For over two decades, Dr. Deqo Mohamed, Founder & Executive Director of the Hargala Institute,  has been leading efforts to respond to the public health crises caused by insecurity and climate change in the Horn of Africa region. As a renowned humanitarian doctor, she has spent years on the frontlines fighting against famine, severe malnutrition, maternal death, and infant mortality. She has treated patients under the threat of war and terrorism, and has witnessed firsthand how climate change has pushed community health in Somalia to the brink.

After the 2011 famine that killed 260,000 people, Dr. Deqo and her team launched a new initiative to help mitigate the extreme effects of climate change on her community and country. Starting in 2012, she pioneered the urban cultivation of Moringa Oleifera trees, a uniquely nutritious and protein-rich crop that thrives under extreme drought conditions. At the height of the famine, Dr. Deqo planted a local variety of Moringa Oleifera trees outside her medical clinic, and shared her crops and seeds with the tens of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) who were camped out near her clinic.

Ten years later, Moringa Oleifera is now cultivated in backyards and street corners across Somalia, as a life-saving strategy to protect against famine. Building on this success, Dr. Deqo and the Hagarla Institute are now leading a global team of scientists and researchers to determine how exactly Somalia – and other countries across the Horn of Africa and Sahel regions of Africa – can use Moringa Oleifera as a low-cost, high-impact tool to offset the extreme effects of climate change, improve local food security, and protect community health.