By now our readers will surely know that Edna Adan Ismail was awarded the 2023 Templeton
Prize “in recognition of her extraordinary efforts to harness the power of the sciences to affirm the dignity of women and help them to flourish physically and spiritually”. The prestigious prize is now fifty years old—Mother Teresa was its first recipient in 1973—and Edna is the first African woman to be honored with it: https://www.templetonprize.org/laureate/edna-adan-ismail/ For Edna, the accolades are less important than the fact that the generous prize funds will enable her to realize a long-standing dream and construct a new outpatient building on the Hospital’s grounds. The plans include a clinic, testing facilities, and overnight observation wards. In addition to serving more patients and alleviating crowding in the Hospital itself, the new state-of-the art facility aims to generate enough revenue to make it self-supporting in the future. Friends is honored to be working with the Templeton Foundation and assisting Edna in administering the award.
The other good news from 2023 is that overall donations to the Friends of Edna are up substantially. Your generosity has enabled us to purchase and ship a large container of donated medical equipment assembled by the Partners for World Health in Portland, Maine; to update laboratory facilities for training pediatric dentists and dental technicians; to augment the modest salaries of key senior medical doctors at the Hospital; and to provide new stethoscopes for every nurse and midwife in Edna’s program. We are currently working with the Sterling Foundation on a pilot program to obtain and test the utility of hand-held ultrasound devices for midwives who must monitor difficult pregnancies in remote rural districts. One member of our Friends’ Board has mobilized volunteers in Utah to sew several hundred specially designed reusable newborn diapers for mothers to take home with them after delivery. In September, Edna traveled to Taipei City to receive a Global Love of Lives Award from Taiwan’s president, who also pledged scholarships for Somaliland graduates to do advanced practical training courses in that country.
As is evident, support for Edna’s mission comes from every corner of the globe. Edna’s goals for the coming year—in addition to starting construction on the outpatient clinic—include the training of more Somaliland doctors, nurses, and public health workers in advanced specialties to meet the country’s growing needs. While such training will initially require partnerships with established medical programs in Africa and beyond, Edna looks forward to the time when Somaliland will have the experience and expertise to train its own future medical professionals.
As we continue to witness multiple deadly conflicts across the world—and Somaliland faces its own domestic challenges—we hope this holiday season will offer all of us the occasion to reflect upon the good works being done by so many folks in so many places around the world. Your continued support for the Edna Hospital remains one such cause for optimism.
With sincere gratitude,
Lee Cassanelli, President of the Friends of Edna’s Maternity Hospital
LATEST HOSPITAL STATISTICS: From January to October 2023, the Hospital delivered 1103 babies (38 stillborn), with 2 neo-natal deaths and NO maternal mortalities. Since opening in 2002, the Hospital has delivered 33,855 babies, seen 365,315 outpatients, performed 5165 surgeries, and done 546,760 lab tests.
*** The complete statistics can be found on our Friends of Edna webpage: https://friendsofedna.org/ ***