SOMALIA / MEDICAL SUPPLIES

The Belet Wyene hospital in the Hiraan region of South-Central Somalia now lacks life-saving drugs and medical equipment needed to treat the influx of patients. Djiboutian troops serving under the African Union Peacekeeping mission forSomaliahave donated medical suppliers to the hospital, the only one in the region, ahead of the rainy season. UN AU IST

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:03:33
• Production Date: 26 October 2013
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: AFRICAN UNION MISSION IN SOMALIA – AMISOM
• Subject Topical: HEALTH SERVICES; MEDICINE
• Geographic Subject: DJIBOUTI; SOMALIA
• MAMS Id: U131026a

Description

STORY: SOMALIA / MEDICAL SUPPLIES
TRT: 3.33
SOURCE: AU/UN IST
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH/ SOMALI /NATS

DATELINE: 15 OCTOBER 2013, BELET WYENE, SOMALIA

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, people walking into the Belet Wyene General Hospital
2. Med shot, man standing at the door
3. Close up, sign at walk of the hospital
4. Wide shot, family waiting outside hospital
5. Wide shot, man opening the door to the male ward
6. Med shot, man looking through broken glass door
7. Wide shot, doctor passing by patients hospital
8. Med shot, patients waiting for treatment
9. Med shot, woman and her child waiting for treatment
10. Wide shot, woman sitting on the bed of sick husband
11. Close up, patient on a bed
12. Wide shot, sick patients at the hospital
13. Close up, sick woman on her bed
14. Med shot, patient talking to a visitor
15. Close up, of girl’s face
16. Med shot, man in bed with bandaged foot
17. Wide shot, people inside the hospital compound
18. Wide shot, AMISOM Djiboutian troops offloading medicine boxes from truck
19. Med shot, troops offloading boxes of medicines
20. Wide shot, boxes of medication pilled up
21. Med shot, boxes of medicines
22. Close up, logo on the box
23. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Abdi Waberi Gedi, Medical Chief in Belet Wyene, AMISOM:
“Actually the hospital is very big and caters for the whole region and all the villages, with patients coming to the hospital from as far as the Ethiopian border, so the hospital has a lot of needs. We cannot meet all their needs but we are giving some of our medicines, what we have, to help of the hospital. We have given different medicines mostly those administered intravenously.”
24. Wide shot, very sick woman in the ward
25. Med shot, sick woman
26. Close up, sick patient
27. Wide shot, nurse checking on woman
28. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Ahmed Mohamed Khalif, general Director Belet Wyene General Hospital:
“The hospital’s generators that pump the water supply to the hospital was a donation from our Djiboutian brothers, before that they had given us a huge consignment of medical supplies even more than what they have given us today to fill in the gap. We thank them and we welcome them.”
29. Wide shot, people inside the hospital compound
30. Wide shot, visitors waiting inside hospital compound
31. Med shot, people waiting
32. Wide shot, exterior, hospital

Storyline

The Belet Wyene General hospital is a lifeline for many residents in the Hiraan region of South-Central Somalia. Located about 330kms from the Capital Mogadishu, the hospitals was among many health facilities in Somalia affected by the withdrawal of Medicines Sans Frontier (MSF) from the country in August this year.

The hospital now lacks life-saving drugs and medical equipment needed to treat the influx of patients from not only the region, but from as far as neighbouring Ethiopia.

In response to the growing challenges and as part of their service to the community, Djiboutian troops serving under AMISOM, the African Union Peacekeeping mission for Somalia, have donated medical suppliers to the hospital, the only one in the region, ahead of the rainy season.

The supplies were donated by the President of Djibouti Ismail Omar Guelleh and delivered by his country’s contingent that has been in Belet Wyene since June 2012 when they joined other African Union forces to help Somalia in the fight against the Al Qaeda linked extremist group Al Shabaab. The group has been pushed out of many urban cities and towns, but they still hold areas in the South of the country.

With AMISOM’s Djiboutian troops, Belet Wyene is relatively peaceful and calm has returned to the town.

Dr. Abdi Waberi Gedi, the AMISOM Medical Chief in Belet Wyene said that, “actually the hospital is very big and caters for the whole region and all the villages. Patients coming to the hospital from as far as the Ethiopian border, so the hospital has a lot of needs,” he added “we cannot meet all their needs but we are giving some of our medicines, what we have, to help of the hospital. We have given different medicines mostly those administered intravenously.”

The AMISOM Djiboutian forces also help treat some of the more serious cases at their small medical facility at the base.

Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Khalif is the director at the hospital and has been working here for the last 30 years. He said the donation is very timely and thanked the AMISOM force for being responsive to the needs of the population.

Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Khalif said, “the hospital’s generators that pump the water supply to the hospital was a donation from our Djiboutian brothers, before that they had given us a huge consignment of medical supplies even more than what they have given us today to fill in the gap,” and added “we thank them and we welcome them.”

The hospital does both inpatient and outpatients services and was set up by the Italian Colonial Administration in 1933. As Somalia emerges form its violent past and decades of conflict, lack of medical facilities and many other services still poses a big challenge to it reconstruction efforts.

The hospital mainly survives on the support of NGOs and well-wishers.