By Ahmed Issak Hussein, Communications and Advocacy Coordinator for Action Against Hunger Somalia
In Somalia, birth is never a quiet, private thing. Grandmothers whisper blessings. Neighbors hold your hand. For as long as anyone can remember, mothers have brought babies into the world this way; guided by the women who came before them.
That wisdom is real. It matters. But it is not always enough.
In Somalia, fewer than one in three mothers give birth with a trained health worker by their side. Too many mothers and babies die from problems that good medical care can prevent.
So, how do you keep the wisdom of grandmothers and add the safety of modern medicine? You build a place that families trust. That is exactly what happened at Makkah Hospital in Mogadishu, with support from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), World Health Organization Somalia, and Action Against Hunger.
And that is where two young mothers—strangers to each other—walked through the same door and changed the future of their families.
Dahiro was 24 years old. She traveled a long way from her village in Jilib, a small town far from the capital. She had already given birth twice before, both times at home, and both times without a doctor or a nurse.
“I always feared hospitals for delivery,” she said, holding her newborn daughter close. “In Jilib, you trust what your grandmother told you.”
Dahiro holds her newborn baby at the Makkah Hospital, supported by Action Against Hunger
Dahiro was a careful, loving mother. She breastfed her older children because her aunt told her it was the right thing to do. The practice also helped space out her pregnancies in a natural way. She followed the traditions and believed she was doing everything right.
“But I didn’t know,” she says quietly, “that I was only doing half the job to protect them.” She had recently realized through conversation with the hospital staff that, while breastfeeding built her babies’ immune systems, they needed vaccines as an additional shield. Her older children, still back in the village, had never been vaccinated because she simply didn’t know they needed to be.
Down the hall, 25-year-old Nafisa sat with her children gathered around her. She was a single mother, and life had not been easy. A bad drought pushed her family from their home and into a displacement camp.
Nafisa has a consultation at Makkah Hospital, supported by Action Against Hunger.
Nafisa first came to Makkah Hospital in June 2025 because her two young children were dangerously thin. They were malnourished and needed special milk and therapeutic food to survive. While the medical team treated her children, they noticed Nafisa was pregnant and signed her up for check-ups right away.
In September 2025, she returned to the hospital and delivered her baby safely. But even then, she could not stop worrying. A measles outbreak was spreading near her camp. “I feared my children might get sick from Jadeeco [the Somali word for measles],” she said . Her voice was steady, but her eyes showed fear.
The team at Makkah Hospital did not treat Dahiro’s and Nafisa’s appointments as time to address isolated issues. They treated them as an opportunity for holistic care. This is the “one-stop-shop” approach: when a mother walks through the door for any reason—a birth, a sick child, or hunger—the team checks on everything. Every child. Every need.
Dahiro is helped by a midwife in the postnatal room in Makkah Hospital, supported by Action Against Hunger.
Action Against Hunger and WHO Somalia have built a healthcare system that sees the whole family. When Makkah Hospital brings vaccines, nutrition, and maternal care under one roof, they are turning Somalia’s National Transformation Plan (NTP) – the country’s roadmap for rebuilding and modernizing the country through 2029 – into a reality that mothers can actually feel.
One ordinary morning at Makkah Hospital, something small and powerful happened. Dahiro and Nafisa were both in the ward at the same time. Dahiro’s newborn daughter received her very first vaccine. Nafisa’s children got their life-saving shots and were checked to make sure they were growing well. Two families, side by side, stepping into safety at the same time.
Dahiro’s baby receives her first vaccine, an important step in preventing malnutrition.
Nafisa in the Makkah Hospital
This is how big goals like Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being) stop being words on paper and start becoming real life. Every visit becomes a chance to catch what might otherwise be missed.
Dahiro and Nafisa headed home, carrying their children and a new shield of knowledge.
“I will go back home with what I know now,” Dahiro says with new confidence. “I will speak to other mothers. My aunts gave me their wisdom, and now I will give other mothers the wisdom I have found here.”
She is not rejecting what her grandmother taught her; she is adding to it. Nafisa does not say much as she leaves. She just breathes with relief and holds her children a little tighter, knowing they are finally safe.
These two women walked into Makkah Hospital as strangers, each carrying her own fears. They are walking out as proof of what becomes possible when the right support meets a mother’s love. When you give a mother the tools, she protects the family. And family by family, they are rewriting the future of a nation.
