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==Journalism career== |
==Journalism career== |
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As a journalist, Lindhout was based out of [[Baghdad]], [[Iraq]], and worked on a [[freelance]] basis for [[France 24]]<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/11/25/amanda-lindhout-free.html |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] |title=Canadian Amanda Lindhout freed in Somalia |date=2009-11-25 |accessdate=2011-11-28}}</ref> and [[Iran]]'s [[Press TV]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/08/23/the-work-of-kidnapped-journalist-amanda-lindhout.aspx |publisher=[[National Post]] |title=The work of kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout |date=2009-08-23 |accessdate=2009-11-25}}</ref> She also had a column for [[Alberta]]'s [[Red Deer Advocate]] newspaper.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> |
As a journalist, Lindhout was based out of [[Baghdad]], [[Iraq]], and worked on a [[freelance]] basis for [[France 24]]<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/11/25/amanda-lindhout-free.html |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] |title=Canadian Amanda Lindhout freed in Somalia |date=2009-11-25 |accessdate=2011-11-28}}</ref> and [[Iran]]'s [[Press TV]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/08/23/the-work-of-kidnapped-journalist-amanda-lindhout.aspx |publisher=[[National Post]] |title=The work of kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout |date=2009-08-23 |accessdate=2009-11-25}}</ref> She also had a column for [[Alberta]]'s [[Red Deer Advocate]] newspaper.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> |
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John Goddard wrote in [[Toronto Star|The Toronto Star]], that her reports for the Iranian [[Press TV]] "begin to raise questions about her judgment. As a reporter, she became a propagandist for the Iranian regime, oozing anti-Americanism and contempt for Western media."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/645338 |title=Canada's 'gutsy' forgotten hostage |publisher=thestar.com |date= |accessdate=2011-08-06}}</ref> |
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==Abduction== |
==Abduction== |
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==The Global Enrichment Foundation== |
==The Global Enrichment Foundation== |
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In 2010, Lindhout founded the [[Global Enrichment Foundation]] to create more opportunities in Somalia by offering university scholarships to women. Lindhout currently serves as the organization's Executive Director, with Ahmed Hussen, the president of the Canadian Somali Congress, acting as the Fund's co-director.<ref name="Tsalsofwis">{{cite web|title=Amanda Lindhout Speaks out for women in Somalia|url=http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/814127--amanda-lindhout-speaks-out-for-women-in-somalia?bn=1|work=Toronto Star}}</ref> Aurala Warsame, a Somali researcher at the [[University of Alberta]] in [[Edmonton]], supervises the program and vetted the first applicants.<ref name="Cbcalfc">{{cite news|title=Amanda Lindhout Forgives Captors|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2010/08/24/lindhout-somalia024.html|work=CBC}}</ref> |
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The Global Enrichment Foundation was founded by Lindhout in May 2010 to improve the lives of the Somali people by creating educational programs, university scholarships, peace-building initiatives and economic opportunities within Somalia. Lindhout currently serves as the organization's Executive Director. When asked why she is working for the country where she was a hostage Lindhout said <ref name="Cbcalfc">{{cite news|title=Amanda Lindhout Forgives Captors|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2010/08/24/lindhout-somalia024.html|work=CBC}}</ref> "I've never questioned whether or not it was the right thing to do," Lindhout said to CBC's The National "What else to do after the experience that I had, than something like this?" <ref name="Cbcalfc"/> |
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During her captivity, Lindhout claims to have gained keen insights into how poverty and lack of education has destroyed Somalia, which, in 2010, was the poorest nation in the world. She has also claimed that the issues of children becoming soldiers in Africa as directly connected to a broader lack of educational opportunities. Lindhout believes the teenage Somali boys who kidnapped her were a product of their environment. “I used to wonder how they would have been different if they had had the opportunity to have an education, to understand something of a broader world view and learn something about tolerance,” she said.<ref>{{cite web|title=Amanda Lindhout speaks out for women in Somalia|url=http://www.thestar.com/mobile/NEWS/article/814127|work=Toronto Star|publisher=TorStar|accessdate=9 December 2011}}</ref> |
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In conjunction with various private university institutions across Somalia, the GEF's Somali Women's Scholarship Program (SWSP) offers higher education opportunities to women in Somalia on a contribution basis.<ref name="Gefswsp">[http://www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com/programs/somaliWomensScholarshipProgram.php Somali Women's Scholarship Program]</ref> Lindhout's foundation aims to annually send 100 women in the country to university for the next four years,<ref name="Tsalsofwis"/> and is sponsoring tertiary education for 36 women, who are expected to go one to become teachers, doctors, environmentalists and engineers, among other professions. The GEF also started the SHE WILL micro-loan initiative to financially empower widows and other Somali women.<ref name="Algef">[http://huntinghills.rdpsd.ab.ca/docs/library/HHHS%20W%20of%20D%20Grad%202011%20Compatibility%20Mode.pdf Amanda Lindhout - GEF]</ref> |
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In August 2011 the charity branched into famine relief creating its Convoy for Hope program. The 2011 famine in East Africa is one of the worst the planet has ever experienced with up to $750,000 Somali people expected to die from starvation. Lindhout's famine program recently received a US$1 million donation from the Chobani Yoghurt company's Shepard's Gift Foundation.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chobani Pledges $1 million to Famine Relief in Africa|url=http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chobani-pledges-1-million-to-famine-relief-efforts-in-somalia-130262543.html}}</ref>Lindhout's organization says they expect to feed approx 300,000 by the spring of 2012. Other sponsors of her famine relief work included the New York Giants and OmniPeace<ref>{{cite web|title=GEF Vimeo Page|url=http://vimeo.com/globalenrichment|work=GEF Vimeo Page|publisher=Global Enrichment Foundation|accessdate=9 December 2011}}</ref>. |
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==Return to Africa== |
==Return to Africa== |
Revision as of 02:10, 14 December 2011
Amanda Lindhout | |
---|---|
Born | June 12, 1981 |
Nationality | Canadian |
Occupation(s) | Journalist, Humanitarian |
Organization | Global Enrichment Foundation |
Website | www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com |
Amanda Lindhout (born June 12, 1981)[1] is a Canadian humanitarian and former journalist. In 2008, she and members of her entourage were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia. She was released 15 months later on November 25, 2009,[2] and has since embarked on a philanthropic career.[3]
Journalism career
As a journalist, Lindhout was based out of Baghdad, Iraq, and worked on a freelance basis for France 24[4] and Iran's Press TV.[5] She also had a column for Alberta's Red Deer Advocate newspaper.[4]
Abduction
On August 23, 2008, Amanda Lindhout and Nigel Brennan, a 37-year-old freelance Australian photojournalist from Brisbane, were kidnapped along with their Somali translator, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, their driver, Mahad Isse, and a driver from the Shamo Hotel, Marwali. They were believed to be traveling in a vehicle and were stopped by gunmen as they were going to visit a refugee camp.[6] The abductors were teenage insurgents from the Hizbul Islam fundamentalist group.[3]
On September 17, Al Jazeera featured footage of Lindhout and Brennan in captivity surrounded by gunmen.[7] On October 13, 2008, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of US$2.5 million by October 28. On February 23, 2009, the Canadian Association of Journalists urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to help secure the release of Lindhout and Khadija Abdul Qahaar, a Canadian woman who was kidnapped in November.[8]
Elmi and the two drivers were released on January 15, 2009.[9] The kidnappers later lowered the ransom demand to $1 million.[10]
On June 10, 2009, CTV News received a phone call from a tearful Lindhout who seemed to be reading a statement: "My name is Amanda Lindhout and I am a Canadian citizen and I've been held hostage by gunmen in Somalia for nearly 10 months. I'm in a desperate situation. I'm being kept in a dark, windowless, room in chains without any clean drinking water and little or no food. I've been very sick for months without any medicine.... I love my country and want to live to see it again. Without food or medicine, I will die here."[11]
On November 25, 2009, after 460 days as a hostage, Lindhout was released following a ransom payment made by her family.[12] She was hospitalized in Nairobi for two weeks and treated for acute malnourishment.[13]
Return to North America
No longer working as a journalist, Lindhout studied Development Leadership at the COADY International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and is the executive director of the Global Enrichment Foundation.[14] Lindhout has yet to speak publicly about the specific details of her time in captivity but has become a much sought after speaker on the topics of forgiveness, compassion, social responsibility and women's rights. She refuses to discuss the specific details of what happened to her in captivity. [15].
In 2009 Lindhout spoke alongside Eckhart Tolle, best-selling author of Power Of Now in Vancouver on the power of forgiveness.
In 2010 Lindhout addressed the United Nations Association in Ottawa, Canada about women's rights. [16]
In July 2010 Google Ideas had Lindhout moderate a panel of former violent extremists at the Summit Against Violent Extremism in Dublin, Ireland. The event was the largest gathering of former violent extremists to ever take place and was organized by Google, the Council of Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival. Lindhout moderated a panel which included a former Somali militant with al-Shabaab, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shepard observed the tension on stage:
"The only detectable moment came during a panel moderated by Amanda Lindhout, the Canadian journalist who was held hostage in Somalia for 460 days, and Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who left Toronto to fight with Al Shabab during Ethiopia’s invasion in 2008.Lindhout had asked Mohamed how he justified the deaths and injuries of civilians while a part of the Somali group, but instead he spoke of the political motivations as to why he went to fight with the Shabab."[17]
Lindhout is currently writing a memoir, titled A House In The Sky to be published by Simon and Schuster in 2012.[18]
The Global Enrichment Foundation
The Global Enrichment Foundation was founded by Lindhout in May 2010 to improve the lives of the Somali people by creating educational programs, university scholarships, peace-building initiatives and economic opportunities within Somalia. Lindhout currently serves as the organization's Executive Director. When asked why she is working for the country where she was a hostage Lindhout said [19] "I've never questioned whether or not it was the right thing to do," Lindhout said to CBC's The National "What else to do after the experience that I had, than something like this?" [19]
During her captivity, Lindhout claims to have gained keen insights into how poverty and lack of education has destroyed Somalia, which, in 2010, was the poorest nation in the world. She has also claimed that the issues of children becoming soldiers in Africa as directly connected to a broader lack of educational opportunities. Lindhout believes the teenage Somali boys who kidnapped her were a product of their environment. “I used to wonder how they would have been different if they had had the opportunity to have an education, to understand something of a broader world view and learn something about tolerance,” she said.[20]
In August 2011 the charity branched into famine relief creating its Convoy for Hope program. The 2011 famine in East Africa is one of the worst the planet has ever experienced with up to $750,000 Somali people expected to die from starvation. Lindhout's famine program recently received a US$1 million donation from the Chobani Yoghurt company's Shepard's Gift Foundation.[21]Lindhout's organization says they expect to feed approx 300,000 by the spring of 2012. Other sponsors of her famine relief work included the New York Giants and OmniPeace[22].
Return to Africa
Lindhout's work for the Global Enrichment Foundation eventually drew her back to Somalia in July 2011. Accompanied by CBC's The National, who filmed a documentary about her titled Return To Africa,[23] Lindhout visited the Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya to research a $60 million educational project for children in the camp, many of whom fled the conflict in southern Somalia. Lindhout attempted to reconcile her fear of abduction with her deep commitment to helping the asylum seekers. However, her efforts were criticized by Badu Katelo, Kenya's commissioner for refugees, who suggested that the best solution to the issue was through military intervention in Somalia's conflict zones. Katelo characterized Lindhout's initiative as "small [...] It's a drop in the ocean. It's not anything to rely on to bring peace to Somalia. I think if education was to bring peace in Somalia, then it should've happened a long time ago because in 1991, when refugees came here, they were all educated". Lindhout responded that "to anyone who's questioning us right now, that's fine[...] That's fair. It is an incredibly challenging environment to work in, but time will tell the story."[24]
On August 4, 2011, Lindhout travelled back to Somalia for the first time since her captivity. Leading a large convoy carrying food aid for 14,000 people in the southern Somalia town of Dobley, she was welcomed by Somalia's Transitional Federal Government. Lindhout described the trip as also "an opportunity for me to look at that fear and maybe let it go — this fear that I have been carrying around with me for some time".[25] Her Convoys For Hope project has continued to provided relief and expects to assist 300,000 more people.[26]
See also
References
- ^ "Amanda Lindhout turns 28". 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout freed". CBC.ca. 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Tsalsofwis
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "Canadian Amanda Lindhout freed in Somalia". CBC. 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
- ^ "The work of kidnapped journalist Amanda Lindhout". National Post. 2009-08-23. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Canadian journalist reported abducted in Somalia". CBC.ca. 2008-08-23. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Foreign media say Somali kidnappers will kill Lindhout if ransom isn't paid". 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "No word on Alberta journalist kidnapped in Somalia". CBC.ca. 2009-02-23. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
- ^ "Cbc.ca". Cbc.ca. 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ Dawn Walton. "Theglobeandmail.com". Theglobeandmail.com. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ "Kidnapped Alberta journalist calls CTV News". CTVcalgary.ca. CTV. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "Canadian Amanda Lindhout freed in Somalia". CBC.ca. CBC. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "Freed foreign journalists in Kenyan hospital". Seattletimes.com. Seattle Times. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "The Global Enrichment Foundation, founded by Amanda Lindhout-developing strengths already within women to assist them in changing their lives". Globalenrichmentfoundation.com. 2010-08-24. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ Concrete / Visia. "Amanda Lindhout | Global Enrichment Foundation | Lavin Speaker Profile". Thelavinagency.com. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ "Kathleen's interview with Amanda Lindhout". CBC Radio. CBC.ca. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ Shephard, Michelle. "Ex-skinhead, former Islamic radical open summit against extremism". Toronto Star. Toronto Star. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ "Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett". Curtisbrown.co.uk. 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2011-08-06.
- ^ a b "Amanda Lindhout Forgives Captors". CBC.
- ^ "Amanda Lindhout speaks out for women in Somalia". Toronto Star. TorStar. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Chobani Pledges $1 million to Famine Relief in Africa".
- ^ "GEF Vimeo Page". GEF Vimeo Page. Global Enrichment Foundation. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
- ^ "Amanda Lindhout - Back to Africa". CBC's The National. CBC. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
- ^ "Lindhout returns to Africa after kidnapping". CBC.ca. CBC. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ Snow, Kate. "Once a kidnap victim in Somalia, she returns to help". The Today Show. MSNBC. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
- ^ "Lindhout's mission aims to feed 300,000 Somalis". Red Deer Express. Red Deer Express. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
Further reading
- Brennan, Nigel (2011-06-27). The Price of Life: A True Story of Kidnap and Ransom. Penguin Books (Australia). ISBN 9781921518782. OCLC 704565552.