Last week, the world lost an unparalleled human rights activist, Dr. Hawa Abdi. Hawa gained international attention when she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, but spent a life long before that committed to overcoming obstacles so that she could care for those around her.

After losing her mother at a young age to maternal mortality, Hawa became Somalia's first female gynecologist.  She built her one-room clinic into a refugee camp that would ultimately serve more than 90,000 people -  complete with a hospital, school and shelter for those who need it.

Remember her life and work with this special episode from the Vital Voices Vault -  a 2011 interview with Dr. Hawa Abdi and her daughter Dr. Deqo Mohamed discuss their work, their commitment to ending harmful practices like female genital mutilation/cutting, and why they committed to supporting their home country despite all odds. 

To learn more about Vital Voices, visit www.vitalvoices.org.

Invest in women, improve the world. 

Executive Producer: Lizzie Kubo Kirschenbaum. 

Editor and Assistant Producer: Christi Owiye. 

Host: Alyse Nelson. 

Music: Deliberate Thought by Kevin MacLeod. 

Deliberate Thought by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/?keywords=deliberate+thought.

Artist: http://incompetech.com/