to a better space. [00:56:26] Speaker A: What legacy do you hope to leave as a Somali woman? Entrepreneur and leader. [00:56:32] Speaker B: Oh, you know, I was reading this book called Seven. What's it called? Seven. Principle of Leadership or something to that nature, and asked me a question about, what do you want to be known for? I think I sent you guys those things. What do you want to. When you die and you leave this country, this world, what do you want to be known for? And it was profound. It was profound to see that when I leave, what I want to be known for is that Iftin was a compassionate person and she showed her compassion through different avenues. She was a nurturer and cultivated the people around her. Right. She was giving and gave without asking. Right. Whether it's time or monetary. And so the legacy that I want to leave behind really is perpetuating the lessons that I learned through time. Life was tough for me, right. At a younger age, I. If life was a person, it would be a bully, right? But as I grew, the lessons I learned, the resilience that I built is something that is so much needed, right? And if I could find someone or people and I just do a little bit of dent, whether it's my word, hit them the right way and kind of push them the right direction, or my actions and my vision and the way I govern myself is something that aspires them, that's what I want to leave behind. Right? And hopefully a legacy that can. Like Voice of Tomorrow. I told Zanzem, and I was like, voice of Tomorrow. Right now, we're the torch bearers. We are leaving behind a legacy. But hopefully once you and I retire, we can find someone else who can run this organization. Not to the ground, right. But propel it that 100 years from now is another Somali child, our generation that is propelling and pushing the Somali community, East Africa, the Muslims, forward in our agenda. [00:58:52] Speaker A: If you could leave our listeners with one message about language, identity and building strong communities, what would it be? [00:59:00] Speaker B: Ah, Number one is you are your own self. You don't allow other people to identify you. You identify yourself. If you want to be known for something, it's something that you decided to be known for. And I know that, you know, oftentimes as a Somali community, use words and labels that are not good for our kids, are not good for our soul. So if you find yourself being identified saying, hey, you are a bad child. You're not right. Your behavior might be bad, you might be doing something that's not right for you, but you are not a bad soul. So you identify that, all right? And find characteristics that you aspire for. If you Want to be known to be a giver, right? And you exude that characteristics until you perfect the art of giving without asking for things. If you want to aspire and become entrepreneur, then. And you want to be known for entrepreneur, be courageous and create something. And if you fail, it's okay to fail, right? You will. The lowest you will go is rock bottom. And once you hit that floor, the only way you can go up is up, right? So keep giving, keep going, keep trying. And until you take your last breath, you should never give up. Find a purpose. Find a reason why you're in this world. Everybody is here for a reason. Find your purpose. And when you find your purpose, you know, help others to find their purpose. And if you don't know your own purpose, then take the time to get to know yourself. Get to time to get to know who you are as individual. Travel. Oh, my God. We don't say this much, but you should be traveling. If you're not traveling, you're not learning. Oftentimes people think, oh, traveling, so expensive. No, it's not. You don't need to live in five star bougie hotels like Iftin, live in rundown apartments or whatnot. But travel, go out, go experience, Stay safe, of course, but experience the world outside of your circle. Lastly, I want to say this. This world is too short. And the people around you either are bringing you down or taking you up. So look at your friends, look at your family members. Create your pros and cons, really critique them. And if they are individuals that are bad for you, you need to cut them. Political. Right. So that you can have a healthy, balanced life. Yeah. At the end of the day, we're here to be happy, not miserable. Yeah. And that's hopefully the lessons I leave behind for you guys. [01:01:48] Speaker A: I remember a while ago, I don't know if it was at the gala or somewhere, you were saying your purpose in life, something is that you're a teacher. Like in everything that you do, you're a teacher. Do you remember that? [01:02:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:06] Speaker A: Can you repeat that again? [01:02:08] Speaker B: Like individual myself or. [01:02:10] Speaker A: Yes, individual everyone. You're why, yes. And you're like, I'm a teacher. [01:02:16] Speaker B: I'm a teacher. Yes. I think one is true for all of us, even for you, Sophie. Every day you wake up, you're either learning something or you're teaching something without even knowing it. Right. Is the way you carry yourself, the words that you use, the vision that you have, the way you act and everything is either someone's learning from you or you're learning it from somebody. Right. So in this, I see myself as a teacher because every day when I wake up, I'm like, okay, you're up again. God gave you another time, another day to live. Now let's try our best not to antagonize people, excluding Zenza. My mission in life for her is to annoy her, right? Yeah. But like, you know, do good by people and not harm folks, but then also exude the best person. The best version of myself is what people should get. Like, I don't think you ever encountered me being pissed. Maybe once. [01:03:21] Speaker A: I don't remember, to be honest. [01:03:23] Speaker B: Even when I'm pissed, I'm like, you. [01:03:25] Speaker A: Know, I'm gentle, you're still graceful. [01:03:27] Speaker B: And it took me time, it took me time to one, deal with my own emotions and learn how to articulate myself without biting people's head off. But he said, be the best version of yourself. And that is what teachers is. You walk in as a teacher and you are an example yourself. So either learning or you being, you're teaching. So you decide which one you are today. Yeah. And try to figure out who's learning from you. [01:03:54] Speaker A: Okay. And this last, last question. [01:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:57] Speaker A: I was looking at your website. [01:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:00] Speaker A: And it says, for your vision, voice of tomorrow's vision is to be strong, sustain, sustainable community that's successful in defining our own liberation and narratives. [01:04:11] Speaker B: Yes. [01:04:11] Speaker A: What do you mean by defining our own liberation and narrative? Damn. [01:04:16] Speaker B: I don't think this podcast is going to end anytime soon. [01:04:19] Speaker A: This is the last question. [01:04:20] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [01:04:21] Speaker A: Because that's kind of huge. [01:04:23] Speaker B: It is. Right. So oftentimes when we're creating organizations or we're creating a mission, a vision, we often get stuck with, you know, mediocre vision. Right. Our problem as a, as a community of immigrants, refugee, is that someone else is always telling our story. Yeah. Even if you look at the lens like the micro community that you have, which is your family, media family, and you look at it, someone's telling somebody's story. Right. You hear a story, you regurgitate that story. Now, it might be completely wrong facts that you have, but when you tell a story, you have tenacious tendencies. And you're like, I'm right. Right. So oftentimes immigrants, refugee communities, Muslims and Somali communities, someone else is telling our story. Right. Someone is telling us how we should be free. Right. I think I told you many times where a co worker came to me and said, you know, the rag that you're wearing, you head like, why do you're in America should not be wearing Rags in your head, you're liberated, right? To her, she was. She was giving me sound advice, like, as a Muslim, I should not be wearing a hijab, but I should, you know, having my hair out was liberated. Liberation communities that can identify who they are as individuals, what they want, can identify their own narrative, can tell their own story, and then also identify how they want, how they see themselves liberated. Right. And hopefully Somali community and immigrants and Fiji community, the East African community, are able to do that. So it's a big vision that we have, but it's a vision that's bigger than us. When we were creating the vision, we. We weren't creating Zimzum and I to be the ones that were accomplishing this goal. We saw 50, 60, 70, 100, 200 years from now, if Voice of Tomorrow is still standing, that vision is the same. We're telling our own story. We're defining our own liberation. And the torchbearers continue to perpetuate that. [01:06:51] Speaker A: Yes. I just. When I read that, I was like, ooh, what does that mean? [01:06:56] Speaker B: You know, your aunt is good with words. Huh? I know your aunt is good with words. [01:07:00] Speaker A: It made me question, like, defining our own liberation and narratives, like, are you free, Sophie? In my life, yeah. [01:07:11] Speaker B: And how do you define freedom for yourself? Right. And if I was to tell your story, like, I see a small part of you, I don't see the entire Sophie. [01:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah, Right. [01:07:25] Speaker B: And I see the Sophie that's always smiling, that's always, you know, laughing. I don't see the Sophie that cries, that's in pain, that's like it's struggling behind the doors. I don't see Sophie's aspirations. I don't see Sophie's. What do you call it? Struggles of working and balancing being a student, being a work, a working person. I don't see. Get to see that. So I can only tell, I want to say a good 5% of us who? Sophia's. [01:07:56] Speaker A: Lord have mercy. [01:07:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:59] Speaker A: That'S not good. [01:08:00] Speaker B: And that could be the same. It could be the truth for everybody. Right. Me and my son were having conversation, and they said the conversation was like, who knows? [01:08:10] Speaker A: Who knows? [01:08:11] Speaker B: You. Really? Yeah. We show ourselves in different spheres. Right. There's a sphere where you are interacting with your friends, and they only get to see a part of you. There's a sphere where you're interacting with your family, and they only get to see a part of you. And then that's the you behind the door. The doors that shut, the windows are closed. The actual truthful, honest Sophie is the one that is behind the door that nobody gets to see. Yeah. [01:08:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:44] Speaker B: And that's what we talk about. [01:08:47] Speaker A: I think this is not part of the podcast, but I think I like that for myself. [01:08:53] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. [01:08:55] Speaker A: I think there's a part of me that I only want me and God to know. [01:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:59] Speaker A: I don't think I want one human or any human to know all of me. [01:09:04] Speaker B: They shouldn't. [01:09:04] Speaker A: I think people should know different parts of me, and I'm so okay with that. [01:09:08] Speaker B: And there's nothing wrong with it. Right. Because you can never, never authentically. Like, there are certain things that only God needs to know. Right. Like there's things that I don't need to divulge or. No, but like, this is for God and God only. Like, when I am investing you, I'm asking for that forgiveness. Yeah. Lord. But it's true. Everybody's like that. Nobody gets too true. And you can't. It's not something you can make yourself like, even your own mom. There are certain things your mom don't know about you, even though she gave birth to you. [01:09:44] Speaker A: Right. And there's things I don't know about her. And that's okay. [01:09:46] Speaker B: That's okay. [01:09:47] Speaker A: Well, I just want to say thank you for doing this interview with me. I think this is one of my favorite interviews. Not because of the topic, but I just enjoy talking to you in general, you know, And I feel like you made it easy as well, because you're so passionate about the topic and you're doing the work in real time, you know, and you've been doing it, like, the past 15 years. And I'm happy I was able to witness that. When you were doing, like, workshops, like, back in 2013, 2014, I didn't know what was going on, but you were there working. Everybody was there. [01:10:28] Speaker B: You were the free labor. [01:10:31] Speaker A: I just like. Like when I'm going down MLK and I see the voices of tomorrow building, and I'm in New Hawley, and I see the voices of tomorrow buses, and even though, like, we don't see you a lot as much, I remember last year you said, there's going to be moments where you're building and you're not going to see none of your family. And then back the end of day, you can also come together and talk about what happened and stuff like that. So I'm happy that God placed you in my life and I get to learn from you. And I'm one of your students, too. [01:11:05] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. Thank you so very much. I love Being in this space with you. And I always love talking to you, Sophie. It's like nothing but words for you. I love what you're doing. I love that you're following your passion, and I love that you're not stopping for nobody. Right? You are your worst enemy and your best friend. So continue doing the best that you can and don't stop. Yeah, have a vision. And I love that you're always one of those individuals where you were like, I want to do something. Well, then go do it, damn it. Why are you telling me about it? And the fact that you have. You have a vision for yourself and you do it right, whether it's hair, whether it's cosmetics or a podcast, and you. You're doing it. Thank you for doing that, you know, and thank you for having me in the space. I look forward to coming back, you know, whenever you can get me. Right? I was like, oh, you gotta go and do the. Sophie, she's not gonna see you. No, I was thinking. I was looking at it. My calendar in December says, oh, you're only here for two weeks. After that, you leave again. So I was like, she's never gonna see me. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna have to stay committed. And it helps also to have my husband. I told him that I was doing a podcast, and he says, oh, you're going to Sophia. He says, you gotta go. You gotta. You're not gonna stop. Go take care of that. Thank you. [01:12:33] Speaker A: I want to tell, like, one more story. Last August, I came to your house and I was talking to you, and it was after I didn't go to school. I told this in my first episode, but now that you're here, I'm gonna bring it up again. I was trying to go back to school for my social for social work degree, but I didn't get in. I got invited to get a scholarship. And then I was talking to you about it, and you were like, you don't need school to be successful, you know, and you're just like, what happened to your passion for the arts? And then I said. And then I said, oh, no one cares about the arts. And then you're like, who said? Like, who said that? You know, if there's. There's obviously a demand for it, because no one's not like, no one's doing it. So go back home and create your 10 year vision and for your podcast and stuff like that. And then last August, that's when I applied for this grant, and then I created a vision board. It had, like, a microphone and everything. And then in November was when I found out that I got the grant. So I'm happy that, like, a year later it's actually happening. And I'm happy you put that idea, you planted that seed in my head that people do care about the arts. And this whole year showed that to me. [01:13:51] Speaker B: Like, oftentimes, like, they had a beautiful event, I wasn't able to to show up. Everybody else I invited showed up. But you had a vision. You were stressed about it. There was a moment you were like, oh, shit, I don't think nobody's gonna show up. I'm sure, right there was that fear. But Mashaallah tawarakallah people showed up. They came out, they showed out, right? And oftentimes I say you are your worst enemy. Because oftentimes when we have a vision, we are the ones who talk ourselves out of it first. We allow other people to talk. Like, you will have a lot of naysayers in your life and yea, sayers in your life, and you are your first naysayer. So I am so happy, first of all, that I impacted you at that level. And I'm grateful to be in a space of, you know, where I can be model for you. And as I live you, I get to see your journey progress. But don't stop, you know, don't pause. Keep going. Even if nobody's listening to this podcast, if I am the only one who clicks my own portal five times, right, do not stop. Because when you stop and you take a break is when you lose your rhythm, your momentum, right? And you don't want to lose that. You don't want to lose the momentum. You don't want to lose the rhythm of your own aspiration. Keep going. Okay. [01:15:23] Speaker A: Okay. [01:15:23] Speaker B: I love that. [01:15:25] Speaker A: Thank you so much to our guest, Ifin for sharing her story, her vision, and her wisdom with us today. This conversation reminded us how vital it is to hold on to our language, invest in our children, and build organizations that serve our people for generations to come. If you'd like, if you'd like to learn more about voices tomorrow or find ways to support their work, be sure to check the links in our show notes. And thank you again for listening to M and Amana. [01:15:51] Speaker B: And thank you for having me in this space. [01:15:53] Speaker A: No problem. Thanks for coming. [01:15:56] Speaker B: Holding. Holding on to longing. Holding on to nostalgia. Holding on to home holding on to grief. Holding on to the memories holding on. Holding. Holding on for your life holding on to root. Holding on the culture holding your breath. Holding on to faith. Holding on to God. Holding. Holding for the future. Holding. Holding on to the old Uma. One story at a time.