In 1991, Dr Edna Adan walked through a city so destroyed that people called it the Dresden of Africa. That is where she decided to build a hospital.

What she found

Dr Edna had been working for the World Health Organization, eventually becoming its first Black woman representative and its first nurse representative, covering twenty-one countries from Afghanistan to Morocco.

In 1991, she joined a UN fact-finding mission back to Somaliland (Horn of Africa), her own country. What she found was devastation: only one road safe to drive or walk, landmines, a city in rubble. She visited the hospital where her own father, known as the father of healthcare in Somaliland, had once worked. She found it overrun by goats and donkeys.

It was not her first attempt at building a hospital. An earlier one she had started in Mogadishu was lost years later. All that remains of it are the deeds.

Building again, this time to stay

She decided, standing in the ruins, that she would come back and build. Edna Adan University Hospital in Hargeisa has since delivered more than 37,000 babies and treated over 50,000 patients. It is now a general hospital, not only a maternity unit, serving men, women, children, pregnant and non-pregnant patients alike. Dr Edna still lives on site, in one room in the staff residence. In her own words: "It's the best thing I've ever done."

Why this matters for how we work

Building something that lasts, in a system that has already lost so much, only works with patience, structure and local ownership, not scale imported from outside and left to run itself. It is the same principle behind VeinTrain's HALO model: start small, prove it works, then grow through the people who will still be there long after the visit ends.

Read the fuller reflection in Leadership That Changes Nations: Dr Edna Adan's Message to the World.

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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To talk to us about training, book a time: https://calendly.com/sarahphillips2000/20min