"On May 5, just after sunup, 750 militants surrounded Dr. Hawa Abdi’s hospital. Mama Hawa, as she is known, heard gunshots, looked out the window and saw she was vastly outnumbered.
“Why are you running this hospital?” the gunmen demanded. “You are old. And you are a woman!”
They did not seem to care that Mama Hawa, 63, was one of the only trained doctors for miles around, and that the clinic, school and feeding program she built on her land supported nearly 100,000 people, most of them desperate refugees from the fighting and poverty that has afflicted this nation.
The Saturday NY Times Profile (Jan. 6, 2011) "Under Siege in War-Torn Somalia, a Doctor Holds Her Ground." Read article.