Kiin Hasan Fakat,
Reporter
Kiin Hasan Fakat was born in the town of Buale in southern Somalia but fled across the border to Kenya as a young child when war engulfed her homeland. She was brought up and educated in the vast refugee camp of Dadaab, for a time the largest in the world.
“Living in Dadaab was a mixture of pleasure and hardship,” she says. “Some people probably find it strange that I say that living in a refugee camp was pleasurable, but it was enjoyable compared with Somalia because there was peace.”
After completing a journalism course at Kenya’s North Eastern National Polytechnic, Kiin worked for a year as a radio producer and reporter in Kenya for the Somali station Risala FM and the Kenyan station Key FM.
She then decided to go home to Somalia despite the ongoing insecurity. She moved to the southern city of Kismayo where she worked for Radio Kismayo and other media outlets.
Kiin’s very first radio programme focused on women’s issues and she remains committed to telling their stories. She plays an active role in women’s media groups including the Somali Media Women’s Association.
Kiin says Bilan is the place for her as it will provide a safe and inspiring environment for women to tell their stories. “Ask any Somali who they depend on. They will always say ‘my mother’. Everything in Somalia depends on women – the economy, the home, the children, the family.”