Health, humanitarian aid

 

The project, starting from the efforts of civil society and various specialised health departments in Piedmont, has led to the design and partial construction of the Mohamed Aden Sheikh Teaching Hospital, as a tangible sign of the friendship between our two countries and appreciation of the work carried out by Dr. Aden in both places. The initiative is aimed at ensuring the completion and commissioning of the structure, in terms of the supply of materials and technical assistance, and at ensuring its sustainability in two different areas. Firstly, by strengthening its ties with the local health system, particularly the Central Hospital of Hargeisa and the services it provides, with regard to hospital beds and local health care, and secondly, through targeted interventions to ensure its future economic sustainability by reducing current ordinary running costs, particularly with regard to energy (energy production study) and food (food production).

 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through Persone Come Noi, approved a contribution to help with the construction of the Mohamed Aden Sheik Teaching Hospital in Hargeisa in Somaliland, which is specifically intended for the most vulnerable children. The project began with a dream by Mohamed Sheik Aden, a Somali doctor resident in Turin for several years, and, above all, with the efforts of the Soomaaliya non-profit organisation, which promoted the initiative and acted as partner of PCN in the area of the project co-funded by the Italian Cooperation.

 

None of this would have been possible, however, without the planning and technical assistance of professionals in Turin, who, in remembrance of Mohamed Aden Sheik, supported the idea from the start and established a special foundation (MAS-CTH) to help the project and the building under construction to continue over time, as well as the Marco Berry non-profit organisation and, in particular, La Stampa Foundation-Specchio dei Tempi, which was the first to believe in this idea and provide resources for the construction of the hospital through contributions from its readers.

 

Thanks to the financial aid agreed to by Italian cooperation, PCN aims to provide the Mohamed Aden Sheik Teaching Hospital, and the local public health service in general, with the resources needed for its commissioning, in association with the organisations described above, which have been collaborating for some time, as well as to contribute to the institution’s sustainability by promoting the cultivation of vegetables to help the hospital and its patients achieve self-sufficiency in terms of food.