Published
Monday, January 29, 2001
Minnesotans help support new teaching hospital in
Somalia
Statewire
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A new maternity hospital built in
Somalia is now close to opening, thanks to some Minnesota
support.
The Friends of Edna Adan Hospital, a Minnesota-based,
nonprofit support group, has for about a year been raising
money and shipping supplies to the fledgling hospital.
Without the group' s help, the hospital might not have been
built.
Last fall, the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in the
Republic of Somaliland began classes for its first group of
39 midwives. The maternity hospital in Hargeisa -- the
territory' s largest city -- is scheduled to open to its
first patients in February or March.
When that happens, it will be the only hospital of its
kind in Somaliland, a region of 3 million people. Somaliland
declared itself independent of Somalia in 1991 but is not
recognized as a nation by most countries of the world.
Edna Adan Ismail, 62, the wife of a former prime minister
of Somalia and the first woman in her country with Western
nursing training, visited Minnesota last year to raise funds
for a roof on the hospital, which was being built on a
cleared garbage dump.
Her visit sparked an effort to support the struggling
$800, 000 project. Later, the Friends of Edna Adan Hospital
was organized and began sending everything from textbooks to
toys to the hospital.
" It' s hard for people to understand if they' ve
never been to a Third World country, " said Sandy
Peterson, a Maple Grove woman on the Friends of Edna Adan
Hospital' s board of directors. " What an undertaking
... It' s amazing."
Uban Jama Abdi said she' s amazed by how gracious the
Minnesota group has been. Minnesota has the largest Somali
population in the United States.
" They don' t even know us, but they see the papers
and learn what (Ismail) is doing and they sympathize, "
Abdi said. " It' s a very great thing."
On the Net: Friends of Edna Adan Maternity Hospital:
http://www.angelfire.com/mn2/ednahospital
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
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Copyright 2001. All rights reserved.
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