Health and Nutrition
On this page you will find links to stories related to the issues of Health and Nutrition in Somalia. Click below to read.
Historic vaccine to save children's lives launched in Somalia
25 April 2013 - Six month old Abdul Wahab sleeps peacefully in his mother’s arms, unaware that that he has just become one of the first children in Somalia to be injected with the ground breaking, five- in- one Pentavalent vaccine.
UNICEF leads Child Health Days to stem the tide of preventable childhood diseases across Somalia
10 December 2012 – The journey to defeat the diseases that kill thousands of children every year in Somalia starts in the chilly light of dawn.
Months after famine conditions have ended, health centres across southern Somalia help children suffering from malnutrition
13 November 2012 – Ten-month-old Ifrah Mohamed Abdi was born as the first famine declared in more than 20 years in Africa held its grip on the village in which her family has lived for generations.
“My daughter died because I did not know about these things”: The tragic potential of poor hygiene in Somalia
GUGUH, Somaliland, 28 November 2011 - Amina, mother of seven, talks about how she came to know about the importance of hygiene practices.
Simple rules of hygiene help reduce malnutrition among Somali children
BOSSASO, Puntland, 28 Nov 2011 - Read about new initiative, supported by UNICEF, with UKaid funding, to improve basic hygiene and sanitation in Somalia’s family homes to reduce child illnesses and malnutrition.
Efforts to promote exclusive breastfeeding in Somalia- Q&A with a trained counsellor
HARGEISA, Northwest Somalia “Somaliland”, 20 September 2011 - Kultan Hussein, Somali Red Crescent Society national health officer, is a trained counsellor advising mothers how to keep their young children healthy. She spoke to Mike Pflanz.
Travelling clinics to help children in Somalia’s remotest areas stay healthy
DALOW, Northwest Somalia “Somaliland”, 20 September 2011 – Mobile outpatient clinics provide life-saving treatment to severely malnourished children in remote areas in Somalia.
UNICEF and Japan support better health for vulnerable children and women
BURAO, Northwest Somalia "Somaliland", 13 January 2011 - In a country where basic health care is scarce, UNICEF supports a nation-wide network of primary health facilities with essential drugs and vaccines.
The champions of change at the frontline of the battle against childhood malnutrition
HARGEISA, Northwest Somalia “Somaliland”, 20 December 2010 - Halima Awali shushed the crowd of boisterous children gathered around her and said, “I was there to bring almost all of these babies into the world” ...
Medical middlemen catch childhood malnutrition before it becomes life-threatening
HARGEISA, Northwest Somalia “Somaliland”, 20 December 2010 – Salman Haji stood solemnly watching the man in the white coat searching papers spread across the table in the tin-walled hut open to the morning breeze...
Field diary: More efforts needed to help Somali families survive and thrive
BOSSASO and GAROWE, Somalia, 1 September 2010 - UNICEF Chief of the Child Survival Programme in Somalia Dr. Osamu Kunii recently visited the country’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland and filed the following first-hand report...
Field diary: In Somalia's Boroma district, Child Health Days campaign is making strides
Boroma district, Somalia, 17 June 2010 - Communication Officer Iman Morooka from the UNICEF Somalia Support Centre sends the following firsthand report from a visit to north-western Somalia’s Boroma district, near the border with Ethiopia.
In remote communities, Child Health Days bring life-saving services to Somali women and children
BOROMA, Somalia, June 2010 – Among the many mothers who came with their children to the Child Health Days campaign site, Abdi Ibrahim was one of very few fathers to be seen. He came early in the morning with his 16-month-old daughter, Sahra...
Amidst fighting, Somali children receive life-saving health services in Mogadishu
MOGADISHU, Somalia, February 2010: Despite fighting that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people here, a large-scale Child Health Days campaign has succeeded in reaching children and women with high-impact health services in the Somali capital...
UNICEF programme expanded to fight widespread undernutrition in Somalia
HARGEISA, Somalia, 8 December 2009: In Somalia, more than 40 per cent of children exhibit signs of chronic nutritional deprivation. This can be a life-threatening condition if appropriate interventions are not provided...
Child Health Days reach displaced communities in Somalia’s Afgoye Corridor
NAIROBI, Kenya, 24 November, 2009: For the first time ever, a Child Health Days campaign has reached displaced children and women in Somalia’s Afgoye Corridor, a 30 km stretch of road west of Mogadishu that is the world’s most densely populated...
Second round of Child Health Days aims to boost child survival in Somalia.
GABILEY, Northwest Somalia, 3 September 2009: Building on the success of the six-month-long Child Health Days initiative that began late last year, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) have kicked off the second round of a campaign...
UNICEF nutrition intervention in Somalia disrupted by looting
NEW YORK, USA, 13 August 2009: UNICEF has been forced to delay delivery of crucial nutritional supplies after looters targeted the warehouse of a UNICEF partner in the lower Juba region...
Life-saving nutrition interventions for vulnerable Somali children
EL-BERDE, Somalia, 24 June 2009: From early in the morning, the outpatient therapeutic centre (OTP) in El-Berde is crowded with women and their children seeking its services. The OTP is set up inside the town’s maternal and child health centre...
Somali Child Health Days go nationwide
April 2009: Child Health Days continue in various parts of Somalia with more children and women benefitting from health services...
Ready-to-use food distribution campaign for vulnerable children in Somalia
BOSSASO AND BERBERA, Somalia, 16 March 2009: At Buulo Mingis camp for the internally displaced people, located in Bossaso, northeast Somalia, children and their caregivers have gathered to receive rations of Plumpy’doz...
Child Health Days provide treatment in rural Somalia
January 2009: An account touching on Child Health Days and related information on beneficiaries from Northwest Somalia ("Somaliland') as a result of a campaign carried out in late 2008.
Food issues crucial as Somalia faces 'worst-case scenario'
August 2008: Malnutrition is one of the biggest challenges facing Somali children today, and according to an upcoming UN report, it could be getting worse...
Distributing a Life Saver - insecticide treated mosquito nets reduce child deaths in Somalia
November 2007: It was almost a year ago that Ahado Hassan lost her three year old daughter Hawa to malaria. She says she still dreams of her, laughing and playing in the water, and asks the doctor if it is normal for the mind to dream of those things...
UNICEF Provides Relief to Pregnant Mothers and Newborns in Somalia
November 2007: To look at her, you wouldn’t think that Amal and her newborn daughter came close to dying. But that’s exactly what happened when Amal, 18 and pregnant with her first child, braved scorching temperatures and traveled more than two days...
Volunteer-staffed health centre helps save lives in Baidoa, Somalia
October 2007: It didn’t take long for Hawa to notice that her sick, one-year-old son Saeed was not responding to traditional medicines. Her child was wasting away, his feet so bloated that it appeared they might burst. Hawa had to move quickly...
Nets help to fight malaria
March 2007: Somali people have known malaria for centuries, especially in the central and southern part of the country. In fact the Somali town of Buale is so named because of a condition associated with chronic malaria caused by an enlarged spleen...
Drought 2006 - Boy's long journey to treatment
February 2006: Shubeb Frow Hussein is just six years old. Feverish and malnourished, he travelled 180 km with his father from their village in Baidoa in southern Somalia to the Maternal and Child Health Clinic in Wajid town...
