Amanda Lindhout
Amanda Lindhout
Amanda Lindhout is a Canadian humanitarian, public speaker and journalist. On August 23, 2008, she and members of her entourage were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents in southern Somalia. She was released 15 months later on November 25, 2009, and has since embarked on a philanthropic career. In 2013, she released the New York Times bestseller A House in the Sky: A Memoir, in which she recounts her early life, travels as a young adult, and hostage experience. In 2014, the...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth12 June 1981
CountryCanada
I'm afraid of elevators, because they are an enclosed space, but I get in.
After being in captivity for so long, I can't begin to describe how wonderful it feels to be home in Canada.
I have watched lives change. I have seen women gain confidence.
I don't think I'm unusual in that, in my 20s, like many people, I felt invincible.
I am so proud to be a Canadian.
A little goes a long way in Somalia: $5 will feed a person there for about two weeks.
Maintaining my dignity is so important for me.
I used my captors names every chance I had. It was intentional, a way of reminding them that I saw them, of pegging them, of making them see me in return.
Women in Somalia face almost unimaginable oppression.
The road to recovery will not always be easy, but I will take it one day at a time, focusing on the moments I've dreamed about for so long.
The same men who are placing all these outrageous restrictions on women’s freedoms in southern Somalia – that type of mentality – that’s what I had to deal with in captivity.
Being in the dark, there's a real weight to it. It's heavy.
I know firsthand how critical support systems are.
I'm not afraid of IED's, bullets, mortars.