I bring you greetings from my country Somaliland a country in the Horn of Africa that you probably have never heard of because it doesn't exist on your map it's a former British to my land Protectorate it's next to form of French Somaliland and I will point it French Somaliland British Somaliland and la Somalia italiana and Makati show that you all know about I come from here Somali language is peaceful stable a country that I have returned to 22 years ago when I retired from the World Health Organisation between 82 and 91 there was a civil
war our cities got flattened bombed mass graves got filled with the bodies of innocent victims mostly children and weak women those who could not run away from the bombs because cowards always pick on the weak and at that time I was a very senior diplomat in Djibouti as the representative of the World Health Organization an organization that I served for 3,200 years and my country had nothing homes destroyed hospitals destroyed a quarter a million people died and a million people saw the refuge wherever they could in the world many went to Ethiopia next door many
came to your shores and came to other countries in Europe and America and people got scattered people ran wherever their legs could carry them and many brought children and at that time there was nothing I could do but in 91 when Somaliland separated from Somalia and peace returned to my country I planned to prepare for my retirement and to go home so in 97 at the young age of 60 I recycled my life and went home under the hospital but I want you to know what drove me there this is a hospital this is a
maternity hospital who bombs hospitals people build the hospitals and improve on them whatever little we had was bombed so I went home and built a hospital but it's not the hospitals it's not the bricks and the mortar that treats and looks after the sick its skills its nurses its doctors its pharmacists and lab technicians its people who are taught and trained the discipline of medicine to look after the sick so without nurses and without with 18 doctors in a country that is as big as England and Wales combined there are about 17 or 18 medical
doctors so I embarked on the task of training nurses I could not train doctors because I'm not a doctor I'm a nurse I'm a midwife so we started training my nurses now you train people who have had an education who've been to school who know about science in biology and physics in chemistry the young people who came for training were people who were brought up in refugee camps and who were taught to read and write maybe on sand so we had to improve their basic education and then start introducing the science of Nursing of patient
care of dosage of medicines of dressings of sterilizing equipment and this was the most passionate responsibility I've ever had in my life it was a time when I had to use every skill that I had ever learned in your countries Britain never trained me for this Britain trained me to work not fantastic hospitals in Europe America never trained me for this I was trained for different standards whether were hierarchies and responsibilities and people you could run to when you did not know what needed what was required of you say how do I do this or
explain this to me I was all they had and from that first lot of 300 girls who applied we took 40 trained them and I don't like to tell you that the top students from there I sent on to medical school my chief surgeon today is one of those young girls who learned to read and write on sand in a refugee camp who is today my senior surgeon they call her night to do surgery not me she is assisted by other doctors and pharmacists and equipment sterilizes people who were trained on a site that was
once a killing ground and this is one of my army one group of midwives graduating and we have now trained over a thousand and we send them out throughout the country you've heard of barefoot doctors well I sell out brain full young women who know how to look after woman who's pregnant who know how to get a baby out as safely as they can but then there's an obstruction there's nothing I can do anything about it's a problem of female circumcision female circumcision by the way before I get to it the hospital is for men
and women we have skills we have competences and we don't discriminate against anybody or any nationality so we often have male patients as well but what brings me to your Shores one more time because this is the eleventh or twelfth time I've visited your country is to speak about something I spoke about in 1978 when nobody else would listen to me but I would be speaking at the Institute in The Hague of social studies to speak about the problem of female circumcision little girls in Africa in 16 17 countries in my continent Africa a country
that has great culture and great traditions there is one heart tradition that we need to fight and we need you to fight with us a little girl is healthy survives disease survives Wars survives will not stepping on landmines not get bitten by a snake or eaten up by a wolf and the ripe old age beautiful age which it runs the door to meet her father her hero when she plays and talks and reasons we catch her and we cut away her genitals and we damage her for life we mean her for life and we damage
the part of the body that was created for her to reproduce and bear as children allow the passage of children but we damage it it forms scars that will obstruct the baby and will not let that baby that she wants to bring to this world out through this damaged passage and my appeal to you is to help us fight this with respect with dignity and to encourage the women the men and the women and particularly their men because that little girl has a father that little girl has a hero that little girl has a father
who's the head of the family and I want men to join this battle it should no longer remain a battle that is to be fought by little old women like me I'm 82 my gun doesn't shoot that far anymore I need people with hearts and conscience who believe in human rights who believe on the rights of the child who believe in the dignity of the human being to help us fight it and to educate us and to help us with foreknowledge because that's the biggest gift you can give to anybody where would I be without
knowledge today where would I be without access to schooling and and to be taught by the best we need to protect our to protect our children we need to protect the future we need to protect them bodies this little girl who's seven or eight who cannot defend herself from adults needs our collective collective protection female genital mutilation has no place on this planet it is totally against the teachings of Islam it is totally against medical practice it is totally against human rights it's totally against the dignity of the human body it is amputating vital organs
of a female this has no place in this day and age and I leave this appeal with you parents responsible people who believe and lead in human rights and human dignity because this child only has you to protect her some people are taking their children out for holidays only to cut them up only to damage them I thank you for this great opportunity and I leave this in your conscience do what is right do what is right for that child thank you [Applause] [Music]
