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STORY: SOMALIA / MAMA HAWA
TRT: 2.59
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SOMALI / NATS
5 SEPTEMBER 2012, GALKYO, SOMALIA
1. Wide shot, Mama Hawa walking to children
2. Med shot, Mama with children
3. Close up, hands clapping
4. Med shot, Mama Hawa clapping
5. Med shot, girl dancing
6. Various shots, Mama Hawa with other girls
7. Med shot, Mama Hawa leading kids into class
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Mama Hama, Nansen Refugee Award Laureate 2012:
“In my heart always it was some kind of supporting women especially girls. Something I felt that I have to do whatever I can do for supporting women.”
9. Wide shot, Mama Hawa talking to girls
10. Med shot, girls in class
11. Med shot, Mama Hawa talking in the classroom
12. Med shot, Mama Hawa outside with little girl
13. Wide shot, Mama Hama walking down a hallway
14. Med shot, Mama Hawa talking to girls sewing
15. Med shot, girl on sewing machine
16. Close up, sewing machine
17. Med shot, Mama Hawa talking to a girl
18. Close up, foot on sewing peddle
19. Various shots, girls working on sewing machines
20. Various shots, Mama Hawa sitting with ten year old girl ( face blurred for protection)
21. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Unidentified ten year old girl, victim of FGM (blurred for her protection):
“I was hurt a lot and I was in pain. If she didn’t help me I would be dead. The way she helped me when I was dying fills me with gratitude. I was hurt and in pain. If she had not helped me I would have died.”
22. Close up, girl in the school
23. Close up, sewing machine
24. Med shot, Girl fixing sewing machine
25. Various shots, two boys in a workshop
26. Various shots, Mama Hawa talking to girls
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Mama Hama, Nansen Refugee Award Laureate 2012:
“If you are illiterate, yes you have a mind. You can talk. You can see what is wrong. You can see what is right and all that, but not really at the level where you can equally argue. Where you demand your right.”
28. Med shot, Mama Hawa sitting with dancing crowd
29. Med shot, young and old women dancing
30. Close up, Mama Hawa laughing
31. Med shot, girls dancing
This is Mama Hawa, teacher, a former director of education, social worker, a former refugee and now winner of the 2012 Nansen Refugee Award.
The UN Refugee Agency award is an acknowledgement of a life devoted to helping others, particularly Somalia’s refugee and displaced women and girls.
SOUNDBITE (English) Mama Hama, Nansen Refugee Award Laureate 2012:
“In my heart always it was some kind of supporting women especially girls. Something I felt that I have to do whatever I can do for supporting women.”
Hawa Aden Mohamed or 'Mama Hawa' as she is known, says her inspiration was her father. At a time when girls did not go to school, he insisted that she go.
Her journey had its challenges. In 1991 she became a refugee in Canada. There she worked as a social worker and counsellor but the call of home prevailed. In 1995 she returned to Somalia to start an NGO, but conflict forced her to flee to Nairobi in 1999.
She returned to Puntland, Somalia and opened the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD).
Initially the centre was unpopular as it went against tradition.
Many of the women and girls, she helps are victims of violence. Others have suffered female genital mutilation (FGM).
Ten year old Nafisa was circumcised twice, Mama Hawa came to her help.
SOUNDBITE (Somali) Unidentified ten year old girl, victim of FGM (blurred for her protection):
“I was hurt a lot and I was in pain. If she didn’t help me I would be dead. The way she helped me when I was dying fills me with gratitude. I was hurt and in pain. If she had not helped me I would have died.”
Here the women find protection, skills and hope. Lives turned around to be lived saved.
GECPD also provides vocational training for young displaced boys in the hope that they will not be lured into crime or war.
Mama Hawa said the key is the one her father gave her so many years ago: education. Without it she says you do not exist.
SOUNDBITE (English) Mama Hama Nansen Refugee Award Laureate 2012:
“If you are illiterate, yes you have a mind. You can talk, you can see what is wrong, you can see what is right and all that but not really at the level where you can equally argue. Where you demand your right.”
