Somalia and Bethany

Somalia is the country immediately to the north of Kenya along the Indian Ocean. In fact, you may recognize the name of the country as coming up in the news a lot recently with tankers being hijacked and driven up to Somalia. The country has been involved in a bitter war involving rival clans since 1991. Fighting has involved one clan against the other as the UN has attempted to intervene on many occasions brokering peace deals and power sharing between the clans that have worked temporarily before war erupts again. The capital of Somalia is Mogadishu which has been a battleground for a long time. The movie 'Black Hawk Down' is set in the streets of Mogadishu. The country is widely recognized around Africa as the most dangerous place on the continent.

Because of the on-going wars, many people have been forced from their homes to escape the fighting and end up in refugee camps. Refugee camps as places to seek refuge from the fighting and many people have been living there since 1991. The close proximity of Kenya to some of the camps has meant that many Somalis have ended up in Northern Kenya. The reputation of Bethany Kids as a place for medical intervention for children means that many Somalis have come to Bethany seeking help for their children.

Currently, 40% of the children and parents at Bethany Kids are Somali. Somalia is a country in which 99.9% of the population are Muslim. When they come to Bethany, they know that they are coming to a Christian hospital for care. While some Somalis at Bethany are tolerant and respectful of prayer as Mercy makes her rounds, we witnessed others who did everything they could to disrupt prayer. We were visiting one ward in which there were two Somali women, a Somali man, and a Masi man. The Somali man was very kind and accommodating when it came time to pray, but the two women started shouting at each other across the room in order to disrupt prayer. Mercy tried to show one of the children the bible and the child recoiled from it as if it were diseased as the women shouted. One woman would not shake my hand and stared at me with daggers the whole time I was in the room. In another ward, as soon as prayer began, one of the Somali women picked up her mobile and started speaking in Somali as loud as possible.

Mercy told us that this is quite frequent, that they want to disrupt her, but she carries on. Her message and mandate is simple: continue to love and care for everyone. When the women and children go back to their camps or Somali, at least their experience with Christians (for many of whom it would be their first time ever meeting a Christian) would be one of caring and love for them and their children. Though the Kenyan government adds a small amount of money to medical intervention for Kenyans, the doctors operate, treat, and rehabilitate the Somalis without any money whatsoever because the children need the care.

Many of the Somalis also object to having their photo taken because they feel that the capturing of their image is stealing a piece of their soul. Though some Kenyans feel this way too, Mercy told us that this is something that is less and less a belief of the people.

We met some Somalis who were very willing to speak with us and their English was good. One man named Al Kadir Ali Mou'hed and his daughter were in Bethany as his daughter was recovering from an operation to repair her club feet and other internal difficulties. He was very willing to share with us his experiences of living in a refugee camp and caring for his disabled daughter having been there since the war broke out in 1991 along with stories about life inside the camp and the tribalism that went along with that. He said that despite world views, the United States is highly regarded within the camps as trying to help the people of Somalia while the EU makes applications for refugee status difficult. He also shared his gratitude to the doctors and staff at Bethany and to the people of Kenya for opening their doors to them so his daughter could receive the medical attention she needed. Al Kadir Ali Mou'hed also shared his dream to one day make it to Toronto. The city of Toronto has the largest population of Somalis outside of Somalia itself. The next biggest Somali population in North America is Minneapolis Minnesota. I found that interesting.

We spoke with another Somali woman who was so delighted that her one month old was being given the treatment he needed. We talked at length about Toronto again, as she has many relatives living there. As a displaced person, she also said that she dreams of one day ending up there with her child.

I have some photographs attached of the Somalis I met at Bethany who agreed to be photographed. Some of the photos are just of the children because the mothers did not want their picutre taken but were happy to have their child's photo taken. I was able to take pictures and immediately share the image on my digital screen with them which they usually laughed at which was fun.