(ERGO) – A newly established hospital on the outskirts of the Somali capital Mogadishu has made all services free of charge after witnessing the high levels of malnutrition and poverty among displaced families settled in the area.
Duale Community Hospital, which opened in Tabellaha neighborhood in Garasbaley in January, has registered 500 children for ongoing treatment for malnutrition and other diseases such as diarrhoea and measles. The families of these children receive free treatment and nutritional food supplements.
The director of the hospital, Dr Hassan Suleiman, told Radio Ergo that every week they provide medicine and nutritional supplements to 200-250 children. The hospital changed its financing model after finding thousands of IDP families grappling with severe malnutrition and other diseases without any means to pay for health services.
“When the hospital was being built, we did not know that there were so many displaced people living there, but when the hospital was opened we saw that the IDPs who could not afford to pay for their treatment,” Dr Hassan said.
“We were forced to help and take up a humanitarian role instead of relying on aid organisations to do this work.”
The hospital’s seven doctors and nurses are all being paid from the funds they collect from the business community.
“We go to the IDP camps and conduct health awareness about vaccinating the children and maintaining proper hygiene like washing their hands, eating hot food and boiling water before use.
As we do this we measure the malnutrition levels among mothers and children and give them appointments at the hospital. The situation of these Somali families prompted us to undertake this work,” he said.
The free health services are much appreciated by mothers like Hawo Daud Ali, who lives in Shabelle camp, and has four children aged between one and six years now registered at Duale hospital for therapeutic supplements and medication.
Her husband collects garbage and earns a meagre $3 when he gets called up for a job, which is barely enough to provide a meal a day for the family.
She said her children were in very bad condition and had lost their appetite and could barely walk or talk before she took them to Duale hospital for the first time on 2 March.
“I was told they were suffering from severe malnutrition. When I started giving them Plumpy’nut and medicine in the morning and afternoon they recovered their health. Now they are better,” she said.
On Thursdays and Fridays Hawo picks up 140 pieces of Plumpy’nut supplement and two bags of milk from the hospital for her children.
Earlier in January, Hawo’s two-year-old daughter died probably from measles and diarrhoea. She had no money for her treatment.
“Now my mind is clear, but back then it was filled with questions about what I should do and how. It was unfortunate since I am a mother and we couldn’t afford to treat our children and the father was helpless to do anything about it,” she said.
Hawo’s family were displaced from Janale, Lower Shabelle, two years ago after severe drought led to crop failure on their two-hectare farm. However, living in the squalid camp for two years, they now face more hardships as the rainfall has begun and the skinny children are susceptible to the changing weather and cold nights.
Another mother of nine, Muhubo Aden Abdi, living in Alle-magan camp in Tabellaha, told Radio Ergo that five of her children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in February.
The worst was her youngest boy, who was also suffering from measles.
“There were rashes all over his body. I took him to [Duale] hospital and I was there with him for 14 nights. He was given injections and nutritional biscuits. He is now getting better with the medication,” she said.
She and her family have been struggling to adapt to life in the camps since being displaced last September from Basra in Lower Shabelle. Their four-hectare farm was in the middle of the fighting between Al-Shabaab and Somali government forces.
Her husband, a farmer, has no other skills to earn a living and stays at home. Every morning Muhubo goes out to the city to beg to get at least one meal for her family.
“The conflict that led to the displacement has put us in this situation, the children are undernourished and starving. We were already facing drought and then the conflict broke out, pushing us into this precarious situation,” she said.
Without access to free healthcare, Muhubo does not know what would have happened to her children. She is worried what will happen if these services run out and her children no longer receive the therapeutic food supplements.
