Once again, we are in a state of panic because we will be losing our excellent resident doctor in September when he will proceed on a Scholarship to specialise in Surgery.

Dr. Abdiqani who had gained practical experience at our hospital and later was assigned here on rotational internship, joined our staff after he completed his medical studies and internship. He lived here with us and is a highly dedicated and efficient young doctor who will be very hard to replace.

The Edna Adan Hospital which is a Teaching hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland, is looking for a resident Medical Doctor for a long-term appointment that initially will be for 12 months.

General Job Description

TITLE : Medical Officer

REPORTS TO : Hospital Director, or to Deputy Director when the Director is
absent

LOCATION : Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland

Background of Hospital:

Against all odds, and overcoming various technical and financial constraints, the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital was opened on the 9th of March 2002, and the first baby was born on the 10th March, 2002.

Within a short time, the hospital has become a referral hospital for obstetrical and medical emergencies for a wide geographical area in the Horn of Africa.

Between the 10th of March 2002 and the end of May, 2010, nearly 10,000 babies have been born, over 900 Caesarean Sections performed, over 10,000 sick men women and children treated ihe the hospital and over 80,000 persons treated as out patients.

The hospital is a training school for nurses, midwives, medical students, phamacy assistants and laboratory teachnicians.

Several other short courses and Seminars are frequently held for various categories of health workers.

Terms of Reference of Doctor

• Train, guide and supervise junior doctors working in the hospital in order to attain the highest standard of patient care with the available resources.
• Demonstrate and teach the use of diagnostic Ultrasound
• Demonstrate and teach use of ECG
• Participate in the examination and treatment of patients attending the Prenatal, Postnatal and Family Planning Clinics
• Participate in daily ward rounds or take turns with the other doctors to treat patients.
• Treat the patients admitted to Postnatal or General ward
• Be on call for Obstetrical Emergencies for Labour and Delivery Ward as well as in the medical ward in rotation with other doctors.
• Participate in development of guidelines for implementation of routine treatment Procedures and protocols as needed.
• Assist, demonstrate and teach correct surgical procedures to national doctors and medical students.
• Participate in the training and supervision of Midwives and Nurses working, or studying at the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital
• Participate in the training and supervision of student nurse-midwives, Health Officers as well as Laboratory Technician trainees as needed.
• Advise the Hospital Director about patient care responsibilities of the hospital
• Report to the Hospital Director, and upon request by the Director, to the hospital Board of Trustees on the status of the hospital.
• Submit a brief report at end of assignment to advise on how hospital standards could be improved further.

Salary and Other Compensation

Mrs. Edna Adan Ismail
Hospital Director

Tel: 00 252 2 4426 922

The Edna Adan Maternity Hospital (EAH), University of Hargeisa (UoH) and THET have a vacancy for a full time Lead tutor to head and implement the first BSc in Midwifery in Somaliland’s history.

Since declaring independence in 1991 Somaliland has suffered many of the problems associated with post conflict including a critical shortage of health professionals. This rewarding position offers a unique opportunity to be involved in the development of human and institutional capacity, crucial for the rebuilding of the health system in Somaliland.

THET is an international non governmental organisation which has been working with health institutions in Somaliland to strengthen the health system since 2000. The Edna Adan Hospital, located in Hargeisa, Somaliland, is a non-profit charity community hospital built by the Hospital Director and founder Edna Adan Ismail. The hospital is the main teaching institution in country for midwifery with a history of training community and post basic midwives. The University of Hargeisa is the largest university in the country with a reputation for providing courses astutely designed to build human capital in key areas essential to the country’s reconstruction. The BSc Midwifery students would join the University of Hargeisa community within the Faculty of Medicine.

Role

The post holder will lead the implementation of a high quality BSc Midwifery Programme for qualified midwives, the first BSc level Midwifery course to be run in Somaliland. In consultation with EAH and the UOH s/he will take overall responsibility for the delivery and evaluation of the course. As the course lead, s/he will be responsible for planning the teaching programme; supervising course tutors (including short term international technical support) and ensuring effective mentorship of the students.

Essential

• Practicing midwife and registered in own country
• University graduate, educated at least to Master’s Level
• Education qualification or proven extensive experience of midwifery teaching at BSc level, with strong clinical and theory skills
• Fluent English speaker (the course will be delivered 100% in English)
• Strong research skills
• Strong IT skills – word, power point and excel
• Able to work independently
• Innovative and adaptable, able to work effectively in a resource constrained environment
• Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate and collaborate effectively with people from a wide range of backgrounds

Desirable

• Substantial developing country work experience, preferably North / north-east Africa or sub-Sahara

To apply, please send a CV and a one page covering letter to Samira Abu-Helil, THET, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE or by email to: Samira at thet.org

*Funding for this programme and UoH accreditation is subject to approval.

While the American Academy of Pediatrics agrees that FGM serves no medical purpose, it argues that the current federal law has had the unintended consequence of driving some families to take their daughters to other countries to undergo mutilation. The pediatricians say that “it might be more effective if federal and state laws enabled pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick as a possible compromise to avoid greater harm.”

But is this plausible? I fear not.

I am familiar with this debate in two ways. First, I come from a culture where virtually every woman has undergone genital cutting. I was 5 years old when mine were cut and sewn. Second, while serving as a member of parliament in the Netherlands, I was assigned the portfolio for the emancipation and integration of immigrant women. One of my missions was to combat practices such as FGM.

Read the full article at The Daily Beast: Why Are American Doctors Mutilating Girls? by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This woman suffered from a vesicovaginal fistula for 20 years.

This opportunity offered free surgery and free pre and post operation care. To make this chance known to all those who could benefit from it, we utilized all the media available to us. We made radio announcements, took out ads in the local newspapers and even sent out mass SMS / mobile phone messages.

The response was the largest ever at our hospital. Over 30 women, from both Somaliland and Somalia, took part in this fistula camp.

Many of the moving stories that were related to us by the women brought tears to our eyes. One particular story stands out of a woman who has been suffering from an obstetric fistula for 20 years. She visited every traditional healer and tried every outlandish method, but she was never told that her condition could only be repaired surgically. After 20 years, she is dry and we are so grateful that we were given the chance to help this woman and others like her. We are indeed blessed.

We’re grateful and proud that the visiting team contained 2 female surgeons from Ethiopia. They were excellent surgeons and well experienced and they were also great role models for our medical students, nurses and midwives and all hospital staff who worked with them.

This intensive fistula camp was also a great opportunity for Somaliland doctors to take part in the surgeries and work with an international team.

A simple thank you is not enough to express our gratitude for the support and excellence of the WAHA and UAE Red Crescent team. The qualifications of the professionals and the quality of the surgeries performed were inspiring and unequaled.

We very sincerely hope that WAHA and UAE Red Crescent will keep us in their future plans for a visit once or twice a year, as much work still remains.

Read more at the WAHA web site: Somaliland Patients come from Somalia to be Operated in Obstetric Fistula Camp

We are proud to let you know that two of our Midwives received the Best Midwives Awards from the SNMA. Both were trained at our hospital and both work at our hospital and really deserve the honor.

Nimo and Muna receive an award

Somaliland Nursing & Midwifery Association

Meanwhile, blogger Andrew Sullivan, among others, is horrified to learn that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has endorsed a ‘kinder gentler’ form of FGM:

NEW YORK, May 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — International human rights organization Equality Now is stunned by a new policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which essentially promotes female genital mutilation (FGM) and advocates for “federal and state laws [to] enable pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ‘ritual nick’,” such as pricking or minor incisions of girls’ clitorises. The Policy Statement “Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors”, issued by the AAP on April 26, 2010, is a significant set-back to the Academy’s own prior statements on the issue of FGM and is antithetical to decades of noteworthy advancement across Africa and around the world in combating this human rights violation against women and girls. It is ironic that the AAP issued its statement the very same day that Congressman Joseph Crowley (D-NY) and Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) announced the introduction of new bipartisan legislation, The Girls Protection Act (H.R. 5137), to close the loophole in the federal law prohibiting FGM by making it illegal to transport a minor girl living in the U.S. out of the country for the purpose of FGM.

…and The Debate Continues

Edna Adan receives French Legion of Honor

On April 17, Edna Adan was presented the French Legion of Honor by the French Ambassador. This is France’s highest honor – grade de chevalier dans l’ordre de la Légion d’honneur. The decision to honor Edna with this title was made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in this letter.

As noted by the Ambassador in his speech conferring this honor, Edna might have chosen to receive the medal in Paris under a golden roof but, instead, chose to receive it here at the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital:

Edna, you were awarded the Legion of Honor because of your outstanding example as a human person. I cannot say more than these two words: a Human Person with all the dignity attached to this quality. The French Republic at the top has recognized in you a person who has promoted the Human values for which the French Republic stands in the world. That is the true meaning of your recognition. Many times we are not living up to our expectations as defender of human rights but we recognize this as our duty, our special mission in the world, in international politics and everyday life. We recognize when somebody in the world raises these expectations. We recognized you.

…Everybody should be made conscious that this other end of the world, best known as the land of chaos, we call it with you: Land of Hope.

The occasion was combined with the graduation ceremony for a class of 26 newly-trained Laboratory Technicians. Of these, 19 were boys and 6 were girls. In the final examination, the top three graduating students were all girls! Given the diminished status of women in Somaliland culture, this is considered to be excellent good news!

Edna Adan speaks accepting Legion of Honor

The French ambassador went on to say:

“We want to recognize future Ednas, maybe in the assembly today. I address the young nurses and laboratory technicians or pharmacists in training here: Are you ready to follow the path opened by Mama Edna Adan Ismael?

“Are you ready to become the new Ednas?

“It’s your turn now for the sake of yourself, your own dignity, the health of your sisters and daughters, we want you to give birth to healthy children who will be the strength of Somaliland tomorrow, mothers and babies defending peace and prosperity in this region the Horn of Africa.”

We have a new page in the main web site dedicated to this occasion. You can read the speeches by both the Ambassador and by Edna Adan:

Read More > Edna Adan Awarded French Nicolas Sarkozy

Letters of Congratulation include this one from Tropical Health and Education Trust, which partners with the hospital on training activities. It was such a proud occasion for Somaliland that the national television station will present a one-hour program about it tomorrow night.

Hillary Clinton with Edna Adan in NYC

The Daily Beast has kindly provided Edna with a photo of herself with Hillary Clinton. Edna missed getting a photo of the encounter, herself, but happily somebody else did. The two go way back.

I had a longish chat about FGM [Female Genital Mutilation] with Hilary Clinton and reminded her of our first meeting in Beijing in 1995 during the Women’s Conference there when I was the first person on that occasion to raise the question of FGM.

Here are four of the best of what was taken.

There are many (many!) more photos in the Edna Hospital Photo Gallery.

Edna Adan with Graduating Nurses

“The biggest gift I want to leave behind is not a building, but the skills I leave with the women. I want to train 1,000 midwives.”

Her progress so far is astounding. Since the hospital opened, they have delivered more than 9,500 women and lost only 39. “That’s 39 too many,” she laments, nonetheless delighted that they have reduced the maternal mortality rate by one-fourth. In 1988, the last time a study was done, there were 160 deaths per 10,000 births in Somaliland, making it the third worst in the world. “Women are dying of complications nobody is picking up,” she explains. “Because nobody is there to support them, care for them, or deliver them. They are getting infected, torn apart. No woman should die of childbirth, because modern obstetrics has ways to save them.” The challenge: “ignorance, poverty, and harmful traditions.”

Those are also the culprits in her other lifelong cause: ending the practice now called Female Genital Mutilation. When she started speaking out–to the embarrassment of her husband-it was simply Female Circumcision. “No one would talk about it then. I was the first Somali woman to pick up a microphone.” And despite all the publicity in recent years she says, “We have not cracked the surface of it. I am giving out a document at the conference showing a new survey of 4.000 women. Of them, 97 percent, shamefully, had been cut. After 34 years of campaigning. We’re nowhere near winning that battle.”

But Edna Adan Ismail takes comfort that now, “we have the whole world talking about it, it’s out of the closet.”

Read the Full Article