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Naima

Naima lives in a tiny, two-room flat in the East Midlands. She is unable to open the windows in the dark, airless bedroom where she sleeps with her four-month-old son, Mahat, because they are boarded up with metal sheeting. There is no hot water. The landlord has told her to boil it if she needs it, but the cooker is faulty. When she tries to turn on the hobs, the loud snap of a circuit
breaker makes her jump with fright.

Naima is a long way from her home town of Merca, overlooking the Indian Ocean 60 miles south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, where the regular calls to prayer were interrupted by occasional ruptures of gunfire. When she ventures outside, she would like to be able to speak to local people,but knows only a handful of English words.

"I am learning English from the TV,” she says. “I want to go to school but who is going to take care of my child?"

A shopkeeper’s daughter, Naima, 29, was a college student in Somalia. Her family were members of an ethnic group, the Ashraf, which since the outbreak of civil war has been preyed upon by militias from the dominant Somali clans. Minorities like the Ashraf have been the victims of killings, lootings, rapes and abductions. Naima had already lost her husband to the civil war when her father was killed and her mother disappeared. Naima was raped on several occasions by militiamen.

"I was pregnant and there was nobody left to protect me. I knew I had to escape for the sake of my unborn child."

Naima was brought to the UK by an agent. She applied for asylum in October 2002. In December 2002, Naima declined an offer of temporary leave to remain in the UK for one year. She has asked the Home Office to grant her full refugee status.

Since its opening in November 2002, Naima has been a regular visitor at the Women’s Welcome Project in Leicester, a centre run by Refugee Action and the Church of the Martyrs, which offers isolated refugee women support and advice and the chance to form social networks.

"The staff and volunteers are very good friends to me. They help me with milk, nappies and clothing. Other Somali women come and I can talk in my own language. It makes me feel less lonely. All I want is to be safe and healthy and live in peace."