Monthly Archives: August 2025

Alright – so, sadly Sen. Fateh has won the dfl endorsement for Minneapolis. How frustrating. Majority of Somalis have a kid with autism, related to one, or works with. Yet, we are in the dark about state legislation and statutes at the capital. Sen. Fateh has a lot of power in the state legislature. He has not used that power to do good for at least autism families. He is the chair of higher education. This means all funding and policies that govern all higher education in Minnesota go through him. This includes U of MN and all other colleges and universities. Research funding goes through his committee.

The autism monitoring statistics come from the U of MN also called the ADDM numbers. They indicate Somali children born in Minnesota have the highest rate for autism, 1 in 16 for 4-year-olds. Imagine that. Every 16 Somalis in Minnesota, one has an autistic child. My guess is the other fifteen are related to that family. Autism steals dreams and alters families. Fateh did not give a flying leap about it. He promised then lied and delivered nada for our autism community. The Somali community knows how to open autism centers, but when we need their support, they are MIA. You cannot open an autism center then ignore our children’s needs.

Fateh denied calling the University of Minn regarding the high numbers. He refused to allocate autism research funding in his committee that had millions going through. Now we want to vote for him to be the mayor for the city with the highest autism rate for our community and all communities. Why?

My advice to anyone who lives in Minneapolis is to tell him NO. If he doesn’t care about our children, why should we care about him? I only hope he experiences the life of an autism family. Maybe then he will have a human heart and understand.

Qofkii walaalkiis loo xiiroow; adna soo qoyso.

Hadaad is tiri autism aniga ima khusayso then ha furanin an autism center.

Hadaad qabiil ugu hiilisid Fateh, then you are no different than being cunsuuri.

The above words do not reflect any candidate, agency, or committee.

Idil Abdull – Somali Autism Mom & Retired Advocate

Alright – so, when I first heard a Somali woman won the state senate, I was so excited. You see I have been advocating at the MN state legislature for over fifteen years now. I retired in 2023 – technically. Initially, she was not on any autism related committees, and I never saw her as I only go to such committees. I also heard she tells Somalis “I did not win because of the Somali vote”. But I shrugged off as I did not know her. I also heard she was arrogant and cocky. I did not pay attention to that either as I never met her and she was not on any health or education committee.

Well – then magically she was assigned to the senate human services committee. Now, I thought things will be good because we will have a Somali woman there. Not so fast. At first, if you watch the committee hearings, she asks questions, does not understand much but does nothing bad. Just you wait.

A group of Somali autism parents go to the senate chair Sen. Hoffman and ask if he can add funding to his omnibus bill for them to train in collaboration with DHS EIDBI agencies and autism families. All good right as that is sooooo needed. Sadly, Hoffman becomes a toddler and a teenager mixed and wants to take that funding from the Somali autism advocacy agency. Guess what he does; he uses the village idiot Sen. Zaynab and Sen. Fateh to divide the Somali autism families. It is the end of the session and the funding for Maangaar Voices (MV) is in the Omnibus for human services senate version.

Sen. Zaynab couches Sen. Fateh to introduce an amendment to take the funding from MV and give to another Somali autism advocacy agency (SPAN), what now? what the heck is that? creating a pitting situation within the Somali autism families. You see this is what happens when you are the village idiot senator who is over-rated, underperforming, and can fall for an easy divisive tactic like that. Yes, siree Bob.

The amendment fails because a Republican, Sen. Abeler says – why are we taking funds from one agency who has been here advocating to another? This is all in the committee hearings on 4.9.25 (the part where Sen. Fateh introduces amendment A16 to take the funds from one Somali autism advocacy agency and tries to give to another Somali autism advocacy agency starts about 2:39 minutes into the hearing. All hearings are recorded and anyone can watch. What happens next?

Well, evil Hoffman deletes the funding from MV. This is the guy Somalis claim to like because he is good for people with disabilities, oh please.

The above words do not reflect any candidate, agency, or committee.

Idil Abdull – Somali Autism Mom & Retired Advocate

Alright – so, here we go again. First, no community is perfect and it is heartbreaking for anyone to open an autism therapy agency if they do not understand the EIDBI statute, policy, and care about our children and families. Human services is not a business; it is about humans. Humans who have a disability and often cannot advocate for themselves. At bare minimum, we ask for kindness and compassion from providers. With all that said, DHS always uses the Somali community and other black and brown folks as a scape goat for their incompetence and lack of better oversight that is fair, not to mention their subtle bias ways. None of the agency leaders Harpstead, Nathasha, etc. are here now that either caused or contributed to this shitshow at least for autism as that is the only thing I understand. Then magically the Senate dflers and the governor pretend to care and introduce a bill that would provide objective oversight to all state agencies including DHS, MDE, etc. Wait for it… it is original, not really. Then the DFLers in the house oppose it. Excuse me but aren’t they all the same party who meet behind closed doors. YEP, you see how all this is just a game for them. Ugh, and our community always falls for the bait. If it is too easy to enroll to a service then it is too good and a set up. Below is my testimony for that after the House dflers rejected the senate and governor’s proposal.

Fraud Prevention & State Agency Oversight Policy

Chair: Rep. Robbins

July 8^th, 2025

Re: Overview of DHS OIG office & DHS Medicaid Eligibility

Dear Madam Chair and Members, my name is Idil Abdull. I am a Somali Autism Mom and retired advocate. I and other Somali autism families and community members advocated for the Early Intensive Developmental Behavior Intervention (EIDBI) in 2013 at the state legislature and 2014 at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) after I was appointed to the Federal autism Committee – IACC by US HHS Sec Sebelius.

We did this so that Medicaid would cover medically necessary therapy for children with autism in Minnesota and nationwide. As you may know, CMS approved Minnesota’s state plan to provide autism therapy in March of 2015.

Now move forward ten years, as one of the original advocates and more importantly as an autism parent, I am not impressed with DHS’ OIG oversight for autism services and with DHS in general.

• They approve people without to care to ensure people are in this for the right reasons and care about our children.
• DHS refuses to train autism families and EIDBI agencies about policy and statutes. Then DHS gets mad and vilifies our community when people make mistakes.
• Even the new policy and rules passed in this legislative session, DHS has refused to explain to families and agencies that it will affect.
• How do you expect anyone to follow statutes and policies if they do not understand it and no one holds DHS accountable.
• One of DHS’ reasons to not have an oversight of them was the state would lose Medicaid. I am confused and baffled by that; how exactly will the state lose any funding for doing a better oversight? Please ask DHS commissioner that.
• Finally, I am also disappointed with this committee. You have not asked or allowed actual public members in autism or other areas to testify before today unless you selected them. What is the point of helping us when you do not allow us to talk to you. I ask that you allow more public input from the public if the goal is better oversight that is fair and thoughtful without political agenda.

References:

https://www.startribune.com/mom-s-push-to-help-poor-kids-with-autism-brings-new-federal-benefits/298349191

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2012/03/29/idil-abdull–interagency-autism-coordinating-committee

Sincerely,

Idil Abdull – Somali Autism Mom & Retired Advocate

The above words do not reflect any candidate, agency, or committee.

Idil Abdull – Somali Autism Mom & Retired Advocate