Somali baby with parasitic twin nursed back to health in Turkey

 A Somali infant who was born with four legs due to having a parasitic twin received the chance to live a normal life from Turkish doctors who performed an eight-hour operation on her in Istanbul on Sunday.

The child was born 55 days ago with severe anomalies at the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Training and Research Hospital in the Somali capital Mogadishu, a hospital supported by Turkey.

The infant was referred to the Zeynep Kamil Women's and Children's Disease Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul.

The operation was carried using a multidisciplinary approach. Two of the baby's legs were removed, and anomalies in the child's genitourinary and intestinal system were also corrected.

The twin has what is known as a parasitic twin, the term for when one identical twin stops developing during gestation but is physically attached to the developing twin.

Dr. Semra Kayataş Eser, the Istanbul hospital's chief of medicine, said the child is in good condition.

While our country fights COVID-19, it also continues to serve patients from Turkey and beyond, she said.

Praising the efforts of the Turkish Health Ministry and the University of Health Sciences, where the hospital is based, she said their dedication has set an example for the rest of the world

Muno Dahir, the infant's mother, said she was happy to learn that the child would be treated in Turkey. "This surgery was difficult in our country since we do not have advanced technology and experienced doctors," she explained.

"I think she will be fine after the next operations," she said, thanking the Turkish doctors and nurses for their support.

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Somali Regional State Gets 80m Birr Built Hospital

 Addis Ababa, November 23, 2020 (FBC) –Deputy Chief Administrator of Somali regional state, Mustefe Mohammed, inaugurated the Gashamo hospital which was built in Jerer zone at a cost of 80 million birr.

Speaking on the occasion, Mustefe said the hospital would help to provide health care services to residents of 5 woredas in the zone and reduce maternal death at delivery.

Deputy head of the regional health bureau, Dr Shermarkie, said the construction of the hospital is important to improve the family planning services of low-income members of the community.

The health facility could give services to close to 800,000 residents in the areas. Close to 12 hospitals in the regional state are currently undergoing expansion projects with close to 1 billion birr, he added.

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Program Management for Development Professionals (Program DPro) Course is ready!

How do you manage a group of projects to get greater impact and control? 

We will work with participants to understand the challenges that they face and give them the advice, tools, and guidance and assist them in more effectively fulfilling their role, whether that be at the local, regional, or international levels.

 Program DPro is a globally recognized program management certification for development and relief professionals. This course gives you the skills you need to effectively design, plan and implement programs through their entire life cycle.

Providing Institution

Pyramid Learning (USA) provides engaging and scalable learning for humanitarian relief and development practitioners. They work with individuals and organizations – delivering online and face-to-face courses, designing custom courses, such as PMD Pro [Now, Project DPro], MEAL DPro, FMD Pro, Program DPro developing credentials and facilitating learning events. 

Their mission is to make quality learning appropriate, accessible and actionable. To help those doing good, do even better.

All their products and services are designed to be accessible, appropriate and actionable. They prioritize practical skills and tools, while providing easy-to-deploy learning systems that can be used to upskill a single team or scaled to support a whole organization.

About the Instructor

John Cropper has an MBA and MA in Education and is passionate about the ability of effective and efficient program management to make the world a better place and he actively looks to collaborate with anyone who shares these goals.

Over the last twenty-five years, he has worked in multiple program roles in NGOs –including positions as Program Director for Oxfam GB in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean; Global Program Manager for a gender and governance program & running Oxfam’s project management systems globally. He helped write PMD Pro. He is a Chair of PM4NGOs and led development of Program DPro.

He has worked on project management capacity building initiatives for more than thirty INGOs, local NGOs, UN agencies, and other development organizations.

Course Schedule & Time-line

Starting date: Nov. 23 – Dec. 18, 2020

During the course, participants will learn to:

• Understand the Program DPro phases including the disciplines and principles.
• Explain how projects, programs and portfolio interact
• Understand the relationships between projects, programs and theories of change
• Articulate the complete scope of a program, including project and non-project work and inter-project dependencies
• Practice program planning and understand how stage planning works at program and project level
• Map out the stages of a program
• Establish a culture of effective project management across the program.
• Ensure the programs and projects are well governed
• Understand the importance of issue and change management across the program
• Develop action plans to improve management of existing programs
• During the course, participants will cover everything they need to succeed in the Program DPro exam.

Course Fee 
Individual participants would pay $125 for the course including local coaching, virtual or face-to-face based on the situation.
NB: There is still a chance to book the course on $100 only, but there will be no extra help or coaching. You will simply be purchasing the generic, open course.

Course Certificate
Everyone who successfully completes the course will receive a certificate of attendance issued by Pyramid Learning. Everyone who passes the Program DPro exam will also receive the Program DPro certification.

Program DPro Exam

Program D Pro is a globally recognized program management certification for development professionals. This online course prepares learners to take the Program D Pro Certification Exam. 

Please note: The course fee does not include the cost of the exam, and it is not administered at the end of the course.  You can arrange to take the exam online at any time, with costs starting from as little as $40. More information can be found here..

For more Information
In case you may need additional details about the course offering and registration, please contact us at info@pyramidlearning.org or info@DrMohamedDualeh.com, similarly, you can call Dr. Mohamed Y. Dualeh at this number +252 63 4417945 for further inquiries.

Official website: https://www.pyramidlearning.org  

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Doctor’s self-funded test lab leads way in Somalia’s COVID fight

 MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Having scraped money together following medical studies abroad, Somali doctor Abdullahi Sheikdon Dini opened Mogadishu’s first advanced diagnostic laboratory in January.

Dr. Abdullahi Sheikdon

Its arrival could hardly have been better timed because, just two months later, the coronavirus epidemic reached the Horn of Africa country.

Since then Medipark Diagnostics, which he runs with five other doctors who pooled $1 million to buy equipment, has become a linchpin of the country’s creaking, donor-supported health infrastructure.

Hospitals in the battle-scarred city that once had to wait weeks for blood test results now use the lab to test for conditions including HIV and hepatitis.

But, as the Somali government has acknowledged, it is in the fight against COVID-19 that Medipark has made its most visible mark.

We had the supplies and our molecular pathologists were in touch with other pathologists doing COVID-19 tests in other countries, said Dini, 37, whose studies took him to India and China.

Until July, Medipark was the only private lab in the city testing for the virus, but since then its technicians have trained government health workers to conduct tests.

“We were needed ... and we were appreciated,” he said.

Medipark has arranged import pipelines of reagents needed for tests, including the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test used for COVID-19. It employs staff from Kenya, Lebanon and India to operate and maintain equipment imported from Europe, Asia and the United States.

Somalia has been plagued by conflict since 1991, and outbreaks of diseases such as cholera are common.

More than 2 million people do not have enough food. Many live in crowded, unsanitary camps, creating fears COVID-19 could scythe through a vulnerable population.

So far, that hasn’t happened. The health ministry has recorded 4,229 infections and 107 deaths in the pandemic though, with large swathes of the country are off limits due to the fighting, that is likely to be an undercount.

Medipark lab is next to Hotel Shamo, where a 2009 bombing killed 19 people during a medical student graduation. Dini was there and the memories are still raw, but he and his fellow doctors are proud to be back home.

“I am glad to help my community and make a difference,” said Ali Muse, who practised in Rwanda and South Sudan before returning two years ago to help open the lab.

Writing by Maggie Fick, reporting by Abdi Sheikh, editing by John Stonestreet

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Saudi Arabia hands over the dialysis center building to Somalia

 Yesterday, the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center handed over the building of the dialysis center at Banadir Hospital in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to the Ministry of Health and Community Welfare of the Federal Republic of Somalia, where the center will be used, upon the request of the Somali Ministry of Health, as a temporary headquarters for examining and treating people with Coronavirus, provided that the project is completed After completing the quarantine and treatment of the injured of Corona (Covid-19), and this is a contribution from the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his faithful Crown Prince to alleviate the suffering of the brotherly Somali people as a result of this pandemic.

The handover ceremony of the Dialysis Center building was held to the Somali Ministry of Health in the presence of the Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the Federal Republic of Somalia, Dr. Muhammad Abdul-Ghani Khayyat, the Director of the Center’s Branch in Africa, Saad Muhanna Al-Suwaid, and the representative of the Ministry of Health and Community Welfare in the Federal Republic of Somalia, Counselor Dr. Abdul Razzaq Yusef Ahmed Jalaluddin, Mustafa Adam Daqal, Director of the Arab Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the Federal Republic of Somalia, the Director of Banadir Hospital for Maternity and Childhood in Mogadishu, Dr. Farton Sharif Muhammad, the Director of the Dialysis Center, Dr. Muhammad Othman Muhammad, the Director of Projects at the King Salman Center Branch in Africa, Professor Ibrahim Abdel Qader, and a number of Officials of the Somali Ministry of Health,

Saudi contribution

After the handover, the Ambassador of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to the Federal Republic of Somalia, Dr.Muhammad Abdul-Ghani Khayyat, told local and international media that the building of the dialysis center will be used as a temporary headquarters for examining and treating people with Coronavirus and quarantining critical health cases, in response to the Somali government’s request and the contribution from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

For siblings in Somalia, provided that the kidney dialysis center project is completed after the end of the Corona pandemic. For his part, the representative of the Ministry of Health and Community Welfare in the Federal Republic of Somalia, Counselor, Dr. Abdul Razzaq Yusef Ahmed Jalaluddin, expressed his thanks and appreciation to the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and his trustworthy Crown Prince – may God protect them – and to the people of the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has never been late in extending a helping hand to the brothers in Somalia, also thanked the King Salman Center for Relief, noting that there are many projects that the Kingdom offers through the center in the Federal Republic of Somalia.

It is noteworthy that the Kingdom, represented by the King Salman Relief Center, is implementing many relief projects and development programs in the Republic of Somalia in various educational, health, water and environmental sanitation sectors, in support of the brothers in Somalia.

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