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Amina and Filsan, pictured here in traditional shash and guntino (head covering and dress), were the oldest children and happily attending school when their lives changed forever. Although both parents were increasingly harassed, it was not until Yusuf Abdi was abducted on his way to work and imprisoned in 1989 that he realized that he and his family could no longer safely remain in Mogadishu. | Following his violent abduction and imprisonment, Yusuf Abdi, the director of an international agency that supported the democratic movement in Somalia, realized he and his family could no longer stay in war-torn Mogadishu. Yusuf arranged for his wife, Faduma, pregnant at the time, to leave with their two youngest children, one of whom is severely disabled with muscular dystrophy. They made their way from Kenya through the United States to Canada where Faduma sought refugee status in December 1989. Meanwhile, Yusuf tried to escape by boat to Kenya with his two oldest daughters, Amina and Filsan, and his only son, Fahiye. The overloaded boat capsized. The children made it to shore only to see their father drown while helping others. In Toronto Faduma feared that all had perished. It was only later she learned the truth. And it was not until July 1991 that the mother and children were reunited. Today they live in a high rise in Etobicoke. Five children are in school with the youngest, Canadian-born Warsan, still at home. Faduma, a well-educated woman who worked as an accountant in Somalia, is frustrated at her unemployed status. With several other Somalis, she is establishing a local community group in Etobicoke to help Somali families in a similar predicament. |
Amina and Filsan Abdi at home, Mogadishu, c. 1990
