In the darkest days of her captivity, journalist Amanda Lindhout, a captive in Somalia for 15 months, began to plan a program to make a difference in the country.
She decided the best place to start was with education, particularly female education.
“Women can create greatness if they’re just given a chance,” she told an audience at Gospel Chapel, Sunday morning.
She’s planning to provide them with that chance. In fact the first 11 scholarships, under the Somali Women’s Scholarship Program, which she introduced in mid-May, were awarded last week to women in Somalia whom she described as a “dynamic group”.
Two are passionate about the natural environment of Somalia, another young woman is studying business and another plans to be a youth counsellor, she said.
The first group will be entering universities this fall, the best universities in Somalia that have partnered with her Global Enrichment Foundation and have policies of gender equality. Her goal is to provide 100 scholarships in the next four years.
“We’re looking to educate specifically people willing to step into leadership roles. We want to empower young women who understand they can make a difference,” Lindhout said. The women wrote about “their grandest vision of what Somalia could become and how, with the education we fund for her, she can help to achieve that”. They then went through an extensive interview process to make sure they were willing to accept the challenge.
Each scholarship is worth $1,000 and covers not only the cost of tuition and books but also provides a daily living allowance each month “so she doesn’t have to bear the burden that poverty brings”.
Later Lindhout has plans to support them through micro-finance or micro-credit programs.
Lindhout said she started studying Somalia in 2006 and found the humanitarian crisis is one of the worst in the world yet many people don’t know it’s happening. In 2008 she travelled there “to contribute in my own humble way”.
She was captured just three days after arriving in the country, but her time there left several images besides violence and war.
Young children running barefoot through the streets of Mogadishu was one image. She said she was deeply moved when visiting a food centre “to see how dignified the women of Somalia were … The traditional hospitality of Somali culture was evident.”
Lindhout described her captivity as mostly in dark rooms with leg shackles. “I endured, on a daily basis, every abuse you can imagine.” Her captors were teenage boys 14 to 18 years old from poor families. In the war torn country, their existence was one of hunger and loss. They told, in the first weeks of her captivity of family members that had been killed.
That sparked a thought, if these same men had been given a chance to broaden their mind would they still have resorted to a life of crime?
Lindhout said, “I do not see the men who kidnpapped me as a reflection of Somali society as a whole … The teenagers who abused me were victims of war itself, they were given rifles instead of pencils.”
In describing the situation, she said, “I hope to make the problems of Somalia real to you. A humanitarian crisis of this magnitude should affect us.”
Women are most affected, she said. “Abuse forced upon women is particularly shocking. They are suffering in ways it’s difficult for us to understand.
“Violence against women has a profound affect not just on women but all society.” In some areas it’s beginning to restrict women’s movements and their freedom to work. In 2010, she said, fewer than one in 100 women in Somalia with have the ability to pursue higher education.
Lindhout talked about escaping with fellow captive Australian photographer Nigel Brennan and taking refuge in a mosque. A Somali woman risked her life to try and stop their recapture, she remembered.
Then she talked about a debt of gratitude she owes the Somali women for their spirit of strength. “If they can find the will to survive I must.”
On the scholarship program, Lindhout said, “Every donation makes a difference.” $20 will support a student for a week, $100 will support a student for a month and $1,000 will support a student for a year. “The benefits are immeasurable.”
People have to learn how to hate, just as they have to learn how to love, she said. Lindhout feels that by educating the women, they will be able to earn money and support a family. They will educate their children and the cycle can be broken.
She concluded with the question, “Why me, why was I put through this challenging test.” And then she talked about the opportunity to experience forgiveness. While in captivity, she said, she spent part of every day focusing on the good in each of her captors.
Talking about the strength of universal spirit, she said, “all they need is a chance”.
She began her speech remembering her return to Sylvan Lake, seeing a sign on True Value’s window welcoming her home, and she thanked the people of Sylvan Lake “for never forgetting about me. I’m so proud to be part of this community”.
More information on Lindhout’s project and how to donate is available on her website, globalenrichmentfoundation.com/.