Somali singer, composer, poet, and songwriter, Saado Ali Warsame, to receive Lifetime Achievement Award for her 35 year musical career and Somali social activism!
Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony will be in Toronto, Canada on Saturday, June 04, 2011 to create awareness for World Refugee Day on June 20th, 2011.
Los Angeles, May 20, 2011 - Thirty-five years ago, Saado Ali Warsame joined Waberi, Somalia’s foremost music group, that existed before the collapse of the central government of Somalia and today she is still one of the best and most admired of her ensemble. On Saturday, June 4th, 2011, The Somali Refugee Awareness Project will present a Lifetime Achievement Award in music and Somali social activism to Saado Ali Warsame. The ceremony will be a fundraising dinner in Toronto to help The Somali Refugee Awareness Project to advocate and educate the mainstream media about the current Somali refugee crisis in Africa.
Saado Ali will be traveling with the Somali Refugee Awareness Project to Kenya this summer for a video documentary project. June 20th is World Refugee Day and Somali Refugee Awareness Project is asking all Somalis to join together in humanity for Somalis in refugee camps around the world.
As someone whose heart belongs to the well being of all Somali people, Saado Ali displays courage and bravery to speak up for Somali social issues. Saado became a household icon in 1975 when she appeared on the stage dressed modestly and astonishingly beautiful with a romantic song called Cunnaabi (amber), a song that up to now, is evocatively listened to by millions of Somalis.
Saado’s popularity is not only due to her magnificent voice, but her pro-unity stand for a united Somalia. Unlike many of her counterparts, and without hidden agenda, she objectively opposed the practices of Somalia’s last totalitarian regime in 1980’s and for this she had been jailed twice by the then NSS, a
notorious secret service organ that existed in Somalia. In 2010, she prevented a possible tribal cleansing in Northern Somalia. Although she is thousand of miles away from her home country of Somalia, the power of the Internet has helped her to reach millions of Somalis on YouTube and social network sites. “I am grateful to use my voice to help the less fortunate and thank you all for this award!” Saado says. She is passionate artist who is driven to make a difference.
“There is a crisis in the world right now for Somali Refugees, we need to help displaced Somalis find a safe haven or help fix our country,” she says.
Somali Refugee Awareness Project: An advocacy group designed to bring mainstream media attention and action on the current Somali refugee crisis in Africa. According to UNHCR, Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world. An estimated 1.4 million Somalis are displaced within the country while another 680,000 live as refugees in the neighboring countries. Some refugees have been in the same camps for 20 years and live in the worst overcrowding conditions.