THE first community centre for the borough's 11,000-strong Somali population has opened in South Harrow.

It will provide an after-school homework club for children, employment and drugs advice, parenting classes, women's health sessions, recreational activities and extra schooling in English, maths and science at weekends.

Councillor Jean Lammiman (Con), Harrow Council's portfolio holder for community and culture, cut a ribbon on March 23 to officially open the Harrow Somali Youth and Family Centre, at Unit 27, The Arches, in Stanley Road.

It will be run and funded by the Harrow Association of Somali Voluntary Organisations (HASVO), in St John's Road, whose chairwoman, Asha Kalib, said: "Today is an historic day. The centre is unique since it is the only centre of its kind for the Somali Community in Harrow."

Yusuf Yusuf, HASVO's youth co-ordinator, said the organisation had been searching for three years for a suitable venue in which to open the social enterprise and was currently drawing up the activity timetable.