Community Profile: Meet Amina

Amina joined PANA to get out the vote in the June 7th, 2016 California primary election, she asked San Diego voters questions both on the phone and knocking on people’s doors. With Amina’s help and the support of the African American Civic Engagement Project, PANA successfully launched our first integrated voter engagement program prioritizing African immigrants and refugees.

My name is Amina and I’m a leader because I take others’ opinions into consideration and involve everyone in the process. I am here to help involve everyone.

This was my first time doing something like this and I’d always wanted to try it, for the experience. In the beginning, when we went to go knock on doors I was thinking to myself, “What am I going to say to them?” It felt like it was going to be really hard, and people were there to help and after a while it was amazing, and things became really comfortable.

The experience really helped me with communication: whether on the phone or at someone’s house: I always had someone with me for support and it was just a really fun experience.

One thing I will take away with me was the feeling on the last day, when we were all voting, and I went home ready to vote and realized none of my family had voted yet. I told them it was important because we get to choose who will be candidates for the November election. It was very different from the enthusiasm for voting on the team, and then to go home and talk to my family about it. It was eye-opening.

I would want to do it again because it was fun work, and also sometimes we went to people’s houses and got really great responses, people thanking us for doing something good for our community. I want to see what else I can do with this.