Somalia/ Somaliland > Activities by Sectors
Health Services
There is a high level of humanitarian need in the health services sector in Somaliland. Major problems include malnutrition, maternal mortality, and outbreaks of preventable disease.
Emergency Relief
Mother Maryam with Baby Liban, opening family rations at their home in IDP camp, Burao.
Nutrition programmes for young children are at the forefront of Medair’s health interventions in Somalia/Somaliland. In 2009, Medair provided malnutrition treatment to thousands of children in Somalia/Somaliland. Our outpatient therapeutic programme admitted 2,331 severely malnourished children—far more than initially expected —and our supplementary feeding programme admitted twice as many moderately malnourished children as we had expected.
Medair provides a range of health services in addition to nutritional support. Mother and child health care is a major priority area, including antenatal care, safe deliveries, and monthly mobile immunisation clinics. Medair incorporates health and hygiene education into programmes wherever possible.
WASH
Access to safe water and proper sanitation is extremely limited in Somaliland. Unsafe drinking water is a major factor in the high morbidity and mortality of children. It contributes to the deteriorating health of the entire population, and is a significant factor in the emergency levels of child malnutrition.
Furthermore, chronic drought has impacted the water table and made access to drinking water even more scarce.
Emergency Relief
Medair chlorinates wells and distributes buckets and chlorine tablets during emergencies. In 2009, the lack of water became such a life-and-death matter in Somaliland that Medair sent trucks filled with water to the villages where the need was greatest. In total, Medair trucked in more than three million litres of water during the year.
Rehabilitation
In Somaliland, Medair constructs latrines using dome slabs, provides continuous hygiene awareness education, and trains people in every camp to become hygiene promoters.
Medair makes and distributes simple hand-washing containers and fabricates solid waste drums. Beneficiaries choose the sites for latrine construction and for the location of solid waste bins.
