Giving Hope to Somalis (Hannah's Heartbeat Newsletter)
“If all females are automatically condemned to hell anyway, I can’t see the point in praying,” the Somali girl said in response to the local religious teacher’s declaration.
It was a turning point for the girl (her name withheld for her protection), who began seeking spiritual truth and eventually accepted Christ and married a Christian man. Hoping to encourage many more girls and women to ask those kinds of questions and find eternal answers, Project Hannah in the summer of 2012 began building a team that will translate and record Women of Hope for broadcast to Somalis living in neighboring countries but also in the homeland.
Although statistics are difficult to pin down, 40 percent or more of the world’s roughly 16 million ethnic Somalis live outside Somalia, which has faced political turmoil for decades and recently suffered a disastrous drought. The number of refugees fleeing the country topped the 1 million mark in 2012, and substantial Somali communities can be found in South Africa, Europe and the U.S.
The political, economic and food crises in combination with the constraints of the dominant religion and local tradition make life especially hard for women. Girls are used as rewards for suicide bombers. Female genital mutilation is practiced, and women who venture outside the home unaccompanied by male relatives have been beaten. Rape is reportedly “endemic” in some refugee camps.
Ruth Mbennah, Africa coordinator for Project Hannah, told the story one mother wrote in a letter.
“So she was going to look for food, and she left her girls in the tent. And she went to look for food a long time, many hours, and she came back with very little. When she was coming back, she found her daughters had been raped by soldiers. So those are the shocking stories we hear from all over Africa, especially the ones that have war like Somalia.”
The biggest tragedy of all, however, is that far more than 95 percent of Somalis face an often unfriendly and dangerous world without the saving knowledge of Jesus in their lives. The fledgling Women of Hope team of refugee women is determined to change that fact by broadcasting the gospel to East Africa from a 250-kilowatt shortwave transmitter.
Early in the training process, division and suspicion were evident among team members because public profession of faith in Christ can be risky, even life-threatening, in Somalia. Through prayer and the sharing of testimonies, a spirit of unity and joy developed, allowing for the successful production of the first programs.
“We want to minister to our people by radio. We are ready!” the team members told the Project Hannah trainers.
The team is overjoyed that funding has been provided to start the ministry. They will be counting on the support of Project Hannah prayer intercessors around the world as they speak hope to the millions of Somalis in refugee camps and communities across East Africa, far away in European and U.S. cities, and on the soil of Somalia.