CYCLING from one baby delivery to the next, life in 1950s Britain was straight out of Call The Midwife for Edna Adan.
By CONSTANCE KNOX
London-trained Edna Adan teaches new nurses midwifery skills at her maternity hospital in Somaliland
Yet she traded it all in for civil war, hyena attacks and water in buckets as she followed her dream to open the first maternity hospital in her native Somalia.
In 2002, nearly 50 years since she began training at Borough Polytechnic, now London South Bank University, she achieved her ambition by opening Edna Adan maternity hospital in what is now Somaliland.
In its 15 years nearly 22,000 babies have been delivered.
“The first one was born eight hours after we opened,” she said.
“It’s the hospital that took my whole life to build.”
Ms Adan told Desert Island Discs how her father, a doctor, inspired her love of health.
She said: “I used to hang around the hospital and give him a hand. He was my hero, still is. I’ll never be as compassionate as he was.”
She came to London on a scholarship in the 50s.
Her maternity training involved cycling to help out at deliveries.
She lived here for seven years, becoming the first Somali girl to study in Britain “and proud of it”.
In 1961 she returned home as the first qualified nurse and midwife in the country, and the first woman to hold a driving licence.
She said: “I love nursing. I had to introduce nursing and midwifery to my country and start training midwives. Today families come to me and say we want our daughters to be like you.”
Married three times, her first husband was prime minister of Somalia, Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal.
Ms Adan, 80, was foreign minister from 2003 until 2006.
For her songs, she chose Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You and Happy by Pharrell Williams.
She picked vegetable seeds as her luxury item and her book was Half The Sky by Nicholas Kristof.
Source: Sunday Express
