Somalis Here Watch as World Tries to Help : Aid: Members of tiny community of immigrants express gratitude that the U.N. authorized military intervention to help those starving in their homeland. Local groups raise money, collect goods to send.

When Ilyas Said, a 28-year-old Garden Grove resident, sees images of starvation in Somalia, he sees himself.

“I could be someday in that situation, and I feel bad,” said Said, who left his native Somalia in 1977. “I’m eating here and my people are starving there. It’s bad.”

For Said’s neighbor and countryman, Jamal Ibrahim, the tragedy of Somalia is also personal. “I can’t even watch TV, I can’t read newspapers because I can’t take it, the pain.”

But for the first time in a while, this week brought good news to the tiny Somali community in Orange County. Immigrants here were thrilled with the United Nations’ authorization of military intervention in that ravaged East African nation and expressed confidence that U.S. troops will help bring relief to millions who are starving.

“The only news I was happy with was . . . when the United Nations decided to intervene,” said Muhammed Abdi, who watches Cable News Network an hour each day to keep up with developments in his homeland.

“The Americans are doing a great job in the situation over there. Hopefully, it’s going to get better,” said Abdi, a 31-year-old Stanton resident. “Americans are only going to help Somalian people. I’m not worried about the situation now.”

Abdi, Ibrahim and Said said they are among about 40 Somali immigrants scattered across Anaheim, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Irvine and Stanton. Census data on Somalis is unavailable, but immigrants say about 4,000 Somalis live in the San Diego area, while a few hundred live in the Los Angeles area.

“It’s great that America is going in there,” said Said, whose African imports store, Kawkab in Garden Grove, serves as an informal community center for the Orange County Somalis. “I’m happy that they are going and stopping the war and at least something is going in there for the hungry people.”

As Marines from Camp Pendleton cross the globe to help in Somalia, many Orange County residents are supporting the relief effort with money and time.

The local Red Cross chapter has collected nearly $30,000 earmarked for relief there. After months of having its shipments of bulk food intercepted by Somalian warlords and looters, the American Red Cross is now operating 42 soup kitchens in Somalia that serve two meals of rice, beans and lentils each day to 75,000 people, spokeswoman Judy Iannacone said.

Iannacone said a middle-aged homeless man even donated $20 to the relief effort recently.

“As a homeless person, he knows what it is to be one step away from not having what he needs to get by,” Iannacone said. “He had seen a television special on Somalia, he was moved and he was concerned about whether people were reaching out.”

Red Cross youth volunteers are supplementing the financial contribution with “friendship boxes”--kits containing toothbrushes, soap, dental floss and tiny toys that will be sent to Somali refugee camps in Kenya.

“No matter what side of which border or what skirmish, we’re just going to help people live a better life,” said Bobby Knowlton, a Tustin High School senior who was among half a dozen students who gathered at the Red Cross headquarters in Santa Ana Friday afternoon to assemble 100 friendship boxes. “When they see the boxes, maybe that will make them a little happier.”

The local UNICEF chapter and Hyatt Regency hotels are co-sponsoring two fund-raisers this month to relieve Somalian starvation. Entertainer Steve Allen will perform at the Hyatt Newporter on Dec. 16, and the Hyatt Regency Irvine will host a Christmas party for children Dec. 19.

The Islamic Center in Garden Grove is also collecting money for Somalia, and the Orange County United Nations Assn. donated $500 from its recent wine and cheese party to the relief effort.

“I think it touches people because they’ve seen the children. You empathize immediately with a starving child,” local UNICEF Director Diane Lichterman said. “We’ve got people like hotel managers, corporation heads--people we don’t usually talk to--who are very concerned about this issue. It’s amazing to have a big corporation like the Hyatt, in Orange County, get involved with something like this. It’s a real first.”

Besides galvanizing relief efforts, the Somalian crisis has prompted local teachers to talk of a country that most students could not find on a map.

Friday morning, students in Greg Shadid’s U.S. history class at Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove listened to President Bush’s speech to the nation and then debated the merits of using the military for humanitarian efforts overseas. In Bill Hoffman’s economics/international relations class at Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo, four of the six essay questions on Friday’s exam concerned Somalia.

“They seem to think it’s a great move we’re making because we don’t have anything to gain from it except morally,” Hoffman summarized his students’ opinions about the troop deployment. “Over the last few years, I’m noticing more of a ‘help your neighbor’ attitude.”

Where to Send Aid

Those wishing to help people starving in Somalia can contact the following organizations, which need volunteers as well as donations.

American Red Cross, Orange County chapter, 601 N. Golden Circle Drive, Santa Ana, Calif. 92711-1364, (714) 835-5381.

UNICEF, 332 Forest Ave., Suite 12, Laguna Beach, Calif. 92651, (714) 497-1655.

Somali Relief and Rehabilitation Assn., 3434 W. 6th St., Suite 250, Los Angeles, Calif. 90020, (213) 489-9629, or 3435 S. Camino del Rio, Apt. 116, San Diego, Calif. 92108.

World Vision, 919 W. Huntington Drive, Monrovia, Calif. 91016, (818) 357-7979 or (818) 357-1111.