Humanitarian Amanda Lindhout was back in her home locality of Red Deer this week to celebrate the opening of the first school funded by her organization The Global Enrichment Foundation.
The Rajo Women’s Literacy School — Rajo is a Somali word for hope — was launched on March 4 in Kenya for Somali refugee women. The school is teaching 75 women how to not only read and write but also apply practical life skills like money management and everyday wellness in their daily lives.
“We have women from ages 13 to 75 ready to learn,” said Lindhout, 30, who can’t stop smiling when she speaks about the school.
The school is in Eastleigh, a neighbourhood in Nairobi, Kenya, that is home to one of the largest Somali refugee communities outside of Somalia.
“When a woman in her fifties gets so excited because she can write her name for the first time —” Lindhout chokes slightly, “It’s just so exciting.”
She spoke to hundreds of area educators at the Harvest Centre in Westerner Park on Friday, as part of the annual Faith Day for staff of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools. She discussed the school as well as her broader journey as a humanitarian.
A former freelance journalist, Lindhout was kidnapped along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan in Somalia in 2008. They were held hostage for 460 days.
“Even if the worst thing imaginable happens to you, you can move forward, you can choose,” said Lindhout to the packed room.
Mere months after being released by her captors, Lindhout started her organization to empower and support female leaders in Somalia.
“I said to myself when I was in captivity, ‘If I make it out of here alive, I’ll do something to improve the situation here.’”
Ironically, she said, it was the country that took away her freedom in which she also found her life purpose.
Janet Postma is a teacher at Red Deer’s St. Patrick’s Community School and attended Lindhout’s talk.
“I had to hold back tears,” she said. “Amanda carries such a powerful message about transformation and forgiveness . . . You could hear a pin drop in the room.”
The Global Enrichment Foundation is already in the thick of its new project, said Lindhout. It’s now working towards establishing Somalia’s first safe house for women who are survivors of rape and violence.
Lindhout, now living in Canmore, was in Kenya in January and plans on returning next week.
rfrancoeur@www.reddeeradvocate.com