Extraordinary intervention for maternal and child health in the district of Abudwak

Objective:: To reduce maternal and child mortality in the Abudwak District through the creation of a territorial intervention system based on a network of qualified operators and a light structure of derivation of complex cases.

The challenge

Struck by a chronic conflict and a recurrent drought, Somalia has the highest rate of child mortality under 5 in the world. This is the figure that emerges from the report 'Levels and trends in child mortality' carried out by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation, led by UNICEF and WHO. According to this report, in 2010, Somalia had a child mortality rate of 180 deaths per 1,000 live births, the highest in the world. Of these 33% are related to problems during delivery. These deaths can be prevented by access to qualified and adequately equipped health workers and midwives.

Context & Beneficiaries

Soomaaliya Onlus has been operating for several years in the district of Abudwak, in the Galmudug region in Central Somalia. With our presence on the ground we have been able to ascertain the drama constituted by the almost non-existent protection of women and children in the birth phase, to which is added the lack of adequate training and equipment with which midwives (called maman or umuliso) are found to operate during gestation and delivery.

This is why we decided to build the 'Felicita Torrielli' health center, in order to improve childbirth assistance in the city and in the Abudwak district. The beneficiaries will be:

  • the over 6,000 residents and refugee women who give birth each year at district level,
  • the "maman/umuliso", the traditional midwives, who will be able to work in a context of greater professionalism and security;
  • newborns who will be able to count on more efficient and more qualified services at the time of birth with consequent risks reduction, in particular through the reduction of mother-to-child transmission of HIV;

and in general the entire population of the District that will count on better services and greater health protection in the neonatal phase.

Expected results

  • A community that is sensitized and involved in improving the quality of neonatal attention
  • Created a Birth Point in Abudwak, equipped with minimum operating conditions and able to deal with neonatal emergencies, provide assistance to local operators, train them and derive from more equipped hospitals, guaranteeing the transport of the most serious cases with a view to complementarity and subsidiarity
  • Redeveloped regional operators able to operate on the territory in a manner coordinated with the Birth Point and continuously present in it
  • Early diagnosis system of the presence of HIV antibodies predisposed and in operation with specific management and in safety for operators and children during delivery
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