small business access to loan financial literacy home outreach and obviously branding little africa to you are going to hear why little africa how can economy power and capital could be visible and get recognized we are the positive engine for the economy and we need to participate in the civic society take a lesson from you know the past elections how we can make a change and also and minnesota this i said i reflected in one point four billion dollars purchasing power of african immigrant in minnesota beginning with the africa show which is a really a flavor of when we say out of the culture that so you see the flavor of african flavor so we started with that tea and you see there africa later africa and all what we profit five zero one three c organization that helps in aiding individuals that need help regardless of if they're ethiopian our ninety three zero pm one of our main goals is to assist anybody that needs help and that comes to us if we are unable to assist them then we will send them to another organization that can provide help for them also oregon is ation is something that runs completely on donations as well as fundraising events that we have done and we're trying to do our best in educating people that are immigrate here to the u s not only on how to integrate within the american community but as well as having others understand where you know immigrants come from and seeing things from their point of view  being said different areas that we've helped out a lot with the adoption community currently that adopt several ethiopian children on sundays we have dance and language classes for a lot of those families to help the children that have come from ethiopia to make sure they maintain their language as well as different cultural events and of working close with the adoption group in addition to that we holding different events to more or less bring the community together from all aspects with respect to having the new years of man which we've had now for the second year at the fort snelling state park in st paul and usually get of attendance of about five hundred people there which is wonderful and we're glad to have ethiopian synonymy up instead of ten as well as having the battle of god was a celebration and as well as participating in st paul's festival of nations so with that being said our office is located in the west seventh street community center and we welcome anybody to come if they'd like to says to or join in any activities thank you and there are about five thousand of us in the twin cities area and we have a lot of come run businesses and i'm hoping that would lead to africa will start thinking about relocating some of those businesses year so that we have a presence here you can see what the monks have done on university ave my vision when i came to these was that we could someday walk down this part of simple and all you see is africa and it reminds you of home among saws so already differences saw a little kind of sin to be calming down and this has been going on for five years the idea is what we have just witnessed here tonight is for all of us to be part of this organization the enterprise and i'm very proud of this organization here tonight and my country is also proud to ask me to represent and will hold this growth will go on and i'm really impressed thank you very much collaborative which is a an organization comprising of all the thirteen west african countries on the african coast and the reason for that is to have a representation within the greater state of minnesota to showcase our culture ethnic cuisines are to fire at dress scene and so forth as the secretary of the in taking care of the needs and concerns of all nigerians in minnesota little africa then becomes a meaningful project for both of us because if we know realize that the continent of africa africa would bring together all the from the local ethnic groups within individual countries it's a lot to understand a lot of education for we hope that we'll be able to have minnesotans understand more of the continent of africa thank you thank you so much i am so honored to be here among you and to see the diversity of african culture that in my presence and that i get to join in and share i can't tell you how moving it is to see all of you here to understand your commitment to our community to minnesota to your pride and your own communities and cultures that you and rich us with and that we learn from and that we can share ideas and we can share success together so it is just delightful to be here so thank you dr corey f in introducing me to the community for inviting me to this wonderful event and for the education that i've already received just from the speakers who have gone before me and told me about their position within little africa and within minnesota that helps make us a strong and prosperous community it's wonderful to celebrate to your civic engagement and all of the values that go along with it these values include the value of participating in our democracy by expressing your opinions by shaping policy by voting and contributing leadership and economic development in our communities the values include patriotism both pride in america and it's me many gifts and pride in our countries of origin and our ancestral roots the value of civic engagement and participation we come together we share our ideas we don't always agree but we respectfully disagree and we bring forth the strength of good ideas and move them forward the value of capitalism that is truly the american way and i see it so embraced i smell it in the food that so wonderfully prepared for us to consume and i see it in the commitment to moving our communities forward working hard producing goods and services that nourish and enrich our lives and patronizing our businesses so that our communities will prosper the value of community sharing and expanding common values and traditions while making our way for new traditions and practices so that we can develop together our community is special because we share a commitment to make every place we occupy every room that we work in that we compete in that we play sports in that we dance and celebrate in that we commute in and have meals together in every place better for the contributions we bring to it think is a wonderful example of those values literacy is a gift that we must not take for granted by the time i was ten years old i had travelled around the world and learned about so many cultures and i had barely set foot outside of my home town and fridge and yeah now wait a minute how can this be i tell you it was because i was a reader and the books that we see represented on the table leasing space for small business a choice of weapons what does justice look like a long way gone and the many others that are here and that will be a part of the little africa free library they will contribute to the transportation of us to faraway lands to new ideas to old ideas values and culture they will allow us and our young people to imagine lives in communities that are richer than we ever imagine that are different from perhaps the people that we know personally or the professions of those people so that our we and our youth can dream big dreams can imagine all of the many contributions that they will be invited to make in this community and in this world and that we as a community will need them to make that is the power of the little africa free library you will transport your community to familiar places far away places to the best scholars and experts to knowledge and skill all of that will breed success and ideas that will inspire our creativity our ingenuity our leadership as you and we contribute to our community this is what it means to be engaged in this community and to be a citizen of the world you represent that to me you bring that to our community and i'm so pleased to be among you i'm so impressed by the knowledge in the skills that are among us as i meet community leaders and members of the african immigrant community we are all enriched by your presence and your many contributions i have two immigrant two small immigrant experiences once in college and more recently as an adult and they those experiences inform my knowledge in admiration and ration of the strength of america's two hundred thirty seven year old history reflected in it as a country of immigrants that's what we all are while studying and living abroad i love the rich culture that i learned about i often compared my experience to the experiences and traditions of others and i was able to enjoy both the best of both cultures and traditions whether it is work study or unfavorable circumstances that bring us to a place that is far away from our country of origin we are called upon to demonstrate flexibility ingenuity the ability to grow and adapt intelligence barring the best from our new culture while preserving and sharing the best of our culture of origin the little africa community and the free library are just such an example of what i think is so impressive about americans we lift as we climb we share our resources for the good of the whole this is our legacy so w am really happy to be here and answer some questions that you may have about my work about the work of the judiciary i want to contribute to the library and i have brought d v d s from the minnesota judicial branch that i will be contributing to you and it's called going to court in minnesota and it explains our process and it's in a variety of languages so that we can make sure that our communities are able to understand what it means to participate in our democracy through this way and then i have also brought although only in english a guide a paper guide about our courts as well so i invite you to share these to make the copies that you need to so that they can be disseminated throughout our community because we are stronger because of the fact that we can sit together we can listen to each other we can disagree and agree and we can move forward in stream with the ability to do so informed by our various cultures and experiences so thank you very much you honor me thank you justice write for those very inspiring commands you your words speak to the heart of what we are doing in little africa in particular i think the phrase that we use is something i think called by colleagues here  will value and also agree with that as you said we live as we climb so as we climb a little africa and hound us the power of the one point four billion dollar economy of african immigrants we will also lift up minnesota and make it one of the best globally competitive states in the nation i turn it to dr kenny to  you we have a ten minute session of taking questions from the audience and you could well depending on the question you could direct to the justices yeah and then you would you name is sonny of sam hong i am i my question is how do you see a little africa looking after a couple of years after five years in how would you like to see it develop and grow going forward mean they have just taken over that side of town and we can do that if we focus our efforts we have a lot of businesses in some poor there was scattered all over the place so started you clearly we need to start looking at how we governor is very interested in trying to see how we beat the the state builds a relationship with the countries that are present day about twenty three african countries that are heavily represented in minnesota and the governor wants to work on  interested in how we can link that back also the authorities on another group that will be looking at they are working diligently to try to see how some of these are in those just zones or the places that they're creating could really be they wanted to create were pushing that they could create one just for minority businesses so that we have some industrial park where we can just have minority businesses located so that so many things that there are so guns of the state are looking at the rich culture know you have would have time some time to share about plans to have an international marketplace and things like that so we from little africa would welcome a representative of skylanders business for example i have a five year plan for a suppressant i have a company right now mine two thousand and fourteen i have a book already for publication i want to say one million i have to gas stations that i want to buy now who's going to advice me if i call financial advice or if you have to peer where do i get a copy to all you know i have one that i'm running bills  is just great so but we do know a lot of information as cars people do know how to get what they need or even a simple business of advice that can guide them as to how to go about say please bring books we have some lovely books already about the oromo culture and i brought a choice of weapons by gordon parks which is one of my favorite books and some other books about american indian culture which is justice oriented and what not and so my my my pitch to you is share your own cultures with everybody else and consider this an intercultural space and the owner and is  really lovely and very welcoming and can say if you're new here come back his lovely will all welcome you and please just enjoy and i don't know what else is going on but thank you very much student market for ethnic restaurants and so she's going to share some insights be found out and i have copies of the study if someone is interested after the show thank you for having us here was start  student in my third year concord university st paul i was part of a focus group that dr corey was in charge of that we just we decided to see what college students are looking for when it comes to ordering food or going out to eat because we want to broaden our horizons and focus more on ethnic food groups we wanted after we figured out what cultures are looking for we want a reporter finding silica restaurants and help because this is going to help both the college students and the local  businesses we started with a campus survey and then we followed with a focus group who we had we delivered to through from three restaurants and we went to four we delivered the survey to nine hundred eighty nine students and we one hundred thirty one students participating forty seven percent of those students have travel to another country sixty one percent have lived on campus thirty eight percent were not or minority students about twenty percent of the students at a local restaurant once a week and twenty percent twenty two percent of the united ethic restaurant at least once in their life no students reported they've ever had a bad experience at any of the local ethnic restaurants one soon even commented all three of the ones that we visit regularly have quality food good service and decent prices around seventy eight percent of the students spend less than fifty dollars a month of food ordering out reasons preventing students from ordering food to be delivered were delivery costs personal safety and healthy options and that being on the university meal plan chinese food is the top ethnic food delivery option followed by mexican food students also express interest in asian age and indian food african food and vietnamese sandwiches as i said our focus group visited throughout the aggressor oncet as nick restaurant and evaluated for delivery options after as we were eating this food we evaluated in different categories and rated them on the one to five the delivery process of i was rated on ease of ordering friendliness of the ordering punctuality transparency costs quality of food and temperature of food delivery was above average in all these categories and we had no complaints for any of the categories so mark imitations that we have for local businesses to understand the needs of the college students for example that need power outlets if they're just starting over there they might need a quieter environment if they want to study there also keep in mind the students budget on average student budgets about thirty dollars a month for eating out and twenty dollars a month for delivery one thing that i notice when are in this focus group is that every one of these restaurants focus a lot on customer service i never felt uncomfortable any of the restaurants and i really appreciated however how friendly everyone was i feel like that as i said it's a benefit for both the college students and local businesses one of the best learning experiences i can have as a college student is to go experience were a real world in different cultures and i feel like going out and broadening our horizons is a great place right here in st paul and we can start right here in the africa thank you thank you can go to your students are going to continue their effort with some more promotions in the next few months and and watch out for that i know jean will introduce local entrepreneurs cake don't forget don't live before you ed ok thank you everyone for this wonderful event my wife and i lived in italy while i was attending college in  three years and selling our products in the farmers markets that's how we introduce our product to the local community buying stuff from the farmers for the dock on farmers and give back to the community in this process we would like system who embraced us we came here with nothing but now we are interpreters we have businesses we do a lot of things and this is because the system allow us embrace us to grateful to god who brought us here in this wonderful country and we are now a melting pot doing business in growing the future helping the community and back to probably someday to our country thank you very much recession africa is currently home to some of the fastest growing economies so by launching this effort we are not only going to give a boost to the visibility of african businesses in town but thank you everybody you are a great audience thank you for joining us today for the launch and food please help yourself and please keep in the loop as we keep doing it we plan to do this on a regular basis