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American Refugee Committee sets sights on Somalia
(Minnesota,
December 09,
2010 Ceegaag Online)
by
Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio
St. Paul, Minn. — Pirates, militant gangs and nearly 20
years of civil war have made Somalia one of the most
dangerous places in the world for humanitarian workers.
But a Minneapolis-based relief group plans to set up a
program there early next year. The American Refugee
Committee would be one of the few international aid
organizations to base their operations in the lawless East
African nation.
Some Somali-Americans are applauding the move, especially
in light of concerns that money sent to the homeland may be
getting into the wrong hands.
Overseeing a humanitarian-aid program in Somalia
apparently requires nerves of steel. The Minneapolis-based
American Refugee Committee's job description calls for
someone who's able to cope in "stressful situations."
That's putting it mildly. Many foreign aid groups left
Somalia after militias began to kill or kidnap staff workers
in the southern part of the country.
The ARC's president and CEO, Daniel Wordsworth, says the
increased violence has prompted many of the aid
organizations to move to Nairobi, Kenya.
"They are operating in Somalia by remote control,"
Wordsworth said. "We are trying to locate our team on the
ground, and do it face to face, and be right there where the
money is being spent, where the programs are being
implemented, and where the people are."
Safety is a huge concern for Wordsworth, which is why his
group will work in the northern -- and more peaceful -- part
of Somalia, and assist some of the 1.6 million internally
displaced people who have fled the violence of Mogadishu and
other areas. They're like refugees in their own country,
many of them living in makeshift settlements with no medical
supplies or clean water.
Wordsworth says the program would also train young
Somalis for jobs.
"For these young people, what future do they really have?
It's not that they haven't been to school," he said. "It's
that no school exists where they live. They may be 20 years
old and have never seen a teacher."
Wordsworth says going to Somalia is a natural move for
his organization. Minnesota's Somali-American community is
the largest of its kind in the United States, and the
humanitarian crisis raging in their homeland is one of the
worst in the world.
Last week, Wordsworth met with a Somali humanitarian
worker who was visiting the Twin Cities. Dr. Hawa Abdi, a
gynecologist, has spent the past 20 years helping her people
at a hospital and camp she set up on the outskirts of
Mogadishu.
Glamour Magazine awarded the 63-year-old Dr. Abdi as one
of its women of the year, and described her as "equal parts
Mother Teresa and Rambo." In May, she was captured by the
hard-line militia Hizbul Islam and was forced to watch as
the gunmen killed one of her guards and broke the legs of
two others before they released her.
Abdi's grown daugher, Deqa Mohamed, a doctor who lives in
Atlanta, traveled to Minneapolis with her mother, and tells
the story of how militants looted her mother's hospital.
"They destroyed everything, literally everything they
could see. They broke the windows, doors, even the
mattresses, they cut them in half. I have no idea why they
did that," she said. "It's very painful, to see what she
built over 20 years destroyed in less than two hours. It's
very sad."
But Mohamed, who has worked with her mother at the camp,
says international aid groups must find the courage to move
their operations into Somalia.
"Get out of Nairobi, sitting in their beautiful houses
and getting safaris," shes said.
She said aid workers need to have a presence throughout
Somalia, including areas that are relatively peaceful.
Somalis will seek out aid organizations wherever they can
find work, she said.
Many Somali-Americans are rooting for the ARC for yet
another reason: They hope the new program will bring
transparency to fund-raising efforts for their homeland.
Said Sheik-Abdi of Minneapolis says people in his
community give generously to informal charities set up by
individuals in Minnesota. But he says the recent indictments
of two Rochester women
has worried some donors. The women say they were raising
money for internally displaced people, but federal
authorities say the cash was going to the terrorist group
al-Shabab.
Sheik-Abdi, an ARC advisor who was part of a delegation
that revisited his homeland earlier this year, said the
arrests caused some to question whom they can trust to
handle their money.
"If that person does something negative, what impact will
that have to an individual who is a Somali-American who is
sending the money with good intentions?" he said.
Federal authorities say Somali-Americans won't be
prosecuted unless they knowingly donate to terrorist groups.
But the FBI cautions that the public should be mindful of
where their money is going.
"If you don't know the person who is asking for your
money, and there is no way to vet or be certain where that
money is going, I would approach that cautiously," said
Special Agent E.K. Wilson, counterterrorism supervisor for
the Minneapolis division of the FBI.
The American Refugee Committee hopes it can win the
support and guidance of local Somali-Americans. The group
will hold several town-hall meetings to help shape the new
program.
Source: NPR
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