Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
Bold Fadumo Dayib wants to be the first elected female President.
She was once a refugee who fled to Finland as a child, she didn’t learn how to read until she was 14, but now she holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard.
She was recently chosen as the African Woman of the Year at the 2016 African Achievers Awards
Below is her interview with NPR.org
On Why She Wants To Be The President
Because I see what I’m doing as a moral obligation and a civic duty towards my country. I’ve watched for almost 26 years, hoping for a competent leadership to come that can bring us all back. There’s 1.5 million Somalis in the diaspora, 1.2 million internally displaced inside the country. And they’re all yearning to have a dignified existence to go back.
On Being A Refugee Once
I was born to two parents – illiterate Somali parents – in a place called Thika, Kenya, but never took citizenship. And in 1989, my family was forcefully deported to Somalia. And so when the civil war broke out, I was actually a refugee inside Somalia. My mother had to stay back, and so I was tasked with the responsibility of taking my two younger siblings out of the country. When we were on transit in Moscow, because of a Russian man who had worked in Somalia with the Russian army – helped us to get a day visa. And that is how we got into Moscow. And from Moscow, the nearest destination was Helsinki. And we’ve been here ever since. Finland gave us sanctuary. It gave me an education. As you mentioned, I’d only started reading and writing at the age of 14. But when I came to this country, they didn’t give up on me. I had a bachelor’s in nursing, got two master’s from Finland. In addition to the one from Harvard, I have three master’s and now currently doing my Ph.D. So Finland gave me the skills that I want to take back to my country.
On being the mother of four and the risks involved in running for Presidency
My children know who I am. They know the kind of mother they’ve had. I see myself as a servant of my people, and I take my life as a vocation of calling. My mother lost 11 children. I am the first of her children to survive. And that means to me there is something much bigger than me being on this earth and doing other things. And so my children accept that. And when I was going to Mogadishu in January, I sat them down and I told them that I’m leaving you, but I’m not sure I might come back. And if I don’t, then you have to know that you are also expected to do this. When the day comes and you have the capability to do so, you must fight for democracy. We must not let evil overcome goodness. And they understand why we need to do this for Somalia because they share the love that I have for Somalia
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