The project - Context

The Soomaaliya Associazion, a non-profit organization, was established 20 March 2002 in Torino, thanks to the work of Dr. Mohamed Aden Sheikh.

After graduating from medical school in Italy, Dr. Aden undertook a political career in Somalia and was named Health Minister, as well as Minister of Culture and Information. The young doctor worked to increase awareness among the Somalis of important issues such as the right to healthcare and participated in the literacy campaign for rural areas of the country.

Victim of the repression under the dictatorship of Siyaad Barre, Dr. Aden moved to Italy where, as an exile, he continued to work as a medical doctor and became politically active in local politics, holding the office of town councillor in Torino.

Although originally from south-central Somalia, Dr. Aden was continuously dedicated to humanitarian activities throughout the entire country, working towards the return of those technical figures, especially doctors, who like himself, had been forced to flee and wanted to return to help their own country.

In the final years of his life (Dr. Aden passed away in 2010), he worked to see health facilities built in the north of Somalia as a reward for the peace and stability, which for twenty years have reigned in Somaliland and in particular in Hargeisa, the region’s capital.

The readiness of the local government, existing public health facilities, and a University with a medical school offered the ideal conditions for the development of a health project which would effectively and significantly affect the conditions of health all over Somalia as well as the needs of the Somali population, beginning with the victims of the civil war which has devastated the south of the country, and where presently it is not possible to intervene.

For the President and all those who work with the Soomaaliya Association, the Mohamed Aden Sheikh Teaching Hospital represents the first step in a much larger project, devoted to favourably influencing the Somali political situation by building a model of peace based on the guarantee of fundamental human rights, such as the right to health.

According to a Somali proverb “bad government is worse than famine” ("Aqool xumo abaar ka daran"), which means that without peace and lasting political stability, hunger and illness cannot be fought. Intended as a model of peace for the rest of Somalia, The Mohamed Aden Sheikh Teaching Hospital also represents an example of cooperation between local institutions and international intermediaries for the fight against the country’s socio-economic decay.

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