photocredit: desertflowerfoundation.orgWaris Dirie is a nomad Somali model, author, actress, women's right activist and UN Special Ambassador (1997-2003), a mother of four. She was born in the year 1965 in Galkayo, Somalia to a nomadic family. At thirteen years of age, she was arranged to marry an older man sixty-five years of age but she escaped and fled to Mogadishu to live with her older sister and her family. Waris lived briefly there and later moved to London, along with a few relatives, where she resided with and worked for an uncle who had been appointed Somali ambassador. When her uncle's term in office ended, he moved back home, to Somali but Waris remained in the city and held a job at a local McDonald's and while working, she enrolled in evening classes to learn English.
Waris as luck may have it, was discovered and scouted by photographer Terence Donovan, who helped secure for her the cover of the 1987 Pirelli Calender. That gave her modelling career a lift off, and she started appearing in advertisements for top designers as Chanel, Levi's, L'Oreal and Revlon.
In 1987, Waris played a minor role in the James Bond movie, The Living Daylights. She also appeared on the runways of London, Milan, Paris and New York City, and in fashion magazines such as Elle, Glamour and Vogue. This was followed in 1995 by a BBC documentary entitled A Nomad in New York about her modelling career.
In 1997, at the height of her modelling career, in an interview with Laura Ziv, of the women's magazine Marie Claire, Waris spoke for the first time about the female genital mutilation (FGM) that she undergone as a child, at the age of five along with her two sisters. That same year, Warris became a UN ambassador for the abolition of FGM. She later paid her mother a visit in her native Somalia.
In 1998, Waris authored her first book, Desert Flower, an autobiography that went on to become an international bestseller. She later released other successful books including Desert Dawn, Letter To My Mother, and Desert Children, the latter of which was launched against FGM.
In 2009, a feature-length film based on Waris's book Desert Flower was released, with the Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kabede playing her. The movie has so far been released in 20 countries including France, Spain, Israel, Greece, Poland and Brazil. In January 2010, it won the Bavarian Film Awards in Munich in the "Best Movie" category. It was also nominated for a Film Award in Gold in the "Outstanding Feature Film" category at the German Film Awards, and won the Audience Award in the Audience Award in the "Best European Film" category at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
In 2010, Waris was appointed Peace Ambassador for the Year of Peace and Security by the African Union.
Her Humanitarian work, awards and honours:
In 1997, Waris abandoned her modelling career to focus on her work against FGM. That same year, she was appointed the UN Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. In 2002, she founded the Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna, Austria, an organization aimed at raising awareness regarding the dangers surrounding FGM. Waris followed that in January 2009 with the establishment of the PPR Foundation, for Women's Dignity and Rights, an organization she founded along with French tycoon Francois-Henri Pinault (CEO of PPR) and his wife, Hollywood actress Salma Hayek. Waris has also started the Desert Dawn Foundation, which raises money for schools and clinics in her native Somalia, and supports the Zeitz Foundation, an organization focussed on sustainable development and conservation. She recently opened a medical centre in Berlin that offers reconstructive surgery for FGM.
Her Awards includes, Woman of the Year Award (2000) by Glamour magazine. Corine Award (2002) of the umbrella association of the German bookselling trade. Women's World Award (2004) from former President of the USSR, Miikhail Gorbachev. Bishop Oscar Romero Award (2005) by the Catholic Church. Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (2007) from former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy. Prix des Generations (2007) by the World Demographic Association. Martin Buber Gold Medal from the Euriade Foundation (2008), founded by Wermer Janssen in 1981. Gold medal of the President of the Republic of Italy (2010) for her achievements as a human rights activist.
Culled from Wikipedia.
LESSON: Truly sky is no limit for him who has set out to live for others.
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