IMITIAZ HASSAN HUSSEIN: THE YOUNG PHILANTHROPIST WITH THE HEART OF GOLD

When the news of the Mogadishu blast was announced on the local TV station, young Imitiaz Hassan Hussein, stood up and made desperate phone calls to people she doesn’t know. People she never met with teary eyes. She talked to them as tears of anguish rolled down her cheeks. Dry prickly tears that she wiped off with the edge of her long hijab. 

The Saturday’s attack that came two weeks after more than 400 people lost their lives in a massive truck bombing on a busy Mogadishu street in Somalia’s worst-ever attack devastated her tender heart. “Dear God, please save the people of Somalia from this menace,” she said as she mobilized human and financial resources to help the victims of terror activities. 

In spite of her filial, caring, philanthropic nature, Imitiaz is only 20 year old and a student at the University of Nairobi, pursuing degree in international relations, this down-to-earth young lady won the hearts and minds of many people, especially less fortunate when she was captured on one of the international media donating blood for the Mogadishu’s terror victims. 

Young Imitiaz was so affected by the terror that she walked into Eastleigh Sunrise Mall and donated two pints of blood. She is O positive and a universal donor. “I hope my blood will save a life in Mogadishu,” she said as she walked away after donation. Born and bred in Nairobi, Imitiaz was nominated as Youth Peace Ambassador by the UN in 2013, a position she used to influence minds and mind-sets of the youth in Nairobi and Northern Kenya educating them on dangers of radicalization and drugs.




A student at University of Nairobi, young Imtiaz also works with other student to promote human rights activities including advocating access to quality education for marginalized pastoral communities. She was the brain behind #IstandwithMogadishu initiative that raised funds to help victims of the Mogadishu blast that claimed over 400 lives Raising funds to help less fortunate was not an easy task for young Imitiaz. Some of her friends ridiculed her; some taunted her. 

But no matter how many times she was knocked down or made to endure things that no one should, she just kept pursing her passion to help the poor; caring more and loving more—opening herself up to even more pain. Yet there were never any complaints or bitterness—it was the only way she knew how to live. The kind of love Imitiaz felt for the less fortunate was a love without condition. 

She interacted with drug addicts, chokoras. She may not have approved of everything they did, may not have liked some of the actions we made, but she didn’t lecture, she didn’t judge. She just kept loving them, supporting them, counselling them, letting them know that she was there and if they ever needed her, they could count on her to listen, to comfort, to help.

Imitiaz lives a simple life. It doesn’t take much to make her happy—seeing a hungry child fed, visiting a homeless widow at the slum in South B fills her with joy. To her, the less fortunate are the most important people in the world. She worked and she spent most of her earnings to make lives better for the poor. To think that someone like her feels that way about the poor should make us all feel more than just a little good. 

We should all know that that there is a part of Imitiaz in each of us, something that she gave to the poor and asked nothing for in return. A heart of compassion. A heart of gold. “Money can be squandered and property ruined, but the compassion and affection we give to the poor kids, the widows, the orphans and downtrodden cannot be damaged or lost” she told me. “It is permanent.” She added. Imitiaz is a heroine, I celebrate as she takes it upon herself to help the victims of 17 th twin blast.