How to Learn More—and How to Help | Newsweek Against the Odds

Opening Doors for Fellow Refugees
Ellis Cose 11/19/2007 12:00:00 AM
Lorna Solis was 10 when she fled the violence in Nicaragua, the same age Abass Hassan Mohamed was when he and his family escaped war-ravaged Somalia. "We're different, but we're alike," said Solis, which is one reason she relates so strongly to Abass's story. It is also why Solis, director of Latin America and Africa for Institutional Investor, is working with Abass to form a foundation to bring other refugee camp residents to American universities.
IRAQ
There’s No Place Like … Iraq?
Larry Kaplow
Dawood is happy to be back in Baghdad. Not that he had much choice. Late last year the cautious, soft-spoken Shiite fled to Syria and on to Lebanon, leaving his wife and their three children in relatives' care while he looked for a safer home. He had begun getting death threats after helping create an Internet hookup for the U.S. Army base at Taji. Dawood (he won't risk the use of his full name) is a 33-year-old IT engineer, but he couldn't find work outside Iraq. His Lebanese visa ran out, and Canada refused his asylum application. So a few weeks ago, practically broke, he returned to Baghdad. His old district is torn by an ongoing Shia-Sunni turf war, but Dawood says he feels safe in the family's new, mainly Shia area. His youngest child, now 3, called him "Uncle" at first, and he's still looking for work, but it's good just to be with his family. "I'll tell you something about missing Baghdad," he says. "When I'm in Baghdad, I don't want to hear any Iraqi music. But when I'm somewhere else, all I want to hear is Iraqi music."
From A Prison to Princeton
Ellis Cose
When Abass Hassan Mohamed was born in Somalia in 1982, his father honored the event with a variation on a traditional Somali ritual. Instead of tying the umbilical cord to a goat or wad of money—in hopes that the child would prosper when he grew up—Hassan Mohamed Abdi tied it to a book and buried it near a school. "A book and a pen. I did that for all my children," says Abdi, a bearded man of regal bearing. He was convinced that his progeny, members of a scorned minority tribe, would need a strong education to make their way in the world.
CORRUPTION
The Nairobi Connection

He fled the civil war in Somalia in 1991. Ever since he has lived in a dusty camp in northern Kenya, enduring the indignity and poverty of life as a refugee--and dreaming of escape to America or Europe. Never had his hopes soared so high as that afternoon, last summer, when he stood in a Nairobi hotel room fingering the $3,400 packed neatly into the brown envelope tucked inside his pocket. It had taken him months to beg, borrow and save the money that he was about to pay to two United Nations officials sitting across from him. It was a bribe, pure and simple. But Ahmed saw it as his ticket to a better future.
Shattered Lives: The Faces Of A Tragic Flight

Thanks to Acevedo, there will be a lot more UNICEF coin boxes this Halloween. As director of public relations for UNICEF, Acevedo, 32, oversaw a wide range of projects designed to raise public awareness of the international children's fund, whether it was entertaining Hillary Clinton at an official function, teaching the merengue to UNICEF board members in the Dominican Republic or helping to reintroduce the orange charity boxes to another generation of trick-or-treaters. Acevedo began her career doing public relations in the fashion industry but soon realized that helping people in need was her true calling. Says UNICEF executive president Chip Lyons: "It's terrible to find something you love doing so young and then be cut off so quickly."
INTERVIEW
'Practically All of Us Were Hawks’
Lally Weymouth
Israeli President Shimon Peres, 85, is the last remaining founding father of the Israeli state still in office. A hawk who helped build Israel's military-industrial complex, in recent years Peres has been a leader in the search for peace with the Palestinians. As part of Israel's 60th-anniversary celebrations, Peres is hosting a conference this week titled "Facing Tomorrow," which will be attended by President George W. Bush and other dignitaries. Last week Peres looked forward as well as back in an interview with NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth in Jerusalem. Excerpts: