Somalia: Patients Thankful a Year after Pope's Donation to Clinic

Baidoa, -One year after a Holy Thursday donation by Pope Benedict XVI, a Catholic clinic in Baidoa is expanding its services to more people in the Horn of Africa nation.

The health centre, run by Caritas Somalia, provides free healthcare to residents of the town and its environs. It is to this facility that the pope donated last year's collection of Holy Thursday mass in the Basilica of St John Lateran.

The outpatient facility serves up to 170 patients a day, with some patients traveling more than 50 kilometers to receive free care.

Abdullahi Mumin, the medical coordinator, told CISA the common ailments in the region are respiratory infections like tonsillitis, bronchitis, rhinitis and the common cold, which often advance to the potentially deadly pneumonia due to delays in seeking treatment.

According to Davide Bernocchi, director of Caritas Somalia, the health center's work shows that it is possible to operate among the Somalis, improve their welfare and meet their basic needs with limited resources.

"We are glad that the Pope remembered the people of Somalia. It is a sign of love and solidarity with one of the smallest and most fragile churches in the world, at the service of some of the poorest people on earth."

The president of Caritas Somalia, Bishop Giorgio Bertin of Dijbouti and apostolic administrator of Mogadishu, added that without international assistance the transitional government in Somalia would fail. "The most difficult task for Somalia is piecing back its fragmented society, which has almost been completely destroyed."

Grace Kyeyune, the UNICEF Chief of Field Office in Central and Southern region of Somalia praised the professionalism and efficiency at the clinic. "The Caritas clinic is a model that we are asking other medical centers to emulate, their organization and efficiency is an example of what it means to serve in a war zone with scarce resources."

Somalia, one of the world's poorest nations has been without a government since the collapse of the regime of Siad Barre in 1991. At the height of the war, the entirely Muslim state was reduced to shells as rival warlords fought over control. The few churches were destroyed or converted into mosques. A transitional government was created in 2004, but controls only a limited portion the country.

Source: Catholic Information Service for Africa