Amoud University Board of Elders Win 2005 Awdal Achievement Award.

From Left: Haji Dahir Elmi, Haji Ahmed Mizan and Haji Jama Muhumad.

The 2005 Awdal Achievement Award was won by the Amoud University Board of Elders. The award was announced at the 7th Amoud Foundation annual dinner in Irving, Texas on July 23rd 2005. Haji Jama Muhumed, Haji Dahir Elmi and Haji Ahmed Mizan were recognized both for their role in the overall success of Amoud University and for a lifetime of leadership in their community. While the University’s day-to-day operations are run by a cadre of intellectuals and educators, the board of elders provides general oversight. Since its founding in 1998, these traditional leaders guided Amoud University through some tough times. Steeped in the Somali tradition of consensus building, they kept various stakeholders together for the common goal of building a university everyone could be proud of. They are the anchor that binds this flagship institution to the community.

It took the team work of both traditional elders and intellectuals to guide Amoud University to its success. That confluence of tradition and modernity gave the university the ability to serve a dual purpose: provide a 21st century education to the younger generation while providing other community service programs such as conflict resolution and consensus building based on the best practices of our culture.

These three community leaders also represent the triumph of traditional peace building mechanism in our society over foreign-made reconciliation methods. They were among hundreds of community elders from all parts of Somaliland who participated in peace conferences in Borama, Hargeisa, Sheikh, and Burao in the early 1990’s that laid the foundation for the lasting peace and stability that prevails in that part of the Somali territories today. Amoud Foundation Board of Directors salutes these three community leaders for their selfless service to both Amoud University and the community at large

                                  Prof. Suleiman Ahmed Guled (right) accepts the award from
                                 Amoud Foundation Chair Mohamoud Farah Egal on
                                 behalf of the elders.

For more information about Amoud Foundation, please visit our website at www.amoudfoundation.com or contact us at amoud@amoudfoundation.com