Somalia: Diaspora to Help the Country’s Health Sector
By George Okore
MOGADISHU--- Somali medical personnel and other health related professionals living in Finland will now be able to share the knowledge and skills acquired in Finland with fellow health practitioners working in the northern Somali regions of Puntland and Somaliland.
Up to 50 health professionals will be selected over the next three years to carry out field assignments for up to 12 months in northern Somalia as part of the second phase of the Migration for Development in Africa (MIDA) FINNSOM Health programme. Formal training, on-the-job mentoring and institutional planning will be among the main tasks carried out over the next three years by participating Somali health professionals.
The programme, which enjoys the full support of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, also seeks to promote of sustainable partnerships between Finnish and Somali healthcare institutions and aims to see immediate benefits achieved by Finland’s overall development assistance in the Horn of Africa.
“The initiation of this second phase recognizes the previous achievements of highly qualified Somali health professionals who contributed to the rehabilitation of Somalia’s dilapidated health infrastructure,” says Juan Daniel Reyes who coordinates IOM’s MIDA programme in Helsinki. “It also highlights Finland’s leading role in mobilizing migrant communities as vehicles of peace and development.”
A total of 22 health assignments were carried out as part of the first phase of the project, which ran from July 2008 to December 2009. Those included training of nursing students, teaching of psychiatry to medical students, and on-the-job training in orthopaedic surgery.
With a population of over 9,000 persons of Somali descent, Somali diaspora is the largest non-European ethnic minority in Finland. Through an extensive network of civil and community-based organizations, and the support of the Finnish Government and NGOs, Somalis in Finland have throughout the years contributed to the rehabilitation of their war-shattered nation.