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Catholic News Service
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
BAIDOA, Somalia (CNS) -- Before dawn each morning, large crowds line up outside the gates of the Caritas Somalia Health Dispensary in this southern town, which has been hit hard by drought, a recent cholera outbreak and nearly 20 years of violence between rival clans and armed factions.
To be first in line for treatment, people sleep outside the gates of this outpatient facility that provides free health care. Sometimes the line is so long that not all patients can be seen.
Hawo Adan, a 28-year-old mother of four, came to the center knowing that her child with leishmaniasis would be treated and fed. Leishmaniasis, also known as black fever, is an often-fatal disease transmitted by sand-fly bites.
"A serious drought ravaged our land, so there is no food at home. But I knew at this clinic, even if my child's treatment lasts a month, I will be given food for all that period," Adan said.
Another patient, Ibrahim Mohammed, walked more than 20 miles to the center after he was unable to pay for medicine in his village.
Through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican agency that promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable giving, Pope Benedict XVI donated to this medical center the 2007 collection from his Holy Thursday Mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. The center is run by Caritas Somalia, the local affiliate of Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations working in more than 200 countries and territories.
More than a year after the papal donation, the Baidoa center has increased its service to almost 170 patients a day.
Davide Bernocchi, director of Caritas Somalia, said the center's work shows that it is possible to meet Somalis' basic needs with limited resources.
The pope's gift "is a sign of love and solidarity for one of the smallest and most fragile churches in the world, at the service of some of the poorest people on earth," Bernocchi said.
Many of its patients have traveled long distances from their villages, while others live in camps set up for those who have fled the conflict in Mogadishu, the nation's capital. It is not unusual for people to travel 60 miles to receive care.
For the past year, Ethiopian-backed Somali forces have fought Islamist insurgents in Mogadishu almost daily. The fighting has killed hundreds of civilians and forced tens of thousands to flee.
The center works on a first-come, first-served basis, but anybody is served regardless of clan or social status.
Abdullahi Mumin Roble, the center's medical coordinator, said the most common ailments in the region are upper respiratory tract infections.
With support from nongovernmental organizations, including the U.S. bishops' international aid agency Catholic Relief Services, the Baidoa center offers specialized treatment to many people, Bernocchi said.
"We are torn between treating the wounds, administering food supplements to the seriously emaciated, and treating the real cause" of patients' illnesses, said Mumin, a nurse.
She said 7-year-old Amino Abdi, who has leishmaniasis, was brought to the center too weak to be injected or given any medication. The child's immediate need was high-energy food, then first aid for wounds inflicted by a hot iron placed on her stomach in accordance with a traditional belief that it would heal stomach ailments.
After her 25-mile walk to the center, Amino could hardly walk or talk, and her pain did not leave her enough energy to even cry, Mumin said.
"She had to walk because I was carrying her 3-year-old sister and I am five months pregnant," said Amino's mother, Marian Abdi. "The only food we had for the two days was some milk we carried from home. We drank dirty water along the way."
Bernocchi moved Caritas Somalia to Baidoa from Nairobi, Kenya, in February 2006.
Many people said it would be impossible for a Catholic organization to work in this violent environment, where people were unused to interacting with outsiders and where any non-Muslim religious presence was likely to be regarded with suspicion.
"We needed to give the local people some hope that the ongoing national reconciliation process would eventually result in concrete positive outcomes in their daily life," Bernocchi said.
Maalin Nuno Abdulrahaman, the imam at al-Ridhwan Mosque, which is next to the Caritas center, called his neighbor "peaceful and useful" and said, "I don't know what life would have been without Caritas. ... The respect we have for this service can be seen by the distance people travel to come for medical care."
Shihab Babiker, Islamic Relief's Somalia director, said the cooperation between his agency and Caritas Somalia is noteworthy.
"When Christian and Muslim agencies cooperate in the name of God, it is placing the dignity of the human person before other differences," he said.
The apostolic administrator of Mogadishu, Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Djibouti, said that without international assistance the government in Somalia will fail.
"The most difficult task for Somalia is piecing back (together) its fragmented society, which has been almost completely destroyed since the state structure collapsed in 1991," he said.
Somalia is one of the world's poorest nations; one-quarter of its children do not live to age 5. The country has been without an effective central administration since 1991.
Source: Catholic News Service, April 08, 2008