Perspective: Africa (Sep 2016) Perspective: Africa (Sep 2016) | Page 18

Perspective: Africa - September 2016

Above: A ten-year-old boy lies in a coma at the Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The boy was shot in the head three months prior during a battle between TFG forces
and Al-Shabab militants in the capital city of Mogadishu.
BANADIR MOTHER & CHILD HOSPITAL
Built in 1977 as part of a Chinese development partnership with Somalia, the hospital is
one of the few remaining medical centers still operating, and the only one specializing in
treating children affected by drought, diarrhea, and cholera.
A picture of the humanitarian crisis the hospital dealt with in 2011
can be seen in the WHO report by scanning this QR code. Most
recently, in March 2016, a fire gutted the pediatric drug store of the
hospital, adding further stress to a facility that received due credit for
staying operational through Somalia’s civil war.
MEDINA HOSPITAL
The other major hospital focuses on trauma and emergency maternal medicine, struggling with a lack of modern equipment, as well as religious objections by some patients’
families who would sometimes rely on the “will of God”, rather than modern medicine.
W