Edna Adan Ismail
Image of Edna holding The African Children’s Hero Award, which was awarded to her in 2013.
Edna Adan Ismail was born in 1937, in Hargeisa, Somaliland. She is the daughter of a well known Somali medical doctor who inspired her to fight against female genital mutilation. Ismail was victim to the practice when she was eight years old, she soon realized that the practice was wrong based on her father’s reaction afterwards. From then on she vowed to prevent other women from undergoing the trauma that befell her, thus she trained as a nurse and midwife at the Borough Polytechnic in the United Kingdom.
Ismail was titled the first Somali girl to study in Britain and Somaliland's first qualified nurse-midwife. She worked hard to obtain the title of becoming the first female director of the Ministry of Health in Somalia. When the civil war broke out she was forced to relocate to the World Health Organization (WHO) and become the representative for Djibouti and pass laws criminalizing FGM.
Photo of Edna attending a Stop Femail Genital Mutilation Conference, where she was part of the panel.
However, Ismail still did not feel fulfilled, she had always dreamed of running her own hospital. So, in 1997 she sold everything she could and moved to Hargeisa, Somaliland. She believed that opening up a hospital would make her father proud and tackle the issues she was most fond of such as female reproductive health. Ismail's dream hospital funds were running dry but she persevered and even gained attraction from the Somali diaspora in the form of a foundation called " Friends of Edna's Hospital" and completed the project. In 2002, Ismail completed the first maternity hospital in Somaliland called the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital. Ismail still vows to improve the health of local women and reduce the infant mortality rate in the area.
Image of the exterior of Edna’s Hospital after its completion.
Edna Ismail has received numerous awards, she is the recipient of an Honorary Doctoral Degree from Clark University in Massachusetts, she was added to the Medical Mission Hall of Fame in 2007 and in 2008 she was made the Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University School of Nursing, Wales. Also, she received an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Ismail was featured in the documentary "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide in 2012. The documentary shows women who have overcome difficult situations allowing them to perceiver and accomplish great things. Edna Ismalil’s accomplishments and willingness to prevent Somali women from being exposed to the horrors of FGM have to lead to her being named " The Muslim Mother Teresa".