Amanda Lindhout - Return To North America

Return To North America

No longer working as a journalist, Lindhout studied Development Leadership at the COADY International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia and is the executive director of the Global Enrichment Foundation. Lindhout has yet to speak publicly about the specific details of her time in captivity but has become a much sought after speaker on the topics of forgiveness, compassion, social responsibility and women's rights. She refuses to discuss the specific details of what happened to her in captivity.

In 2009 Lindhout spoke alongside Eckhart Tolle, best-selling author of Power Of Now in Vancouver on the power of forgiveness.

In 2010 Lindhout addressed the United Nations Association in Ottawa, Canada about women's rights.

In July 2010 Google Ideas had Lindhout moderate a panel of former violent extremists at the Summit Against Violent Extremism in Dublin, Ireland. The event was the largest gathering of former violent extremists to ever take place and was organized by Google, the Council of Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival. Lindhout moderated a panel which included a former Somali militant with Al-Shabaab, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. Toronto Star reporter Michelle Shepard observed the tension on stage:

"The only detectable moment came during a panel moderated by Amanda Lindhout, the Canadian journalist who was held hostage in Somalia for 460 days, and Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who left Toronto to fight with Al Shabab during Ethiopia’s invasion in 2008. Lindhout had asked Mohamed how he justified the deaths and injuries of civilians while a part of the Somali group, but instead he spoke of the political motivations as to why he went to fight with the Shabab."

Lindhout is currently writing a memoir, titled A House In The Sky to be published by Scribner in 2013.

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