The caring and compassionate face of Somaliland.
Beautiful, outspoken, elegant, educated, intellectual and astute, Edna Aden Ismail was indeed a perfect former foreign affairs minister of Somaliland, the wife of the late president M.I.Egal, the founder & director of Edna Hospital and a tireless campaigner for good causes in Somaliland.
The University of Pretoria has picked Edna’s exceptional love for humanity and decided this week (10th Dec 09) to award her with the Chancellors medal for her outstanding contribution to humanity, and particularly with regard to helping the under-privileged people of Somaliland, especially the women and children to realize their rights to health, coincide sharply with Human Rights debates across the globe.
Dr. Edna’s contributions are by far unmatched. She centered her contributions on a matter that haunts nations as powerful as the US and Canada, being the health issue. She is indeed a trailblazer and pace setter. We owe her a duty to follow in her shoes and do what men of civilized nations do; that is to fix our house firstly.
It was indeed an honor to witness well known professors and academics, UN ambassadors, government officials, members from the civil societies at large, addressing about Dr. Edna’s passion for serving humanity to some 29 LLM graduates and large very important audiences.
Dr. Edna is the first woman in Somalia/Somaliland to qualify as a nurse, the first woman to be appointed a director in the government, the first to speak out against female genital mutilation in the horn of Africa in the 1970s, the first woman in Somalia/Somaliland to obtain a driver’s license, and now the founder of a maternity hospital.
“I still have the energy and determination to serve humanity even at 72 years of age” smilingly shares with members of the Somaliland community in South Africa.
She pulled out pamphlets and statistical reports on her Hospital. There were lots of photographs of young and gorgeous young ladies interning at the hospital and a woman undergoing a caesarian. She shared these documents with the attendees of the graduation ceremony.
Covering the daily/monthly running costs of the hospital is among the many challenges Dr. Edna faces. “the running costs of the hospital ranging from water/electricity, medical equipments, medications, expanding the hospital, goes beyond our capability but with God’s grace, we carry on despite all these challenges” says Edna.
Dr. Edna’s award means much than that which meets the eye. It is redemption of nation awaking from a nightmare.
Congratulations are in order.
Dr. Edna Adan can be reached at:
Edna Adan Maternity Hospital
Mobile: +252-2-4426922
+252-2-4416342
Fax: +252-2-515454
Email: ednahospital@yahoo.com
ednahospital@gmail.com
hospital@ednahospital.org
edna@ednahospital.org
www.ednahospital.org
Saeed Furaa
Freelance Journalist, Somaliland Activist
South Africa
E-mail: somalilandjournalist@gmail.com
One Response to “The caring and compassionate face of Somaliland.”
December 15th, 2009 saat: 3:24 am
Dear Saeed,
Thank you for posting this achievement, Every somalilande is proud of our Guardian Angel ADNA. But you did not need to exagerate on the other titles this great lady may have not attempted. Please let us be very careful when we identify our wonderful achievers with achievements they have never achieved. Dr. Edna is the first woman in Somalia/Somaliland to qualify as a nurse – NOT TRUE THERE WAS ANOTHER ARAB LADY WHO DIED IN UK, WHO WAS THE FIRST SOMALI NURSE, SHE LEFT SL WEITH THE BRITISH AFTER INDEPENDENCE., the first woman to be appointed a director in the government – VERY QUESTIONABLE 7 UNPROVABLE, the first to speak out against female genital mutilation in the horn of Africa – TOTAL EXAGERATION UNLESS THE HORN TO YOU IS ONLY SOMALIA, THERE IS A GROUP OF ETHOPIAN LADIES WHO STARTED MAKING NOICES SINCE 1952.the first woman in Somalia/Somaliland to obtain a driver’s – NOT TRUE, IN MOGADISHO AND THE SORROUNDING PLANTATIONS WERE QUITE A FEW WOMEN MKARRIED TO THE ITALIANS FARMERS/OFFICERS WHO USED TO DRIVE IN THE EARLY 40′S- YES ADNA WAS THE FIRST IN SOMALILAND. HOwever I do admire and cherish Madame ADNA, She our Jewel in the Crown, and does not deserve to be pampered with titles she doesnt need nor achieved.
Regards