Somali refugee speaks out after attack

December 29, 2019 6:48 pm

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — This weekend’s deadly terror attack in Mogadishu, Somalia hits close to home for Ubah Kahiye.

It’s where she’s from, and it’s where her family was killed in a similar attack.

After being shot multiple times, she was left in a wheelchair, making her even more vulnerable in a society with limited handicap accessibility.

“A hard life,” Kahiye said. “They don’t have peace. If you go outside, not safe. We don’t have medical care.”

Human rights organizations helped bring her to Rhode Island four years ago.

It changed her life.

“I have everything now,” Kahiye said. “A house, care.”

She was the first of 80 refugees Michael Kaprielian has provided shelter for here.

“What she said is something important to all of us: ‘Now I know how freedom feels.'”Kaprielian said.

Sunday she was a featured speaker at an Amnesty International human rights gathering called “Write for Rights,” at the First Unitarian Church of Providence.

Attendees wrote letters to government officials around the world advocating for people in desperate need.

“It’s important to care for all countries, not just our own,” said Shirley Dufresne of Somerset.

Kaprielian, a Vietnam veteran, says he thinks of Kahiye when he marches in Bristol’s 4th of July parade.

“We need somebody like her at the head of the parade,” he said, “to remind those of us that have forgotten, or taken for granted, what this freedom is all about.”