New Zealand, (insidesomalia.org) - Ajiil Farah's entry to the New Zealand Army did not go quite to plan he broke his collarbone playing rugby soon after enlisting.

But yesterday the Hamilton Somali community proudly celebrated Mr Farah's recent graduation from the Waiouru Army training centre as New Zealand's first Somali-born soldier.

They "ambushed" Ajiil Farah, 23, throwing a surprise party at Hamilton's Waikato Migrant Centre. There were speeches by Somali community leaders and officials, including Hamilton East MP David Bennett.

"I didn't know it was going to happen," a shy Ajiil said after the speeches and formalities. "I didn't have anything prepared."

Despite the surprise, Ajiil said he was proud to have the opportunity to thank his community for their support, and praised New Zealand for the opportunity he was given when he and his family moved from war-torn Somalia six years ago.

"The biggest success for me is being able to show my community that they can do anything in this country that they want to to do, especially the young people coming up," he said.

"It was good to hear the community is proud of me because, in the beginning, people were saying `oh you are crazy to join the army'.

"But now they see that I have done it. If I can do it, they can do it.

"It was really hard for me to get into the army because of the language barrier and they had never seen a Somalian person come to them and say they wanted to join. They thought it was a joke.

"They gave me the form and said `okay, come back next week and we will see what we can do'. I went there the next morning and they saw something in me, that I was ready."

A New Zealand Army television advertisement sowed the idea of joining up and Ajiil gained the support of Somali Friendship Society president Mohamed Khalif Abdi and the Migrant Youth Training and Work Service.

Mr Abdi said the community was proud of Ajiil and that he was an inspiration for young people.

"Most of my community do taxi driving and things like that," Mr Farah said.