Here is a close encounter with an unsung hero of Somali capital city of Mogadishu!
The Aamin Ambulance Service offers free emergency service to Mogadishu, often the scene of deadly terror attacks and while most people run away from the site of a bomb explosion, the dedicated staff members of the company rush to the scene to offer first aid to victims and ferry the injured to hospitals.
According to the founder of the 24-hour free ambulance service, Dr. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, he was motivated to start the voluntary service after seeing the deplorable state of health services in the city.
“When I came back to the country, there was a war going on and people were using wheelbarrows to get patients to hospitals. It led to deaths on the way to hospitals, the persons carrying the patient would be tired. That motivated me to respond and set up Aamin Ambulance services. It has helped to stop deaths,” Dr. Adan said during an interview with the ReliefWeb.
He says he chose the name Aamin because people in Somalia are not used to having volunteers and he therefore wanted them to trust his voluntary service.
There are always challenges in any endeavor and for this great initiative Dr. Adan explains that his team faces enormous challenges and physical risks as first responders to emergencies, as they witness traumatizing scenes.
Dr Adan, who still practices dentistry in Mogadishu says with adequate support, he could have a footprint in every region of Somalia within the next ten years.
The journey to fulfilling Dr Adan’s wish begun when Abdi Addow Nabadoone, a Somali based in Stockholm, Sweden, just after the Saturday’s twin bomb blast in Mogadishu, started a gofundme page with the goal of raising a 100,000 Swedish Krona (US $12,286) to support Aamin Ambulance. The October attack claimed the lives of over 300 people and hundreds more injured.
“Please support the unsung heroes and heroines of Aamin Ambulance,” Addow appealed on the page.
38,213 Swedish Krona (US $4,694) was raised by 198 people within the first 16 hours after the page was created.
Earlier this week the africanews.com reported that the initiative had helped to raise a sum of $32,966.
“The initiative came from Somalis in the diaspora. They have so far collected between $25,000 and $28,000, the walkie-talkie radios that UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) donated to us and the ten grams of gold from my wife,” the ambulance founder says.
Addow says he hoped the money raised will help improve communications, medical supplies, vehicles and human resource in order for Aamin Ambulance to be able to provide quicker emergency response. The amount raised is to be invested in three new ambulances and repairs to the existing fleet.
The ambulance service has grown over the years, and today it boasts a team of 35 nurses, paramedics, and drivers, along with a fleet of ten vehicles. They work in partnership with the Somali federal Government, UNOCHA, UNDP and WHO.
