Hiiraan Online

New CASA cultural outreach director hopes to raise awareness, volunteers in the community

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Noor started in her new role on Oct. 1.

“(Children) need help, there’s lots of abuse,” she said. “We need to help them all have the love and care that they need.” She has been a Lexington resident for about five years and came to the United States as a refugee from a camp in Kenya.

As the cultural outreach coordinator, Noor is tasked with building awareness about CASA in the community. CASA stands for court appointed special advocates. Volunteers with CASA represent abused and neglected children in the justice system. Her main focus is to recruit new volunteers from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Noor is uniquely qualified as a recruiter due to her fluency in three languages: English, Swahili, and Somali.

Growing up in a different country, seeing children suffer in Africa, and being exposed to different languages and cultures (she has also learned some French that has faded away) has given Noor empathy for other people.

“I’m a person, I can feel how they feel. I feel mercy,” she said.

Linda Shaw, program director for Dawson/Gosper County CASA, said the reason the new position was opened was to find someone to reach out and educate members of the local Somali population about CASA’s work with abused or neglected children.

Shaw said she was happy to work with Noor, whose passion for her job made her “anxious to go out and educate people.”

Noor said she was happy and proud to work with the Dawson County CASA and to try to make a difference in the lives of children.

One of her big goals is to recruit volunteers from the Somali population.

“I want to tell my community what CASA is, how they can join and help children,” she said. “I want to tell them, you can be a hero to a child, those that have been abused and neglected.”