WAHA International, RCA carry out health programmes in famine-wracked Somalia

WAHA International will start intervening in the capital Mogadishu to set up a hospital for maternal and newborn care in partnership with the UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA). WAHA International and the RCA are partnering to strengthen maternal and newborn health care services in Mogadishu. Teams are currently preparing to set up a mother and child hospital and to support peripheral health posts which will include comprehensive obstetrc care services such as the possibility to carry out a c-section and blood transfusions. Medical transfer bikes will be deployed to help transport patients to the hospital. The Somalia medical mission is a direct implementation of a memorandum of understanding for a health partnership between the RCA and WAHA International. The project includes support to several health centres and the set up of medical villages to provide nursing care to patients needing basic hospitalization. WAHA International offered 500 inflatable medical tents for mobile clinics in Somalia. WAHA International first intervened in Somalia in 2010 providing fistula surgery to women from Kismayo and Mogadishu. By 2011 WAHA teams started setting up a project for mother-child care in Mogadishu. In July 2011 the United Nations declared famine had hit several regions in Somalia. Drought and on-going conflict have led to an increased outpour of people fleeing within and outside the country. Women and Health Alliance International (WAHA) is an international non-profit, non governmental organisation based in France that has been launched by Sheikha Shamsa bint Hamdan Al-Nahyan, Assistant to Chairman of the RCA for Women Affairs, with the over-arching goal of addressing maternal and neonatal health in disadvantaged communities throughout the world. Sheikha Shamsa has a longstanding committment to women's causes and believes that "no woman should die while bringing new life into the world or suffer needlessly for the rest of her life due to a lack of appropriate medical care". WAHA strives to be an important international player in terms of implementing and funding a wide range of activities that promote women's health in settings where the needs are greatest, and in advocating for greater action to be taken to reduce maternal deaths.