Dr. Hawa Abdi is a Somali medical doctor and human rights activist. Born in 1947 in Mogadishu, Somalia, Abdi was the eldest child in a family of five. After the death of her mother at age 12, Abdi took over the household, raising her four sisters. In 1964, at the age of 17, Abdi was granted a scholarship from the Women’s Committee of USSR to study medicine in Kiev. Upon graduating, she returned to Somalia, where she began practicing medicine by day and studying law by night at Somali National University. Later, in 1983, Abdi opened the Rural Health Development organization on her families land. What started as a one room clinic serving about 24 women per day eventually turned into a 400 bed hospital. Upon the outbreak of the civil war, Dr. Abdi remained behind in Somalia to offer services to the most vulnerable within the country. Twice militants laid siege to her compound during the height of insurgence in the south of the country but aside from a brief suspension of services, the hospital stayed open. In addition to her success serving the most vulnerable in her native country, Dr. Abdi has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and received an honorary law degree from Harvard.