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Project Origins

1. Why is a maternity clinic necessary?
2. Why does it need to be located in Bosaaso?
3. How did the project come to be?

I. Why is a maternity clinic necessary?

Girls in Somalia between the ages of five and eight experience a forced mutilation of their genitals, according to an old tradition called the pharaonic circumcision. After the clitoris, the inner and major parts of the outer lips of the vulva, have been removed, the vagina is sewn shut except for a small opening.

At childbirth every woman must be surgically "opened". If this does not happen in time, both the mother and child may die. And if this procedure is not done professionally, without the appropriate instruments and without a sterile environment, complications result from the birth, these can lead to the death of the mother and/or child.

The only way to minimise the risk during childbirth is to provide appropriate gynaecological care in a maternity clinic which is equipped to deal with the special needs of circumcised women.

An operating room with the corresponding medical instruments and enough beds for the mothers and their children must be available; as the women often must remain there several weeks until their wounds are healed.

There is also a plan to have doctors and nurses provide consultation to the women, so that the ritual of circumcision and the repeated act of surgical opening and closing during the birth of every child can finally cease.

II. Why does it need to be located in Bosaaso?

In December 2004 the tsunami also devastated the coastal region on the Horn of Africa. Several hundred people were killed in the Somalian province of Puntland, thousands more lost their homes. The town Xaafun on the Hafun peninsula was completely destroyed, except for a few remaining houses. The old hospital, which Stop Mutilation had been operating since 2002 as a maternity clinic, was among those buildings which were washed away.

Thousands of homeless people fled from the region to Bosaaso, the nearest city. Ten of thousands of civil war refugees were already living here in emergency shelters and handmade tents. This caused even more problems concerning basic care and hygienic conditions among the inhabitants

There is only one hospital here, equipped for general treatment of diseases without any possibility for operations, which is basically no help for childbirth. There is no maternity clinic in the entire province of Puntland. The next general hospital with operating facilities is located in Mogadishu, 900 km away. The only maternity clinic in Somalia is located in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland.

III. How did the project come to be?

Jawahir Cumar, die Vorsitzende des Vereins stop-mutilation, erfährt aus Puntland erst nach und nach das Ausmaß der Tsunami-Katastrophe, da die ganze Infrastruktur der Küstenregion zerstört ist. Unter den Hunderten von Toten sind auch zwei ihrer Angehörigen, das Krankenhaus mit sämtlichen, durch Spenden grade erst neu angeschafften Geräten, ist zerstört.

Verzweifelt erzählt sie ihren Freunden und Bekannten von der Katastrophe,die überall fassungsloses Erstaunen auslöst: der Tsunami in Somalia-? - so weit weg vom Katastrophengebiet in Asien, das bis dahin die Medien beherrscht. Bis dahin ist kaum etwas über die Auswirkungen des Tsunami an der afrikanischen Küste in der Öffentlichkeit bekannt geworden. Daraus erklärt sich auch später die Schwierigkeit, an Spendengelder für Tsunamiopfer in Afrika zu kommen, da sie meistens zweckgebunden an das Tsunamigebiet in Südostasien verwendet werden.

Jawahir Cumar und ihr Verein geben nicht auf. Gerade jetzt ist ihr Einsatz für ihre Landsleute überlebenswichtig. Sie verstärken Informations-und Aufklärungskampagnen und organisieren mit Hilfe ihrer Partnerorganisation Dandor vor Ort Hilfsmaßnahmen zur Grundversorgung der Flüchtlinge in Bosaso.

Der Plan zum Neubau eines Mutter-Kind-Krankenhauses steht im Mittelpunkt: wieder sind die Frauen, vor allem die schwangeren, mit ihren Beschwerden ohne jede medizinische Hilfe. Das nächste Krankenhaus mit ausreichender medizinischer Versorgung ist für sie unerreichbar, da die Verkehrswege unzureichend ausgebaut und nur wenige Verkehrsmittel vorhanden und z.T. unerschwinglich sind.

Wie will sie diesen Plan verwirklichen?

Jawahir Cumar, the chairwoman of the Stop Mutilation Association, finds out about the extent of the tsunami catastrophe little by little, as the entire infrastructure of the coastal region has been destroyed. Among the hundreds of victims are also two members of her family; the hospital, which had just been operating with new equipment, is destroyed.

In her desperation she tells friends and acquaintances about the catastrophe, which causes amazement every time she does so. The tsunami struck Somalia, so far away from the victimised area in Asia, which has been the focus of the media attention until then? At that time hardly anything had been said about the effects of the tsunami on the African coast to the general public. That also caused difficulties later, when donations were being collected for tsunami victims in Africa, because most of the funds were sent to the areas affected by the tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Jawahir Cumar and her association do not plan to give up. Now is the time for them to support their countrymen in Somalia, to help them survive. They increase their information and education campaigns and organise assistance to cover the basic needs of the refugees in Bosaaso with the help of their local partner organisation, Dandor.

The plan to build a new maternity clinic is the centre of their attention: once again the women, especially those who are pregnant, are without any form of medical assistance to ease their suffering. The next hospital with the sufficient medical facilities is out of their reach. The transportation possibilities are insufficient and if they exist, are far too expensive.

How can she turn this plan into reality?

There is the idea to have a charity event. A large hall in the Pestalozzi House in Düsseldorf is available. Jawahir and her association contact their Somalian friends in various cities in North Rhine-Westfalia and the Netherlands and organize the event on January 22, 2005. Somalian music, dance and culinary specialties make those who attend more aware of the Somalian culture.

Among those who attended were also women of the Soroptimist Club Düsseldorf-Karlstadt, an international service organisation for women, and the ZIBB, Zentrum für interkulturelle Begegnung und Beratung der Diakonie Düsseldorf, (Center for Intercultural Meetings and Consultation of the Diakonie in Düsseldorf), who supported the organisation of the program. They are impressed by Jawahir's commitment and touched deeply by the problematic situation of circumcised women. One Soroptimist tells Johannes Altmeppen, the CCO of Vattenfall Europe in Berlin, about this, as they are looking for a specific project to donate money to tsunami victims.

In the following month Jawahir Cumar is invited to Berlin by the company to present her project. Vattenfall Europe pledges generous support for the project.