Hawa Abdi
Hawa Abdi Dhiblawe (born c. 1947, Mogadishu, Somalia) is a Somalian doctor, specializing in gynaecology and human rights activist. She founded the DHAF Foundation, one of the largest IDP camps in Somalia.
With her mother dying in childbirth when she was 12, her father supported her to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. At 17, she won a scholarship to study gynecological medicine in Kiev, Ukraine, during the 1960s. After completing her studies, Dr. Abdi returned to Somalia in 1983 to open her own clinic in the outskirts of Mogadishu between Mogadishu and Afgoye. She focused on the treatment of women from non-urban areas, soon the practice drew clients from all over the country, and even abroad. Vorlage:Citation needed
Over the years, the hospital became the core of something even grander. Thousands and thousands of people displaced by civil war came to shelter on Abdi's 1,300 acres of farmland around the hospital. Today her home and hospital have been overtaken by a vast camp that numbers about 90,000 displaced people. Additionally she provides literacy and health classes for women and schools for children. Vorlage:Citation needed
In 2010, Glamour magazine named Dr. Abdi and her two daughters "Women of the Year", and called them the "Saints of Somalia", "equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo".[1]