In Somalia, roughly 1 in 8 children will not live to see their fifth birthday, and 1 in 20 women of reproductive age die each year from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications among the highest rates in the world, according to UNICEF and WHO. Only around a third of births are attended by a trained health worker. Most of these deaths are preventable with basic antenatal care, a skilled attendant at birth, or a timely referral often the difference between a family staying whole and a mother or child who never comes home. Our health programs combine primary care outreach with support for conditions that would otherwise go untreated.
Our Strategy
Decades of conflict gutted Somalia’s health system. Formal facilities are concentrated in a handful of cities, and most rural, pastoralist, and displaced populations have no nearby outpatient, emergency, or specialist care. Conditions that are routinely treatable elsewhere — cataracts, malnutrition, complications in childbirth — too often become permanent or fatal for lack of access, not lack of a cure.
We bring care as close to where people live as possible through outreach and mobile clinics, and build referral chains so a case beyond primary care — a cataract, a cardiac condition, a corrective surgery — has a path to specialist treatment rather than a dead end. We work with existing health authorities and partner facilities so referral pathways become lasting infrastructure rather than one-off medical missions, the approach donors in global health increasingly look for over episodic aid.
Areas of Focus
Maternal & Child Health (MCH), OPD & Emergency Services
Antenatal care, delivery support, outpatient care, and emergency referral delivered at facilities and outreach points, so pregnancy and everyday illness don’t become the leading — and most preventable — causes of death they remain in under-resourced health systems.
Eye Care & Cataract Surgeries
Screening camps identify treatable cases early, and partner surgical teams carry out cataract and corrective procedures on-site — a single operation that restores a working adult’s independence and income.
Chronic Disease Treatment Support
Management and referral for diabetes and hypertension — conditions that are manageable with consistent care but life-threatening without it, in a context where continuous treatment is the exception rather than the rule.
Pediatric Cardiac Surgery & Specialized Referral Support
Identifying children with congenital heart conditions and coordinating referral to specialist surgical care that doesn’t exist locally, closing a gap that would otherwise turn a treatable condition into a fatal one.
Disability & Corrective Surgery Support
Orthopedic treatment, correction of congenital deformities, and rehabilitation for conditions that, left untreated, become lifelong disability and exclusion from school and work.
Mobile Health Clinics
Outreach teams that bring primary care into rural and pastoralist areas with no fixed facility, following population movement rather than waiting for it to reach a clinic.
Nutrition Screening & Referral Support
Early detection of acute malnutrition in children and referral into treatment before it becomes a medical emergency — the difference between a preventive intervention and a crisis response.
Community Health Awareness & Prevention Campaigns
Hygiene, maternal health, and disease-prevention messaging carried by community health workers, closing the behavior and knowledge gaps that clinical care alone can’t reach.
