Somalia

Healthcare

In Somalia’s conflict-affected areas, access to basic healthcare remains a challenge. International Medical Corps provides vital healthcare services and strengthens local capacity through the training and education of local health workers. We work in 47 health facilities, including hospitals, district health centers, community-based primary healthcare clinics, and mobile health and nutrition teams, which serve more remote, sparsely populated areas. Through these facilities, we provided primary and secondary healthcare services to almost 1 million people in 2023, in four Somali regions: Banadir, Bay, Hirshabelle and Mudug. Our 10 mobile teams across Somalia work to ensure that we meet the health needs of those in hard-to-reach areas.

International Medical Corps offers the following healthcare services in Somalia:

• Outpatient and inpatient consultations for common illnesses and diseases across all age categories
• Routine immunization for children under 5 and pregnant women
• Basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care (BEmONC) and comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care (CEmONC)
• Antenatal and postnatal care, including nutrition screening and referral for pregnant and nursing women
• Integrated community case management (we train community health workers to diagnose and treat common childhood illnesses, such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea)
• Promotion of birth spacing and provision of modern family-planning methods
• Clinical management of rape, including psychosocial support for survivors
• Health education and promotion in communities and health facilities
• Response to disease and emergency outbreaks, including acute watery diarrhea, measles and population displacements
• Referral services within and outside facilities that we support
• Supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention and control (IPC) materials to our staff and others working or residing in health facilities
• Screening and clinical case management of infectious-disease patients
• Community awareness and key messaging on infectious diseases, and disease surveillance and health data reporting to concerned authorities, including the Ministry of Health and the UN Health Cluster
• Studies that inform programming and increase demand for health services
• Radio messages and other materials that communicate key messages and counter misinformation
• Key messages on climate change and the solarization of health facilities in local communities

We implement innovative interventions to reduce Somalia’s morbidity and mortality rates, increase community engagement and improve health monitoring and evaluation.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

International Medical Corps supports the prevention of WASH-related diseases as part of our comprehensive approach to healthcare. We provide access to clean water, improve sanitation facilities and promote safe hygiene practices within communities to help prevent outbreaks of disease.

In 2023, we offered WASH services to 188,368 people in four regions: Banadir, Bay, Hirshabelle and Mudug. We conduct hygiene promotion activities, household visits and mass awareness-raising sessions to educate local communities about their role in preventing waterborne and hygiene-related diseases. We inform each community about critical handwashing practices, hygienic latrine usage, safe water chains and solid-waste disposal. In addition, we distribute hygiene kits to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and to host communities to ensure that hygiene and health standards are maintained.

Our goal is to ensure that local communities have access to safe, clean water and to improved sanitation facilities. We routinely construct ventilated pit latrines to serve camps for IDPs, and restore shallow wells and pipeline connections in camps and health facilities to provide safe drinking water to communities. For example, to eradicate open defecation, we introduced a community-led sanitation approach in six riverine villages in Jowhar.

Finally, we promote the formation of local WASH committees and hygiene clubs in schools, and recruit and train volunteers who serve as advocates for change around solid-waste management in their communities. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked to raise awareness of the importance of handwashing and provide vulnerable communities with water and soap.

International Medical Corps is the WASH Cluster focal point for the Mudug region, a Technical Working Group member and a leading member of the WASH Cluster Strategic Review Committee.

Nutrition

We implement nutrition programs in four regions in southcentral Somalia— Banadir, Bay, Galmudug and Hirshabelle—working to reduce malnutrition in children under 5 and in pregnant and lactating women (PLWs). We provide direct nutrition services while strengthening local capacity to build nutrition levels, change social behavior and conduct advocacy. In 2023, International Medical Corps reached 188,349 children under 5 and 129,364 PLWs with nutrition services.

Our nutrition services in Somalia include providing:

• screening and growth monitoring for children under 5;
• inpatient and outpatient management of severe and moderate acute malnutrition, integrated with health, WASH and protection services;
• maternal, infant and young-child nutrition counseling; and
• health and nutrition education and promotion at the facility and community levels.

Protection

International Medical Corps offers medical care to survivors of gender-based violence (GBV), helping them to overcome the trauma of rape, female genital mutilation and other physical violence. In 2023, International Medical Corps reached more than 52,000 people with protection services. As part of recovery from disaster, our protection programs provide quality case management for GBV survivors, improve mental and psychosocial well-being and rebuild social structures.

Our psychosocial programming offers accessible, non-stigmatizing assistance through focused individual interventions, as well as community-based approaches delivered at women’s and girls’ safe spaces (WGSS).

Our WGSS in Baidoa, Galkaiyo, Jowhar and Mogadishu districts provide women and girls who are survivors—as well as others in need—with coping mechanisms and skills to rebuild self-sufficiency as they work toward recovering from emotionally distressing experiences. Our approach focuses on building strong linkages between community-based psychosocial support and comprehensive mental-health case management at health facilities.

Our GBV program makes comprehensive clinical and non-clinical case management available to survivors at our health facilities in Baidoa, Galkacyo, Jowhar and Mogadishu. We provide access to safety for survivors of rape, intimate partner violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and other forms of physical violence. We also offer medical and psychosocial support, and referrals for legal services for confidential management of injuries and follow-up care.

In Galkacyo, we help mitigate the risks of GBV by reducing the distance to water sources, erecting solar-powered lighting next to water sources and latrines to provide added security at night, and building gender-segregated latrines that have internal lockable doors.

International Medical Corps is working with communities in Somalia to address social stigma and change attitudes toward GBV and psychosocial support through community outreach and protection teams, such as community support groups drawn from local residents and religious leaders. These teams help raise awareness of GBV risk factors and access to GBV services while helping communities identify and adopt community protection strategies.

Capacity Building

International Medical Corps has extensive experience providing training in Somalia. We build local health professionals’ capacity in clinical and non-clinical areas, enabling them to provide more specialized services. We are committed to supporting the Somalia Ministry of Health (MoH) through training and on-the-job mentoring of MoH staff, conducted in line with the Somali national curriculum and internationally accredited guidelines, including recommendations from the World Health Organization.

Topics of our training include:

• surgery;
• case management;
• IPC;
• community health programing;
• integrated management of acute malnutrition;
• mental health and psychosocial support services;
• GBV prevention and response;
• management of severe acute malnutrition;
• community-led total sanitation; and
• management of mass-casualty incidents and basic emergency-care training for MoH staff.

By training and working with community organizations—such as health center committees, community theaters, WASH committees and mother-to-mother support groups—International Medical Corps strengthens local capacity to respond to emergency public-health needs across Somalia. We also strengthen the capacity of female health workers to provide preventative education and follow up with households on existing health issues. Our goal is to ensure that local communities can take care of basic health issues on their own.