# Dr Hawa Abdi (Xaawo Cabdi Dhiblaawe)

> Dr Hawa Abdi (1947–2020): doctor and lawyer whose clinic near Afgooye became a hospital and a refuge for 90,000 people.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/hawa-abdi/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who was she?

Dr Hawa Abdi was a Somali doctor and human rights worker. She founded the Dr Hawa Abdi Foundation, whose hospital and camp near [Afgooye](/en/regions/lower-shabelle/) cared for tens of thousands of people through the war ([Wikipedia, Hawa Abdi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)). [Garowe Online](/en/economy/somali-media-companies/) called her Somalia's "doctor of the poor" ([Garowe Online, August 2020](https://www.garoweonline.com/en/news/somalia/somalias-doctor-to-the-poor-and-human-rights-activist-dies-at-73)).

## Early life and study

She was born in Mogadishu on 17 May 1947. Her mother died when she was 12, and she helped raise her four younger sisters ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)). In 1964 she won a scholarship from the Women's Committee of the Soviet Union and studied medicine in Kyiv, graduating in 1971 (same source). Back home she worked as a doctor in the mornings and studied law at the Somali National University, earning her degree in 1979 (same source).

## The clinic, 1983

In 1983 she opened the Rural Health Development Organization on family land in [Lower Shabelle](/en/infrastructure/k50-airstrip/), about 32 km from Mogadishu. It began as one room offering free care to about 24 rural women a day, and grew into a 400-bed hospital ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)).

## Staying through the war

When war came in 1991, her grandmother urged her to use her skills for people in need, and she stayed ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)). She opened a clinic and school for displaced people and orphans. In 2007 the work became the Dr Hawa Abdi Foundation. In the 2011 drought, 90,000 people lived on the 1,300 acres around her hospital (same source).

In 2010 armed men surrounded the compound and tried to make her close it. She refused, and they left within a week after pressure from local people, the UN and others ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)). Her daughters, Deqo and Amina, both became doctors and worked with her (same source).

## Honours

*Glamour* named her and her daughters among its 2010 Women of the Year. In 2012 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)). She also received the John Jay Medal for Justice and BET's humanitarian award (same source).

## Her death

She died at her home in Mogadishu on 5 August 2020, aged 73 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Abdi)). Her daughter Deqo Mohamed confirmed her death ([Garowe Online](https://www.garoweonline.com/en/news/somalia/somalias-doctor-to-the-poor-and-human-rights-activist-dies-at-73)). The foundation continues her work ([Dr Hawa Abdi Foundation](https://www.dhaf.org/our-founder)).

## In short

A doctor who ran a hospital and camp for displaced people near Mogadishu from 1983. See [health in Somalia](/en/society/health-in-somalia/).

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