Murayo NurJust six months ago, Murayo Nur Ali was told that she had no hope of being treated for a severe injury she suffered during a gang-rape at age 7.

That was in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. But on Monday, she was full of hope as she stepped out of a private jet that flew her to Rochester for treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

Though Ali is 11 now, she looks like she hasn’t grown much since the attack. She’s gaunt and her wide eyes look languid. Still, she managed to smile and seem playful as she strode through dozens of people who waved encouraging signs and flowers at the Rochester International Airport.

One sign read, “The bad part is over.”

It’s exactly the message that the couple who sponsored Ali wanted to send her. The Rochester pair, Abdi and Zahra, who wouldn’t give their last names because they didn’t want to be overwhelmed with all those in need, didn’ know Ali until they read her story on a Somali website.

“We couldn’t sleep the night we saw [Ali] on the Internet,” said Abdi, who began to mobilize a network of people and organizations to help Ali. “She’s just like my 3-year-old daughter.”

Severe Injury

Ali was 7 when thugs kidnapped her near her family’s home in Mogadishu. She was going to a nearby grocery shop to buy cooking oil.

“Before you reach the shop, you will have to pass some old buildings which were ruined in the civil war,” according to a statement on the website Somalitalk.com from her father, recounting the events of that fateful March morning in 2002. “After [she was] away for 30 minutes I heard screaming.