Mohamed Diini’s family fled civil war and famine in their native Somalia and settled in Columbus, Ohio. “There were six of us,” he recalled, “my mother, my sister, my three brothers, and myself, a skinny Somali kid with bifocals from Mogadishu.”
Speaking by Zoom from Nairobi, Kenya, where he lives with his wife and three young children, Diini described the trip home that changed his life. In 2013, with a BC Law degree and experience as a community organizer and immigrant rights advocate in Columbus, he returned to Mogadishu for a two-week visit sponsored by the US State Department’s Generation Change program.
He found a country devastated by conflict, and a population—70 percent under age 30—trapped in unemployment and violence. He also saw enormous potential and resilience. With funding from the US State Department, he started a youth entrepreneurship and job training program that evolved into Iftin Global. Diini and the team he recruited locally developed Somalia’s first professional mental health workforce, 106 counselors strong, and pioneered a model integrating psychological support with economic development. Iftin’s programs have reached more than 300,000 Somalis.
A McNulty Prize winner, Aspen Institute Fellow, and BMW Foundation Responsible Leader, whose TED Talk has drawn over a million views, Diini’s current focus is building an integrated campus where young people can heal, learn, and build livelihoods. In places scarred by war and conflict, it’s important to create a beautiful space that “fires people’s imaginations and reflects their aspirations,” he said. Land was purchased and plans finalized for the Iftin Peace Hub, designed by the Boston-based MASS Design Group. Following the withdrawal of USAID funding in 2025, the project was put on hold. Diini has been meeting with potential backers from New York to Oxford and is rebuilding the funding coalition.
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