IOM Expands Basic Healthcare Services for IDPs in Somaliland

GENEVA, Switzerland, October 4, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- IOM, in collaboration with the Somaliland Ministry of Health, Ministry of Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (MRRR) and the Migration Response Centre (MRC), has established a mobile health clinic at Mohamed Mooge settlement in Hargeisa to provide basic healthcare services to approximately 10,000 vulnerable internally displaced people (IDPs) and the neighbouring host population.

The clinic, which is co-funded by Japan and the United States, will also provide needed healthcare services to over 150 street children hosted at a rehabilitation centre near the settlement.

The healthcare services provided at the clinic include routine consultations, safe motherhood, nutrition, communicable disease control, health promotion and health education. During the first week following the opening, over 1,000 patients visited the clinic.

“In the past I had to travel six kilometers to get medicines from the nearest pharmacy. It was hard for us to get proper treatment and medical checkups without money. But now I can get good health services on my door step,” says Asma Abdi, a 65-year old IDP, who lives at the settlement. Asma arrived at the settlement in 2011, after losing all her sheep due to drought.

IOM is in discussions with the Somaliland Ministry of Health and the MRRR and to establish other mobile clinics in various IDP settlements which will benefit returnees, migrant pastoralists and host communities.