More than three years have passed since her story first made headlines, and it was a year and a half ago that she was released by her Somali captors – in that time, Amanda Lindhout has worked hard to empower women in the Horn of Africa.
"I wondered what type of men they would have become if they had been raised by educated women," Lindhout said about her teenage captors.
"What a woman is taught, she shares with her family."
Now, her work has touched youth in the Capital Region.
A group of students attending Memorial Composite High School in Stony Plain have joined in to raise funds for Lindhout's Global Enrichment Foundation.
The 15 students worked for eight months, raising money in any number of ways to help the foundation.
In the end, the fruits of their labour totaled $23,000, which will help six more Somali women, go to university.
"We want to give them a voice and they don't have that because they don't have an education," Student Danya LeBlanc said.
"It feels like a huge weight is off my shoulders."
In all 36 women will be getting a scholarship from Lindhout's foundation.
With files by Jessica Earle
