Omar Degan (Mogadishu, Somalia)

“Never allow someone to tell you what you can or can’t do in life” - Omar Degan ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We are going to be taking a short break from the #ExcellenceProfiles campaign but before we do, we want to leave you with one more inspirational story. ⠀ ⠀ As we all know, Somalia has seen its fair share of setbacks in the past few decades. We see it in the news every day. What we don’t always see is the work that’s being done to rebuild the country and the people who are doing that work. Today we have the opportunity to highlight one such individual. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Omar Degan is an architect currently based in Mogadishu. He completed his Master’s in Architecture for Sustainability between the Polytechnic University of Torino (Italy) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong). Following this, he specialized for another year at the Polytechnic of Torino in Emergency Architecture and Developing Countries with a focus on post-conflict reconstruction. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

This year Omar was commissioned by the non-profit Give to Learn to Grow Foundation to design a new library and design center in Laascaanood. You can see the designs in the picture above. This is just one of many exciting and important projects Omar has worked on. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We are incredibly grateful for people like Omar who are working towards a brighter future for all of us. His advice to youth is to dream and surround ourselves with supportive people so that we can achieve our goals. Amazing advice! By dreaming big we may also be able to accomplish things like this. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Fun fact: Omar has given a TED talk! Check it out on YouTube to learn more about his journey.