Ms. Fartuun Adan, founder of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre, Somalia, together with her daughter Ilwad Elman is unwavering in her mission to protect human rights, women’s rights, and facilitate peace building, development and the rehabilitation of child soldiers amidst insecure and dangerous conditions. Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman are 2017 Aurora Prize finalists. Ms. Adan talked to Aurora about her family, work, challenges and dreams. 

About family

I was born in Somalia. My dream was to get a good education and to have a good job, so I can help my family. My Mom used to work very hard and I knew she was struggling, so I always wanted to help her. The life wasn’t easy. We had to work hard every day, but we were happy. There wasn’t a war when I was young. 

Then I married Elman. My husband was an orphan – he grew up in Italy, came back to Somalia and started a business there. He was the first one to open a 24-hours business in Somalia. He trained young people and then hired them. That’s how he started the organization.

At the time Mogadishu was divided. People didn’t coexist well. To fix that, my husband started a football club called Elman FC, so everybody could play together and communicate. So, he was training the kids, helping the youth, paying for the electricity – and there was no funding from others. It was his money he spent on all these activities. The first organization that came to Somalia, they saw what he was doing and started to help him, saying, we’re going to give you some money to buy fuel for the electricity. They also said, whoever we’re going to hire, they have to come through Elman. And that’s when he started the “Drop the gun, pick up the pen” campaign. 

The breaking point

I was working with him and I knew everything he was doing. He hired many people for that organization. The warlords lost a lot of manpower and that’s when they got angry and said, you must stop this, you shouldn’t be doing this. He also promoted human rights, and the warlords weren’t happy about that either. He got threatened many times, but he didn’t listen. He used to say: “I’ll help whoever I want, but I’m not a politician and I don’t want to be one.” Finally, they assassinated him. 

We left the country because I have three girls who were very young at the time. I wanted my girls to have education and I took them to Canada. When they got old enough, I came back to Somalia and I had to start from scratch. There was nothing there. Everything was gone. 

First steps: Elman Peace

I founded Elman Peace. I got support from UNICEF and we started working with the child soldiers. While doing this, we went to different places and I saw so many women out there getting raped, and no one was saying anything. And then I said, someone has to say something, this is not OK. After that we went to the media, we talked to the people, we saw all these girls. There was a lot of pressure because people were in denial. We started the program called Sister Somalia, which is helping women who are victimized and raped. 

Getting raped in Somalia is terrible not only in terms of physical damage but also mental. There is a stigma involved. We’ve been active for two years and now everyone talks about it. That’s one of the things I’m calling a success because we’re not denying that we have a problem anymore. If we didn’t talk about it, no one would mention it. 

Empowering women in need

Rape happens for different reasons. One reason is revenge. When one tribe is fighting another one they want to hurt them and when women get raped the whole tribe feels bad. Some people do it because the women are vulnerable, especially when they come to another area, for example, come to Mogadishu. There’s no protection there. The men can come and do whatever they want and then leave. Another reason is no rule of law. There are no consequences. If someone gets raped, they must be punished, but we don’t have a strong rule of law. Who’s going to fear that?

We work with the girls: we train them, we give counselling, we provide medical help. They socialize, they come together, stay in the center. If they don’t want to go back, they can stay with us. We have safe houses. Another thing we have, when a woman gets raped and becomes pregnant, she has to have the baby. There are no options. And where are you going to go to do that? Your family doesn’t want you, there’s nothing else you can do but to have the baby. They don’t want to keep it. That’s why at the safe houses we give them the option of leaving the baby with us, if they don’t want it. Someone else will raise them. 

Importance of recognition

This award (Aurora Prize) is very prestigious. Someone recognizing our work and what we do is very important to us. I wouldn’t expect the Armenian people to know what’s going on in Mogadishu. But all this, it shows us that what we’re doing can be seen around the world even though we’re not there. Someone is recognizing the work we do, and we appreciate it. We are so happy to have been nominated. I believe that your family shouldn’t be the only responsibility you have. You have a responsibility to other people who need you. I mean, everyone is going to die one day – and it’s great to know you did something for the others, too, not just for your family.

Everyone has their own issues to deal with. This crisis, the refugees are everywhere. It’s too much. It used to be this country or that country but now it’s all over the place. And even though some people remain passive, others are willing to help. Helping others, doing humanitarian work is a choice, and I think that choice has to come from you. You have to feel the desire to do that.

Dream for peace

I dream to see Somalia safe. Every morning we look around and we worry all the time. I wish in my lifetime Somalia would become safe, so we could go wherever we want and do whatever we want. Right now, the human rights are not respected in Somalia. I wish I saw justice. I wish people weren’t scared to go to the police and report a crime and say, this is what happened to me and get justice. That’s what I hope for. 

I want my daughters to have a good future. And if you don’t have a safe place, there’s no future for you there. We help other people, but we live among them as well, even though we have a choice to return to Canada. We chose here.