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The Medina
Hospital, once the largest in Somalia, reopened in southern
Mogadishu on 28 May after standing idle for nearly eight years.
It had
been known as the Police Hospital before the collapse of the
Siad Barre regime in 1991.
Previous
attempts to put the facility back into operation have failed.
Last year, however, local doctors asked the ICRC to do a feasibility
study on its future.
As a result,
the ICRC decided to repair the buildings and is now supporting
the 55-bed surgical ward for the treatment of war-wounded
people.
But it
is the local community that is responsible for actually running
the hospital.
The administrators
are appointed by community leaders and draw up the budget
and conduct fundraising.
ICRC
is merely one of the donors and advises on training and budget
planning. Local leaders are also in charge of maintaining
security around the buildings.
Some of
the staff of the new hospital have been trained at the Keysane
Hospital, in Mogadishu North, which was set up in the wake
of heavy factional fighting in 1992 and is currently being
run by the Somali Red Crescent Society and fully supported
by the ICRC.
It remains
the main surgical referral facility in southern Somalia.
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