Prayers of nomads – Valerie Browning and Mohammed Salih

Soul Search

The Horn of Africa is one of the hottest and poorest regions on earth, and it’s home to a semi-nomadic community, the Afar. Valerie Browning is an Australian nurse who has given up her own way of life to live and work with Afar people for over 30 years. War in the horn of Africa has had a devastating impact on the Afar. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes just in the last two years – a small number of Afar now live in Australia as refugees. Valerie Browning AM is an Australian nurse who has lived and worked with Afar nomads in northern Ethiopia for more than 31 years. She is one of the founders of the Afar Pastoralists Development Association and was awarded an Order of Australia in 1999 for service to international humanitarian aid. Mohammed Salih is president of the Afar Community of Queensland, a group of nearly 60 people living in the greater Brisbane region. He grew up in Eritrea before moving to Australia as a refugee.