Dr. Hawa Abdi

Hillary and Chelsea

Hillary

Imagine you’re an obstetrician-gynecologist responsible for ninety thousand people living as displaced persons on your family property in war-torn Somalia. And then, in May 2010, your office is overrun by hundreds of Islamist militants. “Women can’t do things like this,” they say. The militants hold you under house arrest, and take over the camp. Many people would be paralyzed by fear, or would try to escape in order to save themselves. Dr. Hawa Abdi was not, and she did not. Instead, she confronted the militants.

“[Women] are not just the helpless and the victims of the civil war. We can reconcile. We can do everything.”

—DR. HAWA ABDI

“I’m not leaving my hospital,” she told them. “If I die, I will die with my people and my dignity.” Then she went a step further: “You are young and you are a man, but what have you done for your society?” Her captors stayed for a week, ultimately leaving after the UN intervened. Hawa promptly went back to work.

Chelsea

Hawa’s answer to the question she posed stretches back to her childhood. Her mother died when she was pregnant with her seventh child, leaving twelve-year-old Hawa to care for her younger siblings. She has said that because she couldn’t prevent her mother’s death, she decided to become a doctor.

In 1983, she opened her first clinic on her family farm. As violence in Somalia increased, many people, mostly women and children, sought refuge on her property. She organized a camp to house and care for everyone she could. Hawa prohibited domestic violence and made it clear from its inception that the camp would care for all Somalis, regardless of clan, religion, or politics. She named the camp, appropriately, Hope Village.

Years of violence drove many families off their land, and the drought made farming impossible for many others, leading to a catastrophic famine and causing widespread starvation that killed first the cattle, then children and the elderly. Hawa opened her heart and her doors. She took in more people and provided food, medical supplies, and other necessities. She was determined to save not only those in her care but her entire country. She kept going through every danger and obstacle—including threats on her life and removal of a benign brain tumor for which she had to leave Somalia. As soon as she recovered, she returned home.

Hillary

The threats against Hawa continued. Her brave refusal to give in prompted hundreds of women from the camp to protest against the militants and demand that they leave. This display of courage prompted Somalis around the world to condemn the militants, who eventually backed down. Hawa then insisted that the young militants apologize in writing. And they did. She writes about her experiences in her book, Keeping Hope Alive: One Woman, 90,000 Lives Changed.

Chelsea

When I met Hawa in 2010, one of the things that stood out most strongly was her pride at being joined in her work by two of her daughters. Dr. Amina Mohamed and Dr. Deqo Mohamed help run the Dr. Hawa Abdi Foundation, which raises money to sustain the hospital and camp on their family’s land. “I’m thankful for my daughters,” Hawa has said. “When they come to me, they [help] me to treat the people… They have done what I desire to do for them.” Alongside the hospital, Dr. Hawa Abdi Hope Village—as it is known today—now has a primary school, a high school, a women’s education center, and free fresh water, available to the 10,000 people who live there and others who come from outside the village. Hawa’s courage has proven that hope is so much more than a word—it is untold lives saved, babies born safely, children educated, and a different, more peaceful future beginning to be realized.