Turkey launches initiatives to build children's hospital in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU (A.A) - November 8, 2011 - Turkey has launched initiatives to build a children's hospital with a capacity of 100 beds in Mogadishu in an effort to help famine-stricken Somalia. Yardim Eli, a Turkish aid association, will construct the hospital on a field of 28 decares by the ocean.   The hospital will be the first concrete step for rebuilding of the health infrastructure of Somalia. Association's Director General Dr. Sadik Danisman told AA on Tuesday that Yardim Eli had been carrying out several projects in African countries where people were suffering from famine and poverty. He recalled that the association previously built an orphanage in Sudan. Danisman expressed hope that they would lay the foundation of the hospital during Turkish Deputy Premier Bekir Bozdag's upcoming visit to Mogadishu. We will exert efforts to complete the construction of the hospital within 18 months, he said. We will also train Somali doctors, nurses and midwives in Turkey for three months, he added. Somalia is facing with one of the worst droughts in the past 60 years.     The epicenter of the drought lies on the three-way border shared by Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, a nomadic region where families heavily depend on the health of their livestock. Uganda and Djibouti have also been hit by the disaster.     Tens of thousands of people have so far been displaced due to the humanitarian situation in the region.