United States Agency for Global Media

Stowaway’s father talks to VOA Somali Service: Leading U.S. news organizations turn to VOA for exclusive material

April 25, 2014

Voice of America has long been delivering news – and also long been breaking news. The most recent example is an exclusive VOA’s Somali Service got with the father of the young stowaway who survived a flight from California to Hawaii hidden in a jetliner’s wheel well. Soon after the news broke, journalists from many media outlets tracked down the boy’s father and tried to get him to talk.  But the father, Abdilahi Yusuf Abdi, refused, with one exception, to speak with any of them. The exception was a reporter for VOA’s Somali Service: Mohamed Olad. But the story didn’t come easily. Read More