Edna with First Baby born at HospitalHARGEISA- Edna Adan Hospital was 10 years old on the 9th of March, 2012. During the past 10 years we delivered over 12,000 babies and treated over 14,000 patients.The achievement that we are most proud of is we have trained over 700 students, many of them in nursing and midwifery but also belonging to other disciplines such as laboratory technology and pharmacy technicians.
Statistics
$2000 is what we offer to an obstetrics doctor for each month of service – and we need one right now!
$4000 trains a midwife for two years – it used to be 18 months but we found that 24 months training is necessary.
$6000 gives us a midwife trainer for one year.
$30,000 would get us a new ambulance. The old ambulance – donated by the UN High Commission for Refugees – is 12 years old and spends more time in the ambulance hospital than it does in service to the Maternity Hospital. Among my nightmares is to have the ambulance break down while it is carrying a patient. That's scary. We don't want a costly high-tech Western-style ambulance. Rather, we are looking for a simple 4-wheel drive Toyota African field ambulance that is ready for rough road.
$37,000 is the price we were told for a solar power system. This estimate includes many batteries. Our understanding is that solar power supplemented by wind energy would result in a more reliable supply, reducing the need for batteries. What we need, first of all, is for somebody to come here and tell us what we need.
To me, this is the biggest gift that I can give to my people. Knowledge. Whatever progress I wish for my people, cannot be achieved unless we have the trained manpower.
The hospital is much bigger today than it was ten years ago.
The original buildings of March 2002 now have extensions that include the laboratory; the outpatient facilities; and the two new operating theaters. Staff accommodation have been extended and new toilets have been built for patients.
Most of all, we are proud and grateful that the hospital now has its own water well – thanks to France!
We have grown from being a Maternity Hospital into a referral hospital for every kind of medical problem.
Our sincere appreciation is expressed for all the support that we have received to this date and we hope that the confidence that you have shown in us and the generosity that you have extended to us will continue in the years to come.
Special Thanks
These extensions and whatever progress we have made could never have been achieved without the support that we receive from so many directions.
1) Support from the government and the institutions of Somaliland who facilitate the operation of the hospital.
2) Business people of Somaliland, among whom I must thank the generous anonymous benefactor who donated our water tanker.
3) OGF group and the new Somaliland Coca Cola factory who gave us all the water free of charge when we were doing the bore hole for the well.
4) Supporter from abroad.
Friends of Edna Hospital
The Friends of Edna Hospital board tops our list of foreign supporters. They have been the lifeline of the hospital since the time of its construction to the present. FOEH board members have given us generous donations and mobilized themselves to raise funds for the hospital. They have given us the benefit of their legal background to ensure that the hospital's tax free status is scrupulously maintained.
At this point, I must thank Nicolas Kristof of the NY Times who has been our strongest champion, who comes and spends precious time with us and writes about what he sees, mobilizing his vast readership.
An example was the generous support the hospital received a year ago on Mother's Day, 2011 when Nick urged that, in place of flowers and candy, his readers honor their mothers with a gift in support of maternal and infant care. That response is now helping us to cover the costs associated with the 45 midwives who are in training right now.
Electricity
This year, our wish list is headed by the solar and wind energy to generate electricity for the hospital which would reduce the extremely high electricity bills of the hospital. We pay for electricity from a private electric company, but that is unreliable so we have backup from the government's electricity provider. That one, too, is unreliable and, because we cannot allow for a power outage – such as during a surgical operation – we have a standby generator. Somaliland has a lot of sunshine, if only we could make use of it.
Doctors Needed
In 10 years, 117 volunteers have come to us from these countries:
• Abu Dhabi
• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• China
• Denmark
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Japan
• Kenya
• Latvia
• Kuwait • Nepal
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Nigeria
• Norway
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Rwanda
• Somaliland
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Syria
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom
• United States
Also high on our list is to find the means to recruit more health professionals that the hospital needs to teach our students and to treat our patients. Our medical schools are young and the graduates from these institutions have a long time to go before they will gain the experience and the qualifications that are necessary to run a safe and efficient hospital that sets standards for Somaliland.
God Bless You,
Edna Adan Ismail
I cannot end my message without thanking and mentioning the volunteers who have come here during these ten years. I still recall frantic phone calls from worried parents inquiring about their children when sometimes a volunteer forgets to write home. In spite of the bad reputation of Somalia, which is unfairly attached to that of Somaliland, 117 volunteers have come here to support us during these ten years.
Source: Edna Aden Maternity Hospital
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