It now lies in ruins from repeated bombings by the deposed dictator Siad Barre. Once again we were joined for five days by approximately thirty extremely committed women who represented newly formed local NGOs seeking ways to rebuild their communities. Many of the women had recently returned after years in refugee camps, often fleeing there with their children on their backs, walking hundreds of miles without food or water. These were women who had buried children, husbands, and other family members and were now returning under this tentative peace to rebuild their communities and lay out a future for their families and clans. Women from all over the Horn of Africa came together to build a political power base to bring calm and order back into a destroyed piece of our fragile globe.
Hope springs eternal.