The health programme goes hand in hand with the education programme. Each primary school has a clinic with nurses that provides basic health care to the pupils. This enables them to stay healthy and can attend their studies without failure. All the clinics are supplied with medical drugs from the IAS office. UNICEF has increased the supply of health post renewal kits by 33% during the year. There is a referral clinic in the IAS office that is equipped to handle complicated cases.

Fighting leprosy

IAS is now the leading agency in fighting leprosy in Southern Somalia. This reflects a gradual growth of capacity in our staff to handle such cases. A consultant paedetrician has been offering his help at the OPD/MCH at Elasha while a practicing psychatrist conducted a one day mobile clinic in Lower Shabelle. An internship program is in place to ensure that nurses at the MCH benefit from the doctor. The laboratory is now running well on cost sharing basis and no funds were provided by IAS for its operation during last year. It has been very useful in diagnosing various diseases. The central dispensary coordinates the activities of all the clinics.

Highlights

- School children and surrounding community benefits from the clinics.
- Mothers who visit the OPD/MCH, learn more about personal hygiene.
- Detection and treatment of leprosy cases in various places.
- Provision of regular health education on prevention measures.
- Promotion of environmental and personal hygiene among the school children, their parents and the larger community.

- Provision of essential medical drugs.
- Routine supervision by field staff.
- Pay incentives to all health staff on monthly basis.
- Conduct workshops/trainings for nurses, teachers and the community.
- Continuous treatment of all diseases and giving advice to patients.
- Follow ups on cases reported or are under treatment at the clinics.

Elasha village

The IDPs community of Elasha village got a pleasant gift when IAS intervened to ensure that the supply of water to the poor families (total population over 6,000) was not interrupted when their generator broke down. IAS challenged the community to pledge an amount and a Deutz generator was bought at the cost of 4000 USD, half of which came from the community. In the same village, a woman called Nunai who was crippled from birth received a wheelchair from IAS. The poor woman was overjoyed even as the community narrated how she was rescued from the war in lower Juba region and carried hundreds of kilometers to Elasha by a wife of the local Sheikh in a basket! The wheelchair gives her some freedom to move around and attend to her chores.

- 82 toilets constructed by the community after the sensitisation seminars.
- 43,434 patients have been treated.
- 118 cases of leprosy detected and treated.
- 176 babies were delivered at the MCH at Elasha.
- 50 participants received training on HIV/AIDS.
- 51 participants got training on detection and treatment of leprosy.
- 30 people benefited from a seminar on post war trauma counseling.
- 27 people participated in midwife training at the MCH at Elasha.
- 46 nurses took part in a seminar on management of cholera.
- IAS health coordinators were invited to facilitate an EPI workshop.

The health department has collaborated with a number of agencies in order to provide health services to the community. UNICEF and WHO have come in to compliment what IAS has been doing. SOS and World Concern have also assisted in different aspects.

All in all, it has been another successful year in which IAS with the kind support of our partners has contributed to putting a smile on the faces of the Somali people.