Red Crescent in Somalia

“Ordinary Somalis - men and women, the children and the elderly - do not, and cannot, wait for the signing of peace agreements or the creation of transitional authorities. For them, life goes on regardless of policies, interventions or the support of the international organizations.”

-Sean Deely, manager of the SRCS's recovery project.

The Somali Red Crescent Society was founded in April 1963 and as of 2002 has 5,800 members and volunteers, with 376 programme staff and 32 core staff. Their mission is to “prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found. It also strives to prevent diseases and promote health and social welfare.” Unfortunately, due to the conflicts and instability within Somalia itself, the Society is dependent fully on external support and donations.

In Somalia the life expectancy is an alarming 47 years, with nearly 50 Somali women dying each day due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth. Only 1 in 10 children are immunized against all major diseases, and the constant and horrific violence to be found across the country. In addition, severe flooding in 2006 and drought in 2007 has led to near famine situations in the south. The country also has “no health infrastructure” and as a result holds the title of having the “worst health indicators in the world.” These are only a few of the combined crises which have resulted in appalling health conditions predicted to deteriorate even further as long as “an appropriate and adequate public health network” is unable to be established. Despite this, the SRCS helps nearly 1,000,000 Somalis each year, and without them the situation would be nearly beyond recovery.

Although providing first aid training and services to local communities is a core focus of the society, it also runs 49 “mother-and-child health/outpatients clinics”, mostly based in rural and nomadic areas. Of these 12 are located in the northeast region of Puntland and a further 6 in the north-western region of Somaliland. The remaining 31 are spread throughout central and southern Somalia. They also run a surgical hospital in Garowe, which has 90 beds, 132 staff and an average of 19,595 patients every year. In addition to other hospitals, it has “three rehabilitation centers”, one in the capitol and two in other cities. Here “orthopaedic appliances and physiotherapy treatment are provided to disabled Somalis”, 64, 407 each year; the number of which is growing dramatically due to the violence in the country.

The SRCS are partnered with the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), often handling the running of surgical hospitals, family tracing services and distribution of supplies and information. They are also partnered with the Norwegian Red Cross, in respect to the rehabilitation workshops, the International Federation and the Italian Red Cross.

PS> The Red Crescent is an internationally accepted symbol that stands for emergency
assistance. Although any religious connection has been denied the Red Cresent is used in
Muslim countries instead of the Red Cross. There has also recently been established the Red Star of David, used primarily by Jewish emergency workers, which also denies religious
connotations.

PS2> I admit that I plagiarised quite a bit with this information, however, the full articles with the information I used can be found here, here and here.

Exodus

More on Somalia:

According to the BBC, 80% of Somalia is now outside governmental control and is “unsafe”. The government has been rapidly losing control over the country for years, and has been relying on hated Ethiopian troops to manage the population. However, these soldiers are hated by the people, as reports have come in that the Ethiopian force has been violently oppressing and brutalizing Somalis. As this information has come to light the world has turned a critical eye to the Somali government.

Fighting is ramped in the streets of the capitol city of Mogadishu. According to the BBC 60% of the inhabitants have left; it’s simply too dangerous to stay. The city is full of Ethiopian militia, who have tanks scattered in positions throughout the residential area as well as the abandoned market districts. “Many residents were trapped for long periods in their homes, fearing they would be shot if they emerged.” Although the government has called people to come back and has declared the city safe, the exodus continues.

65 year-old Haji Hassan Abukar, a former resident of Mogadishu, states that “all respect for human life has been lost.” Despite the past 16 years of unrest and violence he had refused to leave his home, however, lately even the aged have been targeted.

Those who have left Mogadishu have headed to other provinces, though many have not gone farther than the villages leading outside the city. Aid workers are reporting that there is an “estimated 100,000 displaced people [living] in the villages between Mogadishu and Afgoye in the south. Many have gone to Middle and Lower Shabelle, once-rich provinces which have recently been ravaged by both floods and drought. Food prices have thus skyrocketed, which has led to severe malnutrition, and in some places, famine.

There are aid agencies trying to help, but they are working in an extremely unstable and violent country, which results in only sporadic aid to the people. Each morning hungry Somalis “line up in their thousands to receive a handout of corn, beans and oil, often to go back to their] children at sunset empty-handed… Sometimes the food runs out and sometimes the agencies do not come.”

The only hope many have is in the person of the newly appointed prime minister, Nur Nur Hassan Hussein, also known as Nur Adde. Adde has been the head of the Somali Red Crescent (more about this agency later) for many years and is seen as untainted by political affiliation. Residents feel that he may be able to end the humanitarian crisis and to put an end to the violence. However, this hope is faint. Adde would have to build a consensus, reach out to the opposition and somehow convince the Somali factions to seek peace without violence.

To read the sources for this blog go here, here and here. Photo credit here.