Sunday 12 Dezember 2010
By Story and photos by sara glassman, Star Tribune
 Sara Glassman, [email protected] The Somali Union and Internally Displaced Somali Advisory Council sponsored a celebration of the humanitarian work of Hawa Abdi, MD. The Somali gynecologist and her two daughters, also doctors, have a hospital in Somalia that serves 300 patients a day. Dr. Amina Mohamed and her mother Dr. Hawa Abdi. |
Every parking spot and seat was filled at the Safari Restaurant and Banquet Center, where an enthusiastic crowd gathered last weekend to see Dr. Hawa Abdi of Somalia.
Abdi and her daughter, Amina Mohamed, were in the Twin Cities at the invitation of two local organizations, the Somali Union and the Internally Displaced Somali Advisory Council.
"She is considered to be a real hero," said Khalif Ahmed, chairman of the Somali Union, which raises funds for health and education and encourages cohesiveness in the Somali community. "People admire her for staying when most of the doctors left Somalia."
When Somalia's civil war began in 1991, Abdi allowed refugees to stay on her farm. Nearly 20 years later, thousands still reside there. Just this spring, she was held hostage and the hospital she founded was destroyed by militants.
Abdi has been traveling in the United States for more than a month. In November, she was recognized at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards in New York, where Katie Couric introduced her.
She said she wanted to visit the Twin Cities to "see my Somali community and to tell them what is happening inside Somalia."
Source: StarTribune