The jewel hospital that takes care of the children in the country that is not there, Somaliland

[Deeq A.]

In the peaceful Somaliland, not recognized by the international community,  the Mas Children Hospital of Hargeisa works. It is the only one of the Eastern Horn  who cares for children otherwise destined to die. An African jewel run by Africans.

And if there is no incubator? «We use the method of mother kangaroo». Sometimes it happens, says Dr. Khadra: premature babies are born in apnea, “they do not weigh a pound”, but in the hospital there is no equipment where to put them. “Then we resort to the most natural and effective method: we wrap them in a belt carrier and leave them all day on the mother’s chest, skin to skin …”. It works? “It must work. Because being a doctor here is a question of energy and fantasy “.

Here is the Mas Children Hospital of Hargeisa, capital of Somaliland. An African jewel, run by African doctors. The only one of the Eastern Horn able to admit children destined, otherwise, to sure death. Six pediatricians directed by Khadra Ibrahimi, who studied in Rome and specialist at Sant’Anna di Torino, returned home four years ago to help build this project Mas, initials dedicated to Mohamed Aden Sheikh: a doctor exiled by the Somali dictator Siad Barre, who in the 1990s was a municipal councilor in Turin and who, before dying, returned to independent Somaliland, could not see for a few months the laying of the last stone:  explains Khadra – having a specialized hospital is a very rare thing. Yet it is more useful than traditional hospitals. Because once you had to go to Europe, for certain treatments.

Five years of activity, 60 thousand children treated for free, plastic and pediatric surgery, otorino and orthopedics, an all-local team educated by the doctors of Regina Margherita of Turin. For one month Mas has also opened an operating block and an intensive therapy, another three years of training for an international mission directed by Professor Piero Abbruzzese, the Italian soul of the hospital, pioneer of infant cardiac surgery, now scientific director of the non-profit organization Marco Berry and Hargeisa’s government adviser: “When I arrived in 2011, there was nothing. I immediately liked the idea of ​​a hospital that works, more so on a generic concept of charity, on conscious solidarity towards a country ignored by the world.

The hospital in the country that is not there. Because the peaceful Somaliland is a geopolitical paradox, not recognized by the international community that has always covered the aid of the neighboring Somalia of the el shebabs and the Islamic courts. For a quarter of a century and independent from Mogadishu – after a war that cost hundreds of thousands of deaths, a million refugees, Hargeisa was destroyed to the ground by the bombs of Siad Barre – Somaliland today has its own currency, army, and government. And it is a small miracle of African stability: the last elections were held without shootings. Very poor land, the 4 million inhabitants live on, mainly, remittances from the Somaliland diaspora and some livestock sold to the rich in the Gulf.

Few things give pride like the Mas hospital: “Nobody recognizes us as a state – smiles Khadra – but patients are sent to us, and so on …”. Despite a thousand problems: blackouts, to be corrected with generators; water, which is missing in half the capital; salaries and supplies to pay, “we have collected 200 thousand dollars of charity, but they are never enough”. And above all the spare parts: “If you break an anesthesia machine, how do you repair it? The last time a volunteer came from Florence. But now we would like to train our technicians “. The new surgical pavilion has just been dedicated to Professor Abbruzzese: We owed it to her. You Italians do a lot for us. But we know it: one day Africa will have to learn to help itself.

Note: Translated via Google Translation tool