Healthcare and Nutrition Support

The most innocent victims of war and environmental disaster are children and their mothers. According to UNICEF Somalia has one of the highest child and maternal mortality rates in the world.

One in eight children dies before reaching the age of five and 1,600 women die for every 100,000 live births. Other social indicators for children are also among the worst in the world: one in three children is chronically malnourished, hardly a third of families have access to clean drinking water, just 30% of children go to school. An average Somali’s life span is only 47 years.
Since 1993, Mercy-USA has been working in Somalia offering hope and lasting positive impacts on the people we’re serving. Mercy-USA provides nutrition support and health services for children, pregnant women and nursing mothers in Somalia. 

With generous grants from the US Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Program (WFP) and the Somalia Humanitarian Fund, we are helping tens of thousands of people in Somalia. We operate more than two dozen Mother and Child Health Clinics offering healthcare to mothers and their children. Women find qualified healthcare providers free of charge for themselves and their children, as well as vital health services including birthing services, pre- and post-natal care, immunizations and more. 

Mercy-USA has nutrition centers across Somalia. Annually, these centers treat thousands of malnourished children under the age of 5, as well as pregnant women and nursing mothers.

The children with Severe Acute Malnutrition are given ready-to-use therapeutic foods like Plumpy’Nut weekly, while those with Moderate Acute Malnutrition are given UNIMIX biweekly; both are specialized food for malnourished children.

Mercy-USA is also preventing disease through the immunization of children and women, distribution of vitamin A and iron folate. We also construct and repair sanitary latrines and hand-washing stations at schools, health centers and displaced persons camps. Additionally, Mercy-USA has been providing health, nutrition and hygiene education to vulnerable communities as an effective means of disease prevention.

Your generous charitable gift supports Mercy-USA’s
work in Somalia.

Baby Bisharo’s Story of Survival

Two-year-old Bisharo’s mother Amina brought her to Mercy-USA’s Bulo Burte Health and Nutrition Center on from her village 32 km away. Bisharo was immediately admitted to the Stabilization Centre due to her extremely precarious condition. Amina said, “My daughter had been sick for a month. A few days before coming here,  she had stopped drinking and became so dehydrated I almost gave up and accepted that she would die.” 

Mercy-USA staff screened Bisharo and found that her mid-upper arm circumference, (MUAC) was just 10cm while her weight was only 11 pounds. She immediately received the nutritional treatment she needed beginning with F-75 milk for children with acute malnutrition and treatment for severe pneumonia and a high fever. 

After 17 days of treatment in the Stabilization Center, Bisharo gained almost 3.5 pounds and her MUAC increased to 11cm. Her improved health allowed her to be transferred to the Out Patient Therapeutic program soon after. Her mother said, “The treatment she received from the first day in the health center until now has made a huge difference. She’s now drinking the milk and she’s slept well for the past nights. She’s still weak and needs more care but it looks like she will make a full recovery. I have also given training in better hygiene practices and the proper way of feeding a malnourished child.”

Amina thanked Mercy-USA and their health partners as well as the staff at the health facility for providing the live saving health services to her daughter. 

With generous support from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Somali Humanitarian Fund, Mercy-USA is providing life-saving nutrition, health and WASH programs to the crisis-affected populations in Hiraan Region, Somalia.