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.

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

Video of Edna Adan at CGI

At a time when the world finds itself on an unsustainable course, facing an increasing number of complex challenges for which traditional approaches are no longer sufficient, innovation stands as a key to addressing many of the issues confronting us today. During this session, experts in the field will discuss the importance of innovation as a vehicle for building a sustainable future. Where does innovation begin? What should be the role of government in promoting and facilitating innovation? Which countries are leading the charge, and how do you best position yourself and your organization to take advantage? This panel will provide a broad introduction to innovation, various approaches to cultivate it, and implications for those who pursue it and those who don’t.

You are able to skip ahead – Edna is introduced at about the 37-minute mark:

Edna gives a real nice little speech about determination in difficult circumstances at about the 1:02 mark.
At 1:16 she begins discussing the causes of high rates of maternal mortality, leading into an assertion that the most important thing anybody can do to show support for women is to support greater educational opportunities.
At 1:24 Edna speaks about how Somaliland’s success is representative of what a people can do with limited resources if they have sufficient resolve to improve their circumstances.

Meanwhile, civil society, so devastated in the rest of the Somali lands, has made tremendous strides in Somaliland, carving out a space for private civic and charitable engagement. To cite just one example, the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, founded in 2002 by Edna Adan Ismail, the former foreign minister of Somaliland (2003-2006) who donated her pension from the World Health Organization as well as other personal assets to it, provides a higher standard of care than available anywhere else in the Somali lands for maternity and infant conditions as well as diagnosis and treatment for HIV/AIDS and sexually-transmitted diseases and general medical treatments. In addition, the hospital serves as a teaching hospital, training an entire generation of nurses and midwives qualified to provide reproductive healthcare throughout the country and serving as a medical research center, with a special attention paid to the health problems associated with female genital mutilation.

On the specific question of recognition of Somaliland independence, Dr. Pham quotes from a report by the African Union.

The official report of an AU fact-finding mission to the republic in 2005 led by AU Deputy Chairperson Patrick Mazimhaka concluded: “The fact that the union between Somaliland and Somalia was never ratified and also malfunctioned when it went into action from 1960 to 1990, makes Somaliland’s search for recognition historically unique and self-justified in African political history. Objectively viewed, the case should not be linked to the notion of ‘opening a Pandora’s Box’. As such, the AU should find a special method of dealing with this outstanding case.”

Full article: Somaliland: What Somalia Could Be

We are proud and happy to have been able to conduct this training at our hospital. Some of the many photos taken during Graduation, which was attended by the Minister of Health of Somaliland, have been added to our Edna Hospital Gallery.

The course was funded by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Click above to view the entire map. Notice that you can use the controls to zoom in and out, or click on the map itself and drag it.

Also, please note that the satellite image is presently a few years out of date and there have been several extensions to the hospital since the time of this photo.

For most of the last decade, Somaliland’s governance and human rights record have drawn praise, particularly compared with those of its neighbors. Somaliland boasts free speech and private newspapers. Its population voluntarily disarmed, reconciled and made the transition to an elected, civilian government.

By contrast, Somalia continues to struggle with no fully functioning government. Ethiopia has been accused of heavy-handed crackdowns against its citizens. Eritrea has no elections or free press.

Read the complete article: Somaliland strives to stand out in troubled region

The people of the African republic of Somaliland voted in 1991 to become an independent nation. They argue that there are enough cultural, political and social differences between them and the people of Somalia to make Somaliland a separate country, as was the case briefly in 1960. But the world has not yet formally recognized an independent Somaliland, a cause dear to the hearts of its people. Cathy Majtenyi files this report for VOA on the push for international recognition.

Somalilanders stress that their country is peaceful and orderly — a fully functional state in sharp contrast to the chaotic warlord system and weak central government of Somalia.

The British had a strong presence in Somaliland by the late 1800s, with Somaliland becoming a British protectorate, separate from Italian-ruled lands to the south.

Berbera port also served the US navy in the 1980s during the first Gulf war.

A Stoning in Somalia

Incidentally, for anyone interested in Somalia, there is a superb aid project in the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland: a maternity hospital run by Edna Adan, a former U.N. official who used her savings and pension to build the hospital and fight death in childbirth. Edna is truly waging a heroic battle to improve health care and raise the status of women among Somalis, and it’s being supported by various Americans who know Edna and have been moved by her work. I visited her and have this video of her work.

Here is Devin’s second video from Somaliland. This one is a little more focused on the country itself but it also includes an interview with Edna Adan Ismail, who, previously served as Somaliland’s foreign minister between 2003 and 2006.