Mogadishu – At the crack of dawn, 21-year-old Maryan Nuh Muse leaves the comfort of her home in a suburb of Mogadishu for the athletic track at the Benadir Stadium, the capital’s largest outdoor sports arena.

Baidoa –  Mukhtar Abdi was tending to his family’s goats in the southwestern Somali city of Baidoa one day when a shiny, circle-shaped metallic object caught the nine-year-old boy’s attention. “It seemed beautiful to me.

After decades of war, which left Somalia languishing without a central government, Somali women are taking charge of the country’s destiny by improving the lives of hundreds of people.