This is a summary of an interview in a new series of radio talks with Somali women, exploring the ways in which women have endured extreme challenges and developed a resilience with which to forge a new future.
Dahabo Ahmed Arab is a single mother with nine children. She was among the first Somalis to flee across the border into neighboring Kenya when Somalia’s civil war erupted in 1991.
Dahabo lost one of her daughters, less than five years old, to starvation on her way to Kenya. One of her sons suffered severe mental trauma from his exposure to the conflict and his mental disorder endured.
“I arrived in Hagardere refugee camp [Dadaab] where I lived for four years. But in 1995, I went back to Mogadishu because I couldn’t endure the miserable conditions in the camp,” Dahabo recalled.
She lived in Mogadishu until 2011, when one of her daughters was seriously injured in a clash between armed groups. Again she decided to move, and packed up and went to Adado in Galgadud, central Somalia, seeking somewhere to live in relative peace.
“My children don’t have a father, so I have to take care of them. It is not an easy task to provide for the basic needs of children. But many other Somali mothers, some who were divorced or others widowed, share similar hardships. The impact of the civil war was not a joke,” Dahabo said.
She has been determined to secure a good future for her children, and this has motivated her in all her decisions. Drawing on her own hard experience, she warned other women not to flee to exile in other countries, where life can be even tougher than at home. “What women need to do is to stay in their country and work to restore peace and stability in our nation,” she urged.
