Edna Adan Ismail - A Woman of Firsts: The Midwife Who Built a Hospital and Changed the World

EDNA ADAN ISMAIL was Foreign Minister of Somaliland from 2003 to 2006, and had previously served as Somalilands Minister of Family Welfare and Social Development.

She is the director and founder of the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital in Hargeisa, which opened in 2002, and an activist and pioneer in the struggle for the abolition of female genital mutilation. She is also President of the Somaliland Association for Victims of Torture.

In 2010, she opened the Edna Adan Ismail University in Hargeisa, Somaliland. She was married to Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal who was Head of Government in British Somaliland five days prior to Italian Somalias independence and later the Prime Minister of Somalia (196769) and President of Somaliland from 1993 to 2002.

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The list of the Edna Adan Hospitals supporters and partners is long and its well-wishers are many. In particular Edna would like to extend her thanks to her main supporters: the Friends of the Edna Maternity Hospital, the Edna Adan Hospital Foundation, and the Government of Somaliland, with special thanks to the Ministries of Health and Education. She also appreciates the partnership with SOFHA (Somaliland Family Health Association) with their work on FGM, sexual and reproductive health, and with numerous hospitals, universities and aid agencies around the world.

This story names most of those individuals who have helped Edna along her path. Many are no longer alive but her gratitude for them lives on and they are now recorded for posterity. She is also grateful for every single one of her students and staff and for all those who have given her encouragement, friendship and support, along with all the doctors, nurses and medical students from around the world who travel to Somaliland on a regular basis and volunteer to help in whatever their field of expertise.

Lee Cassanelli, author and Associate Professor of African History at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, sat with Edna over a period of five years and recorded thirty hours of taped interviews, which he transcribed and assembled into an invaluable chronological narrative of her recollections and reflections. British author Wendy Holden then spent an equivalent number of hours and used her own interview material and considerable writing skills to craft and perfect this book. Edna is indebted to them both.

Wendy and Edna are both grateful to Annabel Merullo at Peters Fraser Dunlop for all her hard work in facilitating this project and securing the film deal. Without her introduction and diligence, this book might never have happened. They would also like to thank Lisa Milton, Kate Fox and all the team at HQ for believing in it. Lastly, Wendy is thankful for Ednas love and friendship, and for the many inspirational lessons she has taught her about kindness, courage, determination and selflessness.

Edna Adan Ismail and Wendy Holden

Fifty per cent of all royalties received through the sale of this book will be donated by the family of Edna Adan Ismail to the Edna Adan University Hospital.

Please see charities below which support our work in Somaliland.

Edna Adan University Hospital, Somaliland

For more information about the Edna Adan University Hospital, visit http://www.ednahospitalfoundation.org

If you would like to support the work of the hospital, please visit the site of the Edna Adan Hospital Foundation at https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/EAHF

Friends of Edna

You may also donate directly to the Friends of Edna Endowment Fund to help ensure the sustainability of the hospitals training programmes, professional staff, and state-of-the-art physical plant for generations to come. Cheques to grow this endowment can be made out to Friends of Ednas Maternity Hospital and sent to 95 Montgomery Street, Black Rock, CT 06605-3305, USA, for the attention of Dr Lee Cassanelli, President of Friends of the Edna Maternity Hospital while credit card donations should be directed through PayPal: donate@friendsofedna.org

Edna Adan Hospital Foundation

The Edna Adan Hospital Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization (EIN 46-1552054) which supports the training of nurses and midwives, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) community educational materials, necessary medical procedures, equipment and supplies, and has contributed to the construction of a new university building.

For more information, visit our website on https://ednahospitalfoundation.org/#about

Support us by donating on https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/EAHF

If you prefer to contribute by check, please mail your check to: Edna Adan Hospital Foundation 1660 L Street NW Suite 501 Washington, DC 20036

Contact us on: Office: +1 (202) 849-0125Email: info@ednahospitalfoundation.org

Edna Foundation UK

We are an international non-profit organization working with the Edna Adan Hospital and University to advance health care in Somaliland and throughout the Horn of Africa. We promote safe motherhood by training midwives, fighting FGM and empowering women to step up as leaders of change.

Edna Adan Foundation Registered charity number 1169725

Fore more information visit us on www.ednafoundation.org.uk

Or contact us on contact@ednafoundation.org.uk

You can support us by donating here: https://www.justgiving.com/edna-adan-foundation

Whatever you donate, you will be helping to reduce maternal and infant mortality in the Horn of Africa by enabling safer pregnancies and deliveries. Thanks to Ednas free community midwifery training courses to students from distant villages and districts, you will be ensuring that newborn babies have access to immediate medical care, lifesaving vaccinations and, as they grow, quality health services.

You will be making certain that childrens life chances are significantly increased so, when theyre ready, they too can join the movement for improved healthcare in Somaliland by becoming trained health professionals. With your donations Edna and her team are able to train more midwives and expand their teaching programme to other areas of healthcare, including nursing, anaesthesiology, pharmacology, laboratory technology, dentistry, veterinary health, agriculture and public health. Your gifts also provide safe motherhood to women through clinics, supplies and, when necessary, C-section deliveries.

Whatever the circumstances, every baby born and every patient treated in Ednas hospital receives the best possible care they can provide. Your donation will not only make a difference but 100 per cent of any money gifted goes to this important work, especially to the poorest patients for whom all treatment is free, including delivery, C-sections, medication and hospital accommodation.

Hargeisa, British Somaliland Protectorate, 1937