The Woman Who Kept Hope Alive

In 2010, after another civil war broke out in Somalia, her hospital, which had become a refugee camp, was taken over by Islamic militants who killed two employees. They stole medical equipment and ordered her to surrender the hospital to them. She stood her ground and refused to give in to their demands. They put her under house arrest. Seeing this, hundreds of people protested to show their support for “Mama Hawa,” as she was known in the camp. She told the militants, “You are young and you are all males, but what have you done for your people? How have you contributed to your society?” Thanks to the pressure from the local people, the U.N. and other advocacy groups, the militants left within a week. They later wrote a letter of apology to her.

            “Mama Hawa” is Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe, a Somali physician and human rights activist. Abdi was born in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, on May 28, 1947. Since her mother died when she was 12 years old, she had to take care of her family, which included raising her four younger sisters. Her father was away, employed in the port at Mogadishu. In spite of the family chores, she managed to attend school.

            At the age of 12, Abdi was forced to marry a much older man, who was a police officer. Thankfully, the marriage ended in a few years, and she could focus on her studies.  In 1964, she received a scholarship from the Women's Committee of the Soviet Union, and she travelled to Moscow and later to Kiev, now in Ukraine, to study medicine. While studying medicine, she met and married Aden Mohammed, a fellow Somali student. They had three children -- Deqo, Amina, and Ahmed. She graduated from Kiev Medical Institute in 1971 and returned to Somalia.

            Not satisfied with being a doctor, she began to study law at the newly-opened Somali National University in Mogadishu. She worked as a doctor in the morning, studied in the evening, and earned her law degree in 1979. In 1983, Abdi opened the Rural Health Development Organization (RHDO) on family-owned land. It began as a one-room clinic offering free obstetric services to around 24 rural women per day.

            The first Somali Civil War started in 1991, leading to the collapse of the government. Many people, who had lost their homes and whatever they had, arrived at Abdi’s clinic seeking shelter, food, education, and health care. The clinic grew into a 400-bed hospital and became a refuge for about 90,000 people. The community, which had grown to be the size of a small city, was renamed Dr. Hawa Abdi Hope Village.

            Abdi trained and hired dozens of doctors and nurses, and conducted countless surgeries and delivered babies. One of her main occupations was removing bullets from those wounded in the unending civil wars. The RHDO was renamed Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation (DHAF) in 2007. It is a non-political organization not affiliated with the government, any political movement, religion or clan. Refusing funds from the government, DHAF manages to remain financially independent, relying on donations from people around the world and charitable endowments.

            The DHAF includes a hospital, school and nutritional centre, and provides shelter, water and medical care to mostly women and children. To inculcate self-sustenance, Abdi asked the people in the village to grow vegetables and maize and get involved in fishing and agricultural projects. Since its establishment in the early 1980s, the Foundation has served an estimated 2 million people. She wrote a book, Keeping Hope Alive: One Woman -- 90,000 Lives Changed.

            Her only son, Ahmed, died in 2005 in a car crash, while on a visit to his father who had since separated from Abdi. The two daughters, Deqo and Amina, became doctors and have devoted their lives to all the charitable activities started by their mother.

            In 2010, Glamour magazine included Abdi and her daughters in its ‘Women of the Year’ list, hailing them the “saints of Somalia.” Two years later, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Several countries honoured her with various awards that included an honorary doctorate from Harvard University. Abdi died on August 5, 2020 at her home in Mogadishu at the age of 73. But her work continues, and her legacy continues to inspire Somalis.

Blurb

Since its establishment in the early 1980s, Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation (previously known as Rural Health Development Organization) has served an estimated two million people.