Keeping Hope Alive: One Woman: 90,000 Lives Changed - Hardcover

by Hawa Abdi (Author), Sarah J. Robbins (With)

The moving memoir of one brave woman who, along with her daughters, has kept 90,000 of her fellow citizens safe, healthy, and educated for over 20 years in Somalia.

Dr. Hawa Abdi, "the Mother Teresa of Somalia" and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, is the founder of a massive camp for internally displaced people located a few miles from war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia. Since 1991, when the Somali government collapsed, famine struck, and aid groups fled, she has dedicated herself to providing help for people whose lives have been shattered by violence and poverty. She turned her 1300 acres of farmland into a camp that has numbered up to 90,000 displaced people, ignoring the clan lines that have often served to divide the country. She inspired her daughters, Deqo and Amina, to become doctors. Together, they have saved tens of thousands of lives in her hospital, while providing an education to hundreds of displaced children.

In 2010, Dr. Abdi was kidnapped by radical insurgents, who also destroyed much of her hospital, simply because she was a woman. She, along with media pressure, convinced the rebels to let her go, and she demanded and received a written apology.

Dr. Abdi's story of incomprehensible bravery and perseverance will inspire readers everywhere.

Author Biography

Dr. Hawa Abdi, a Somalian human rights activist, lawyer, and doctor, specializing in gynecology, founded the Doctor Hawa Abdi Foundation, which runs a hospital and school in one of the largest internally displaced persons camps in the country, offering sanctuary to nearly 90,000 people. Glamour named her Woman of the Year in 2010 and dubbed her and her daughters the Saints of Somalia, equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo. She was featured as one of the top Women Who Shake the World in Newsweek in 2011, was interviewed by Tina Brown at the 2011 Women in the World Summit, and has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.