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Somali-Canadian hip-hop artist K'naan travelled to Somalia in September, 2011, to see how he could help.Nabil Elderkin

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K'naan visited camps for displaced people and hospitals. He was shocked by what he saw.Nabil Elderkin

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People carry water at the Tarabunka camp for internally displaced persons in Mogadishu on Sept. 7, 2011.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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Makeshift shelters at the Sayidka camp for displaced persons.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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A mother washes her child at the Sayidka camp on Sept. 6, 2011.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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A woman walks in front of the country's parliament buildings, heavily damaged after many years of war. K'naan remembers the country's elegant buildings of his youth.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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K'naan's father, who fled Somalia years before his son, would send him rap albums from the United States. K'naan used them to learn English.

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When he was eight, K'naan's uncle had let him shoot an AK-47 on the streets of Mogadishu. He grew up in Toronto after his family fled Somalia when he was 13.

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