Simisola Obasan speaks as President of the Airdrie Black Community to Airdrie City View Newspaper about Black History Month Initiatives
“The black community is a strong community,” Obasan said. “We seek to foster continuous unity between black residents of Airdrie and other residents of Airdrie, irrespective of their background, race, ethnicity or upbringing.”
The Airdrie Black Community (ABC) will be meeting with students throughout the month to speak about black excellence, and the contributions members of the black community have made to the prosperity of Airdrie.
“We have all over a thousand members of the Airdrie Black Community who are resident in Airdrie,” explained Simisola Obasan, president of the Airdrie Black Community organization. “So the black community is a significant population in the city of Airdrie, and it’s very important for us to be recognized, and for us to also play our role, in the growth and development of Airdrie.”
The ABC will be hosting a series of initiatives in local schools in solidarity with Black History Month with an important engagement day scheduled for Feb. 27 at local schools.
“The first one is bringing black history sensitization to the students in Airdrie schools through video recordings from black subject matter experts on financial literacy, budgeting, law, civic rights and duties, and embracing the black heritage,” she said. “The second initiative that the Airdrie Black Community has is donating gifts, cards or gift items to students who participate in display performance and competition programs organized by schools in Airdrie, particularly collaborating with schools like St. Veronica School and W.H. Croxford High School.”
Obasan said the ABC will also be donating books to school libraries which talk about the achievements of black Canadians.
“We’ve come to realize that children are the future and it’s important that we help them to understand the contributions of black individuals to the growth and prosperity of Canada, and the world at large, and to also encourage black students on the numerous possibilities that are open to them as they grow,” she explained.
Obasan said generally the City of Airdrie and the larger Airdrie community have been supportive of their black residents, but Black History Month is an opportunity to engage with that community in a little deeper and more meaningful way.
“The black community is a strong community,” she said. “We seek to foster continuous unity between black residents of Airdrie and other residents of Airdrie, irrespective of their background, race, ethnicity or upbringing … I definitely would say there is room for more awareness and we are thankful that that awareness has started. There is room for a bigger, better collaboration that we could have with institutions, and with the government, to help the black community to leverage on the potentials of growth and success that the city of Airdrie affords us as a community.”
Obasan said her organization is more than willing to speak at local schools and events for those wanting to meaningfully engage with Airdrie’s black community.
Those interested in having guest speakers or presentations done for Black History Month can communicate through the ABC website at www.airdrieblackcommunity.ca.
“(Black History Month) is very important because the black community has contributed a lot, and is a very significant and key contributor to the economic growth, social growth, and numerical growth of Canada, and the world,” said Obasan. “So it’s very important that our stories are told right. It’s very important that our achievements are very well recognized. And our contributions are very well recognized.”