"Cycling home last night I was reminded of why we need more bridges, headphones in, I pressed play on an interview Dr Edna had just sent me, the Wales, Africa and the World podcast. By the second mile I knew I'd be writing this." Sarah Phillips, VeinTrain Founder 

A life that keeps recalibrating

Tune in for a listen link below.  Leading the way Dr Edna Adan does is not easy. It is pulled at from within and from outside, and it demands constant recalibration: lots of listening, lots of learning, a forever curious mind.  A leadership that impacts nations and connections globally.

Born in Hargeisa in 1937, the daughter of the man known as the father of healthcare in Somaliland, she taught herself to read at a time when there were no schools for girls. At sixteen, she became the first Somali girl to win a scholarship to study in England, training in London at the institution that is now London South Bank University (where VeinTrain Trained 140 Student Nurses on one day in 2015)  She returned home twice before settling back in Somaliland for good in 1961, where she was made to work without pay for twenty-two months because a government minister did not believe a woman should be paid the same as a man for delivering babies. She kept working anyway.

A coup in 1969 brought house arrest and the loss of everything her family owned. She began delivering babies in people's homes to survive. From there she rebuilt: first woman director in the Ministry of Health, then a WHO regional nursing advisor across twenty-one countries, and, from 1976, an outspoken campaigner against female genital mutilation.  Another link -  our superb trainer Paula Lezama chose to do her thesis on FGM in Birmingham. 

Building something from ruins

In 1991, Dr Edna returned to a Somaliland flattened by war, a city she described as "the Dresden of Africa." That is when she decided to build her hospital. Edna Adan University Hospital in Hargeisa has since delivered more than 37,000 babies and treated over 50,000 patients. It has trained 1,000 midwives for Somaliland, the target she set herself, and her ambition now is one million midwives across the whole of Africa.

That work has brought recognition, including the 2023 Templeton Prize, France's Légion d'honneur, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Of the hospital itself, in her own words:

"It's the best thing I've ever done."

Why Wales, and why this matters to us

Dr Edna is an honorary fellow of Cardiff University's School of Healthcare Sciences and Nursing, and her hospital already exchanges students with Cardiff, Harvard, King's College London and the University of Virginia. One of her own former students, trained in Bristol, is now dean of her nursing school. As she put it:

"This cross-pollination is very useful and I would welcome it very much."

That is the same principle behind VeinTrain's work with Edna Adan University Hospital. Our aim in Somaliland is to bring world-class research, innovation and improvement methodology and invite the researchers, leaders and transformers into the work. A colleague from a Russell Group medical school has already shown interest, and I hope more will follow. It's such a rewarding way to work, and the Somalilanders are a pleasure to teach and work with on demanding projects, and this certainly is one.

Listening, then planning, then listening again

When our own programme began as a modest scoping and small test, then rose to 20, and rapidly reaching a hundred clinicians, I knew to lean into my lateral agility and work with what was emerging rather than forcing a fixed plan. Not a complete shock, having researched Dr Edna's work and life, so fortunately I had deliberately kept time and space to reflect and plan and move my volunteer time over to this project.  I wanted to focus properly listening, supporting and joining (albeit virtually).  The same double diamond design thinking VeinTrain uses more widely: diverge to understand what is really needed, and then converge on a plan that will hold.  Then repeat.  It also serves as a test of an organisation's resilience and cultural readiness for change and wow this organisation accelerated it was hard to keep up.

This next trip is not simply picking up from an earlier visit. Thanks to Yasma, our UK Lead Trainer responsible for setting up Hargeisa, she was able to lead on her feet with real training expertise for a whole week and to the VeinTrain HQ team, infrastructure and architecture already in place to support her, the programme has kept moving in between. We have since improved that infrastructure and architecture significantly too, so as we return we have more that will intentionally fit this location as well as it would at a top London Hospital -  work that helps free up nurses and leaders, and enables excellence in vascular access on the ground. The aim now is the same as it has always been, a consistent plan, infrastructure and architecture that genuinely works for Edna Adan University Hospital, not one imported wholesale from elsewhere, hence the double diamond will be in the frame again that I employed extensively at the Integrated Care System. As an organisation analyst this organisation is a real treat of a challenge. 

The want is there, the need is there, and delighted to have been invited to stay at the Hospital as Dr Edna's guest. - I cannot wait to visit in late autumn 2026.

A ripple that keeps going

This is a ripple that will carry on, even into my third decade in this work. Dr Edna teaches us all that we are only just beginning and, knowing something of global leadership and transformation from mentors and colleagues I am also aware these leaders don't come along often but their ripple reaches out very far for those who are fortunate to be near their work.

Her message to the world

Dr Edna is almost eighty-nine. In her own words, near the end of that interview:

"My time is running out. I hope that you will carry my message, and invite universities to give us a chance to do six months, one year practical rotations there. It would make a tremendous difference to our standard of health patient care."

Heading towards my third decade in veins, I am once again reminded of how much I still have to learn in that field, and of what a pleasure it has been, as a leadership and transformation person, to work with an organisation where leadership and excellence are expected as standard, and where values are visible in the conduct and behaviour of the outstanding nurses, midwives, medical staff, management team and academic faculty. Take a look at some of the photos, you don't need to study Freud for it to jump out at you.

It would be a great opportunity to learn from each other. Sometimes you have to go elsewhere to demonstrate what is possible, where genuine excellence, and real standardisation adapted to locality and organisation, can actually look like, and more importantly what it achieves. We know many developed countries' own vascular access training still too often relies on variable, chance-based learning. That won't be the case for Somaliland: the VeinTrain standard the Somaliland way, everywhere.

I am ambitious that we will gain support and enable some of the workforce and students in Somaliland who lead this work will join me at the next World Congress on Vascular Access.  I am confident we will have much to  share what an impact we are making by implementing the latest, innovations, research and employment of EdTech and improvement methodologies at scale.

Sarah Phillips

This is the first in an ongoing series on the VeinTrain Knowledge Hub, Listening to Leadership, Transformation, Learners, Communities and Partners, exploring how safe, lasting change happens through structure and local ownership. It sits alongside what we're building through HALO, VeinTrain's own model for scaling training safely, starting small, proving it works, then growing through local leadership rather than delivery from a distance.

Do you know an inspiring leader, clinician, educator or organisation transforming healthcare in their community?

We want to share real stories of leadership, education and transformation through the VeinTrain Knowledge Hub. To nominate someone, or to support the work of the Edna Adan Foundation, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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