For rising second-year law student Abadir Barre, spending the summer working for the Puntland Legal Action Center (PLAC) in northern Somalia is more than a calling–it’s a homecoming.
Barre is from Somalia, in fact, his father was the minister of foreign affairs there, and his uncle, Siad Barre, was the president before he was overthrown at the start of the civil war in 1991. “As you can imagine, I was raised in a very patriotic household,” he says. “Growing up, I saw how my father and uncle served the Somali community, and it was admirable. So, my passion to do public service started at a young age.”