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Alert Article
This article is part of the Fall 2009 issue of Alert.
Inside Jamaame Hospital, Somalia
October 16, 2009
Somalia 2009 © Javier Roldan
About 13,000 people live in the town of Jamaame, but its hospital, run by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), attracted 30,000 outpatients, many from surrounding areas, during the first seven months of 2009. There are few health care options for Somalis and very few international organizations present. Before MSF arrived in Jamaame, there were only traditional healers and shops that sold drugs.
Somalia 2009 © Javier Roldan
Here, three generations of Somalis wait in the women’s outpatient ward of the hospital. Those who grew up over the last two decades have known nothing but violence and war in their country.
Somalia 2009 © Javier Roldan
Mother-and-child health care is a priority at Jamaame hospital. Somalia has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world at 1,600 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the United Nations.
Somalia 2009 © Javier Roldan
Malnutrition is widespread because food is scarce and what little exists is hard to obtain. The MSF nutrition program at Jamaame served more than 600 children from January through July.
Somalia 2009 © Javier Roldan
A woman holds a cup of oral rehydration solution, used to treat people suffering from diarrhea and other complications. Water is the source of many health problems because most people get their drinking water from the Juba River or from shallow wells.
