Edna Adan Ismail

Edna Adan Ismail ( _so. "Edna Aadan Ismaaciil" or "Adna Aadan Ismaaciil"; born September 8, 1937 in Hargeisa) is the former Foreign Minister of the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland in the Horn of Africa. She held this office from 2003 until 2006. She had previously served as Somaliland's Minister of Family Welfare and Social Development. She was married to Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal who was Head of Government in British Somaliland Protectorate during one year prior to Independence, and then Prime Minister of Somalia 1967-1969 and President of Somaliland 1993-2002.

She is the director and founder of the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland. She is an activist and pioneer in the struggle for the abolition of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and is President of the Organization for Victims of Torture, Somaliland.

Edna started building a hospital in Mogadishu in the mid 1980s, however, before it was completed, the Somali Civil War began, and she was forced to leave the country. She was World Health Organization Regional Nursing Adviser during 1986. From 1987 to 1991, she was Regional Technical Officer for Mother and Child Health, with responsibility for issues relating to Harmful Traditional Practices which affect the health of women and children (FGM), and for training of Midwives and Traditional Birth Attendants in the 22 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region of W.H.O. She was the Representative of W.H.O. in Djibouti between 1991 and 1997.

Prior to serving in the Somaliland government she built from scratch a maternity hospital, which she continues to run. The Edna Adan Maternity Hospital opened on March 9, 2002 on land donated to her by the Somaliland government - at a site formerly used as a garbage dump and then as a killing field during the civil war.

The region lacked trained nurses to staff the hospital - as most had either fled the country or been killed during the civil war - and so Edna recruited more than 30 candidates and began training them in 2000 while the hospital was still under construction. The hospital now has two operating theatres, laboratory, library, computer centre and a complete wing dedicated to training nurses and midwives.

The mission of the Edna Adan Hospital is to help to improve the health of Somalilanders which is among the worst in Africa, with a very high rate of maternal and infant mortality. The facility is a non-profit making charity and a midwifery teaching hospital that is also undertaking the training of student nurses and Assistant Laboratory Technicians.

Edna Adan Ismail was the only woman minister in the Somaliland government until July 2006 when she was replaced as Foreign Minister by former Minister of Information and National Guidance Abdillahi Mohamed Dualeh.

In recognition of her lifelong contribution to Humanitarian work, the name of Edna Adan Ismail was added to the Medical Mission Hall of Fame, University of Toledo, Ohio, in March 2007, making her the first African whose name is added to this prestigious list. She has an Honorary Doctoral Degree from Clark University in Massachusetts and was made Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University School of Nursing in Wales on July 8, 2008.

ee also

* [http://www.ednahospital.org Edna Adan Maternity Hospital]
* [http://www.somalilandgov.com Somaliland Official Website]
* Foreign relations of Somaliland
* [http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=ae57b849af8a3eec78d7095b149b19561e18f738 Video of Nicholas Kristof visiting the Edna Aden Hospital]