By ABDIKADIR SUGOW November 14 2012 health boost

Standard Newspaper

Elderly Halima Abdi Ibrahim has knee-related medical complications but could not consult a doctor due to the long distance between her home and the nearest medical centre, about 190 kilometers away.

For many years now, Halima has been forced to staying indoors –reeling in her traditional bed, nursing the pain on her knees without any due medication or even counseling.

This has remained a normal daily experience for her, perhaps because of the surrounding environment, and many other old ailing people. Like Halima, they continue suffering with serious health problems, including eye and ear infections.

They have lost hope since they are not in a position to travel the long distance to seek medical attention and there is no transport or Good Samaritan to come to their rescue.

The matter is further complicated by the fact that the local residents, the majority of them nomadic pastoralists, with no formal education have resorted to the traditional way of curing diseases, using herbs, other concoctions and fire burnings.

But there is some hope of relief for Halima who resides in a little tinny grass-thatched home and many other residents of Masalani township in Ijara District, with a helping hand coming from miles away in the United States of America, with a donation of a medical consignment valued at $350,000 (about KSh30 million).

Thanks to the Atlantic Global Aid (AGA), a non-governmental organization whose officials travelled a long distance to come to the rescue of ailing elders like of Halima who, not only received immediate medical attention, but was also given a wheelchair.

An estimated 200,000 residents of Ijara and Hulugho districts will benefit from the medical supply, which includes theatre surgical operations equipment.

For this poor marginalized society, serious medical treatment is a nightmare because patients have to be transported for 190km on a rough road leading to the only medical facility in the area – the Garissa Provincial General Hospital.

To worsen the situation, there are no ambulances to transfer the patients and yet still the cost of medication remains expensive for the locals whose income is less than one dollar a day.

Hopefully the 40 feet container of medical equipment and supplies donated by the US-based Atlantic Global Aid (AGA), which is also locally registered NGO in Kenya and Somalia, will help alleviate the problems bedeviling the local residents.

AGA Executive Director Dr Abdifatah Ahmed says he is optimistic that if utilized properly, the equipment which include a critical care nursery suite, ultra sound, dental care and labour and delivery suites, will greatly improve the health of the local residents.

Ahmed said the mission of the NGO is to enhance sustainable development through regular humanitarian interventions in health, education, livelihood, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion sectors.

Ijara MP and Defence minister Mohamed Yusuf Haji, who received the donation on behalf of the residents, appreciated the humanitarian NGO for bringing most needed medical equipment for district medical centres in Ijara, Hulugho and Sangailu

Haji said he appreciates the role of the Somali and other Africans in the Diaspora has increased their participation in promoting education, supply of relief food and health care facilities, development and peace-building in their homelands. He asked the local people to take advantage of the facilities.

Elder Abdi Hassan Shide thanked AGA for recognizing the needs of the people, particularly in the health sector. He said there is great need for equipment such as ultrasound and dental care which the whole district does not have and people usually have to travel to Garissa for such services.

Ms Maryan Yahye Mohamoud, a resident of Masalani Township, says: “We as women will benefit from the ultrasound, labour and delivery equipment. We are very grateful to Atlantic Global Aid for making life easier for women in Ijara District.”

According to AGA director, Ahmed, the NGO has signed a partnership with Kenyan Ministry of Health and has also taken over the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) of Spain project in Ijara District. MSF Spain has been working with Hulugho and Sangailu medical centres, covering reproductive health, nutrition and immunization.

He said the NGO works on cross border projects and has done many humanitarian interventions in Kenya and Somalia with operational offices in Nairobi and Masalani in Kenya, Kolbio in Lower Jubba and Mogadishu in Somalia and in Boston, Lewiston and Maine in the US.

AGA is a charitable organization established in 2010 to bring capacity building experience, medical supplies, nutritional supplements and medical personnel volunteers to Africa to build and strengthen sustainable community development initiatives through peace-building and participatory approaches.

It focuses on specific sectors priorities; nutrition, clean water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) health care, education in youth livelihoods, peace-building and good governance.

“We are a tax-exempt organization. Our board of directors, advisory board, volunteers and staff comprise of leading medical practitioners, educators, and business managers,” explains Ahmed.

He said the NGO carries out its work by collaborating with other NGOs, health facilities and medical staff to bring in expert in capacity building workshops, medical volunteers, medical supplies, nutritional supplements to selected areas and helps distribute them effectively in the area where there is a great need.

He said the main objective of the NGO is to help raise the living standards of the local communities through the provision of better education and health care services.

A key achievement of the NGO was the delivery and distribution of bales of clothes donated from Somali Diaspora in the US to 1,500 families in Badhade and Kolbio, Lower Jubba of Somalia.

AGA has taken over MSF Spain Ijara District Project on October 22, 2012.

AGA has also conducted an assessment report on the Somalia/Kenya borderline population on health conditions, clean water supplies, and food shortages educational capacity.

In September last year, the NGO raised funds for the victims of famine in the Horn of Africa, particularly in Somalia and helped in the shipment of the relief consignment. The NGO also sponsored the Nairobi World Refugee Cup Competition in Kenya in May 2011.

AGA also works with hospitals in Kenya, American Refugee Committee (ARC), ADESO, Mercy Corps and MSF