When Somalia was ravaged by civil war in the 1990s, the health infrastructure, including hospitals, clinics and health institutes were mostly demolished, abandoned, or confiscated to serve as privately owned structures. As a result, proper health facilities are very scarce, and badly needed. To provide crucial health services to thousands of Somali women and children, Muslim Aid has established mother-and-child clinics, and mini-hospitals, in five major towns in southern Somalia, including Mogadishu, Wanleweyn, Kismayo, Jamame, and El-Ali.

However, despite the efforts that have been made to reach as many poor beneficiaries as possible with the established health facilities, there were still thousands of mothers, children and elderly living in refugee camps in the major towns and in remote villages who were unable to reach the centres for treatment.  In fact, within Mogadishu alone, there are more than 250,000 internally displaced people.

They included 35-year old Safia Abdullahi Mohamed, a refugee from Ethiopia who was later caught up in the Somali civil war, and forced to take refuge with her family once more. Safia fled from Lower Shabelle to join a camp in Mogadishu.

“The life of my family has never been easy, and we lived in a very bad situation,” said Safia.  “My husband and I tried hard to provide for our nine children, but we never had enough to cover expenses for education, medication, and living expenses. Members of my family are often falling ill.”

Getting proper transportation can be a major difficulty for most Somalis, so Muslim Aid, in association with the World Health Organisation (WHO), introduced mobile clinics to take medical health care to the people. The programme, which runs from November until January of next year, will target more than 50,000 mothers and children around the country.

“I am thankful for this opportunity to get free medical treatment,” said Safia, whose youngest son has been ill with a bad cough.  “I earn some money from school cleaning, but it is not enough.  Thank you for your support, Muslim Aid.”

The mobile clinic will visit 50 camps in Mogadishu, and 84 camps in remote villages in the Jamame and Afmadow districts, and adjoining areas. There, the team of selected health professionals are expected to deal with a number of diseases, such as malaria, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, scabies, worms, eye diseases, anaemia, malnutrition, respiratory diseases, and sexually transmitted diseases.

“We hope that in the end thousands of poor mothers and children will have received the health services they need,” said Ahmed Muhummed, Muslim Aid’s country manager for Somalia. “Through this partnership with the WHO, we believe that we can save thousands of lives.”