Health Care Workers Providing Care to Laascaanood Displaced Families
UNICEF has provided vital health supplies & will continue supporting healthcare workers to serve more women and children in need
Kalabeyd, 28 March 2023: There are no empty beds at Kalabeyd Health Centre in Sool Region. With fighting ongoing in Lascaanood, 32km away, this health center provides critical health services for children and women displaced by the fighting. The health center barely has enough supplies, equipment and human resources to treat the patients. However, women and children keep pouring into the center on a daily basis, most of them suffering from exhaustion. The health center offers little comfort or privacy, but it is a lifeline for the hundreds of displaced families who have fled here.
“This health center as you can see is already at full capacity. We had put together three makeshift tents to treat our patients and still this is not enough and many of the patients have no choice but to camp out in the open and wait for treatment,” says Dr. Ibrahim Yusuf.
“The treatment rooms are small, congested and poorly ventilated. But the main challenge here is congestion; we do not have any room to move,” says Zainab, a nurse at the clinic. “Sometimes, I cannot take a break due to the large number of people seeking treatment. To be honest, we are overwhelmed. I have never seen anything like this.”
“We have seen so much pain and despair. One of the patients was a 25-year-old pregnant woman who developed complications related to her pregnancy. The health center could not treat her due to limited capacity and the only option was to return her to Laascaanood, where she had fled the fighting, in order to receive better care. That broke my heart,” says Zainab.
Dr. Ibrahim adds, “It is a difficult feeling to see other human beings going through so much suffering, especially women and children who are the most vulnerable. I put myself in their shoes, I carry the emotions and feeling with me back home after leaving work. It makes me feel sad at times.”
The mayor of Kalabeyd and the community committee say there is a high level of vulnerability among the community. In addition to the displacement, the failure of five consecutive rains has resulted in severe drought that has affected thousands of people that have stretched the small town’s already weak infrastructure and services.
“All the health workers you see here are volunteers, young professionals who have dedicated their time and risked their lives to be here and provide care to women and children. There is need to provide them with an incentive and to improve their working conditions,” says Dr. Ibrahim.
For Kalabeyd Health Centre, thanks to USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid UNICEF has provided essential health supplies and will continue to provide more in order to fill the gap. UNICEF also intends to support key health care workers with incentives.
