A common goal

Mohammud Ahmed first tasted absolute freedom when he found himself in Chuka town on the eastern slopes of Mount Kenya. The government placed him at Chuka University to pursue a degree in Economics and Statistics. He was a young man born inhaling the breeze from the Indian Ocean in Mombasa and raised in the metropolitan capital Nairobi. Never in his life had he gone to a boarding school. In actual fact, never had he been away from his parents’ surveillance. Yet here he was, thrown into the wilderness of higher learning to fend for himself and coerced to acquire responsibility by living independently. With over six thousand students in the university, Mohammud was part of a minority of Somali’s whose numbers did not even accumulate to ten. Some of the communities he met were alien to him. Nonetheless, he developed a deep affinity with almost everyone he mingled with. This ease of interaction is not by chance. As an upcoming youth, Mohammud was part of the juniors team at the JMJ Soccer Academy. “Football has been a huge part of my life. My nature and how I deal with situations has largely been shaped by football,” he emphasized. Being a part of a team sport, football instilled the value of teamwork in Mohammud. He understood how to cooperate and coordinate with others in order to reach a common productive goal. After graduating in 2015, Mohammud interned in the Parts and Procurement Department at 748 Air Services. This required him to have an open mind and the will to learn. Three months later, he was appointed to the position of Parts Assistant. Surrounded by a team of four, Mohammud cannot resist using a football analogy. “It’s like when the opposition team takes a corner kick. Everyone, whether a defender or a striker, must clear the ball away. That’s how I see my job. When one person lags behind, we first clear away the situation and sprint to achieve the overall goal. Blame games can start once the job is done,” he emphasized.