Ahmed Mohamud - security in a quiet Czech town
Ahmed Mohamud came to the Czech Republic from Somalia ten years ago as a refugee from the country's civil war. At first he was on his own but later he was joined by his wife and children, who had also survived the war. Their first few years in the Czech Republic were difficult, spent in overcrowded camps for asylum seekers in various parts of the country. But today the whole family has Czech citizenship. A couple of years ago they were allocated a flat in the small provincial town of Zatec in the north-west of the country, and now Ahmed has a successful firm exporting Czech tires and office furniture to the Middle East. After many years of uncertainty the family is happy and settled in a quiet corner of the Czech Republic.
"We are living now in Zatec. Zatec is about 60 kilometres out of Prague. We are the only foreign family who are living there - or maybe I can say African family. My children - the older boys go to school - grade eight. There names are Mohamud, Abdi, Mustapha. Abdi's sixteen, Mohamud's fifteen, Mustapha is fourteen. They all go to the same class and they are doing very well. They are studying very nicely. They have many friends in the school, everybody likes them. They wouldn't have any problems. The two younger children go to kindergarten school. They are almost typically like Czech. Their accent is like a Czech accent. They are very popular in class. I can say many of the teachers are always touching their hair and embracing them, that they are beautiful, that they are nice. This for us is a very good encouragement because we are foreigners. If the indigenous people tell us it's OK, encourages us to learn the language and adapt to the culture here, it gives us a lot of support really. So we live in Zatec and we're really happy and we are very glad that we are living in the Czech Republic."
