Omar Shekhey and Amina Osman

Shekhey and his small staff pick up where the resettlement agencies leave off, he says, helping refugees feel at home. "We are like soldiers. We go do whatever's needed. No time sheets, no nothing. Just go."
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Omar Shekhey is not the only Somali immigrant helping refugees in Clarkston. Amina Osman, known around town as "Mama Amina," can be found almost daily outside a local grocery store. She calls the spot her "office," and offers advice to the many refugees who come by.

"I love to do community, to listen and understand," says Osman, 64. "Many people are new in America and they are confused. They don't know English."
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Osman knows how difficult it can be for refugees. She came to the U.S. in 2009 after 17 years in Kenya and Burundi. She went there from Somalia after her entire family — including her 10 children — was killed during that country's civil war.

Osman was also shot, stabbed and left for dead, but says she was saved by a humanitarian worker who noticed she had a pulse when her body was brought to the morgue.

She says she helps others now, because she can't help her own family. "All my neighbors, they're like my children," she says. "I could live for my family, but today, I don't have them."