(ERGO) – Free surgery for a displaced Somali plumber living in Mogadishu has turned life around for him and his family, enabling him to get back to work after 30 years of suffering.
Abdi Cumar Nur, 60, had a neck tumour removed at a local hospital after his case was put forward for support by a local women’s medical group.
After the operation in February, Abdi returned to work as a plumber in April. He is delighted to be earning $150 a month at a water well facility and topping up his income doing extra jobs in new houses and other household repairs.
He expressed his gratitude to the doctors at the Mogadishu hospital who helped him regain his strength after removing the tumour that had grown to seven kilograms in weight.
“The tumour was not small and it caused me great suffering. I became thin because the tumour was killing me and sucking my blood. I suffered a lot and couldn’t even sleep at night because it caused pain and kept getting bigger over time.
It stayed there because I couldn’t afford to have it removed and also the daily struggle supporting the family made it worse as I wasn’t getting any rest,” he told Radio Ergo.
On 15 May, Abdi set to work building two corrugated iron rooms using recycled materials he acquired for $200 for his family of eight to live in. They were living a flimsy shack in Barhadweyne internal displacement camp in Kahda district. This has made a big difference.
“I used old iron sheets and other materials,” he said. “Now I’ve made it into a corrugated iron house, as you can see. Before, our house was just plastic sheets and it was completely ruined. Rain used to come in, but thank god we are safe from it now.”
“Now I am the head of the family who goes out to work. Whatever we earn, we combine it and buy groceries from the shops; that’s how we help each other. Since I regained my health, our life is good now.”
The family had been living off his wife’s $3 a day doing laundry jobs and they often went laundry when she had no work.
Abdi has put three of his children, the eldest being nine, in a Koranic school, paying $20 a month. As there are no schools in their IDP camp, he is planning to enrol them in nearby private schools in a few months.
Abdi was among 150 displaced patients in Kahda who received free medical treatment in February at three hospitals in Mogadishu. These hospitals agreed to admit them after a local group, the Somali Girls’ Medical Professionals Council, presented their critical health needs and financial situation.
His eight-year-old son also underwent free surgery for a hernia and has since recovered.
Abdi’s family was displaced in 2019 from Janale in Lower Shabelle region by conflict and drought that decimated his herd of 250 goats and the six-hectare farm where they had cultivated maize, sorghum, beans, and gourds.
With his new strength, Abdi has trained seven young people in the IDP camp in plumbing skills so they can earn $3-8 a day supporting their own families.
“They earn their daily living from what I taught them. I trained them the way I was trained, and I have a toolbox with pliers and wrenches. They earn something every day, depending on how much work is available,” he said.
Abdi hopes to shed the nickname “Buroole” (the one with the tumour) that people called him before his operation.
