Edna Adan Ismail is a midwife and campaigner, born in 1937 she grew up as the daughter of a prominent doctor within Somaliland. As a child growing up in what was then British Somaliland in the 1940s, her dream was to build her own hospital by the mid-50s, she'd won a scholarship to study in Britain but life as it has a habit of doing, got in the way and it took 50 years and all her savings to finally realize her dream in 2002.
Edna’s mantra of ‘if I don't do it then who will’ it's a principle she's lived her entire life. She met her first husband when they were both students in England they went on to marry who then became the president of Somaliland and juggled the high-profile role of first lady with nursing shifts. She progressed to be her country's first-ever female foreign minister and broke deep-rooted taboos by publicly condemning the widespread practice of female genital mutilation/FGM. This originated from a highly personal struggle when aged just eight she herself was violently disfigured by FGM with her grandmother having arranged the procedure. Edna continues to teach and train in the hospital she built, and the ‘The Edna Adan maternity and teaching hospital’ that emerged from the rubble of a bloody civil war in 1981. Since then the hospital has delivered over 29,000 babies and trained hundreds of nurses and midwives.
In this conversation we explore:
More about Edna can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_Adan_Ismail
Her book 'Woman of firsts' can be found here:
The Edna Adan Hospital Foundation can be found here:
https://ednahospitalfoundation.org
I hope you enjoy this episode with a history changing guest.
