On Tuesday night 7:45pm February 19 th, an event held at Hargeysa Cultural Centre assembled a group of professionals who discussed Adolescent Health in Somaliland. This event took place with the help of joined young activists, different organization workers, health professionals and government officials. They spoke about how different factors such as income and education affect Adolescent Health and how they are interdependent on each other.
The event was not held only to inspire Somaliland youth to seek medical help when needed but also to highlight the lack of medical check-ups and counselling that are accessible for the youth.
The guest speakers also touched on the importance of staying healthy and preventing diseases in the first place. Mohamed Dhamac, a member of Sonyo said “a common disease which is prevalent among youth globally is HIV/AIDS and a good way we have always prevented it is marriage”.Other guest speakers also suggested effective ways of avoiding or living with other
types of diseases.
Abdiqani Abdillahi spoke about the adolescence period and the various health related issues that are commonly observed at that this stage of human growth. Important worth mentioning here, is the need to seek out professional health help which, as Abdiqani pointed out, will be disastrous if not taken seriously. The discussion then took another turn with Mohamed
Dhamac, discussing the importance of maintaining a healthy youth and how it’s of immense importance to have a healthy youth as it will lead to healthy community as rightly pointed out by Dhamac.
Our third speaker was Dr. Hamda Abdirahman, a Psychologist and a lecturer who spoke about the mental health of youth. The message she was sending is that, young people want to be heard. Because traditionally we (Somalis) do not consider children’s opinion that much which as a result can cause them to mentally suffer. She suggested that we talk to
children about their opinion and personal problems so they won’t get depressed and end up becoming mentally ill which can actually cause them taking their own lives. Poverty and healthcare was another major issue touched upon in the event and Dr. Barkhad Hussein brilliantly explained the relationship between poverty and healthcare accessibility and he shared a touching story about a young boy who suffered from diabetes. He told us the boy’s journey from middle school to university and the obstacles
he faced on the way. What was deeply sad about this story is the fact that the young boy struggled to pay for his medication and even taking them while in school. “Double 2 Burden” is the term he used to describe the boy’s situation. Dr. Barkhad said, “This is how I will transmit my message, and it is for you to get the point out of it.”

– Dr. Mariam spoke last before the discussion group. Mariam asked the audience “where
do you go when you need medical help?” Then she explored different options people
normally have and what they do instead. Dr. Mariam highly recommended people to go
to pharmacies or hospitals and seek counselors to maintain a good health. The event was
concluded with engagement and thoughts by the audience whose discussions centered
around;

a) The fact that Somaliland Youth doesn’t have a special healthcare system and
b) people/ government’s perspective of youth and the Psychology of adolescence.
The main idea behind this event was for people to hear and learn from each other then spread their ideas to the community especially to those it concerns. They concluded that Adolescent health needs special attention and raising public awareness of the issue. Achieving this would also improve not only youth’s well being but the economy and education of Somaliland.

A group of female doctors arranged the event on Sunday night March 3^rd where they spoke about Breast Cancer and how common it is in our country particularly among women. Breast Cancer is globally the second most common type of cancer. A lot of people die from it due to delay in seeking medical advice but in the case of Somaliland, Women are shy about reaching out for help which as a result causes early preventable deaths. Breast Cancer is not a disease that happens to women only but men can get it as well although it is estimated that only 1% of men get it.

Dr. Saynab was leading this event and introduced the importance of this topic and how they created their team. “We decided to initiate this team in 2015 in the hope of helping people to be aware of this disease but we officially started in March 3^rd 2016” Dr. Saynab also talked about the causes of breast cancer. She said “Some of the things that cause cancer are prolonged take of birth control pills, Alcohol, Cigarettes and Qat. It could be hereditary too”

Dr. Shukri Daahir spoke next about the percentage of women affected by Breast cancer in the world. She reported that “17.5 million women get cancer per year and 9 million of them die. 1.7 million get breast cancer” Dr. Shukri also mentioned that in every 182,000 women in America 26% of them get breast cancer so it is pretty serious. Dr. Shukri touched on how there is a good medical help in America. The survival rate is very high. However, in the case of Somaliland, women are not as worried as they should be about their health. “Part of it is lack of health awareness and the fact that Chemotherapy is not available in Somaliland. Another obstacle on the way is using herbal medicine which in terms of cancer is not useful at all.”  Dr. Shukri also classified the areas in Africa affected by breast cancer into three different parts. Central Africa, South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa. She said that breast cancer is most common in the Sub-Saharan area because it is where women die at home mostly.

Dr. Sahra Caydiid listed the symptoms of breast Cancer. She said “if you see these signs then you should immediately contact a doctor. Symptoms are Change in your normal breast color, change in size, unusual hardness of the breast, swelling, blood or milk leaking from your breast, severe pain, and laceration as well as skin holes.”

Lastly, Dr. Afnan spoke about the treatment of breast cancer in which she categorized into four stage treatment. She said “When the tumor is only in the breast and has not spread to any other place then we cut out the breast. If the tumor reaches the muscles around the breast and the glands, we also cut it. However, when it spreads to the entire body, there is nothing we could do about it.” Therefore Dr. Afnan highly recommended that we (both men and women) do checkups every now and then.

This event was very important for it was an eye opening to our community and will eventually save lives. It was a motivation to those who are too shy to come get help and enlightening to those who don’t understand the risk they are taking by dealing with breast cancer at home. In the end of this event, the audience was given a chance to ask questions and all three doctors answered them. We had ninety people come to the event twenty six of them males and sixty four females. What we hope people to take away from it is that breast cancer is a life threatening disease and should be dealt with in hospitals and to also prevent it by staying healthy and checking yourself up regularly.

3^rd December marks the international day of people with limited ability. In the occasion, Yoonis Cabdiraxmaan, a student at the New Generation University, Hargeysa, with a limited sight, gave a public talk on the situation of the people with limited ability (physical or otherwise) at the Hargeysa Cultural Centre focusing especia.lly on educational possibilities and challenges.

Yoonis Cabdiraxmaan shared with us the challenges a young person with limited ability faces daily and the their future.  Yoonis said: “When I first wanted to join the field of journalism, I faced some challenges. I remember people telling me ‘how can you get any benefits from this field when the ones with sight couldn’t get any’ so I managed to get a scholarship after paying for the first month of the school by myself. My own family couldn’t agree with me in the first place to go studying in the university’’.

He continued “The massage I want to pass on tonight is ‘people with disabilities are part of the community and they don’t belong to stay home,  they deserve to  play their part in the community as well, they need to participate in the politics, I want to be able to  contribute in the politics of my country despite my disability’’.

President of the New Generation University, Mr. Cabdiwaasac, also gave an enriching speech to honouring today’s people with limited mobility as well as to Yoonis Cabdiraxmaan, by saying “We are willing to offer Yoonis to do his Master’s degree with us”

 Documentary Nights!

Alternative Academic Dialog Platform 

Informative messages are packed in many different ways so as to make it well informing, interesting and out of the routine way of presentation. The growing diversification of these means of academic communication channels has proven to be successful in all aspects of human communication. It is in light of this understanding that the Academic Dialog In Hargeysa (ADIH) has set the last Wednesday of every month to be Documentary Night at Hargeisa Cultural Center. This is set as an alternative way of academic discussion the center runs every Wednesdays mainly for PhD presentations that brings PhD researchers and scholars together to share area of studies, methodologies and provide concrete suggestions for the betterment of the academic research conducted in the region.

The Documentary Nights are however different not only in way of presentation but also in terms of attendants since it is an open event that invites the general public to take part in the screening and afterward discussions. Just like the main stream presentation of PhD works that has connected, assisted and provided concrete way forwards to researchers, the documentary screening also has gained prominence and has expanded the outreach of the call for academic discussions in Hargeysa as the number of participants is increasing as the days goes by.  The team behind the selection of the documentaries to be screened has made sure to keep truck of developments in the region along with the international relevance of the stories behind each documentary which sustained the event and managed to increase the participants.

The first documentary screened was the documentary film directed by Iara Lee, “K2 and the invisible footmen” which focuses on Pakistani traditional heroes of mountaineering. Amid breathtaking scenery, the film depicts the everyday sacrifices of porters and the courage of those indigenous climbers who choose to return to scale K2 in spite of past tragedies. In their striving to perfect their craft, these mountaineers provide a fresh look into the cultures and national traditions of Pakistan, a country typically portrayed in the foreign media as merely a land of conflict and sectarian strife. The aim with this documentary for Somaliland audience is in every small looking activities Somalilanders are performing, the chance that art and culture could be a tool for positive image building is the underling message.

Following this we have had several other documentaries of her under the theme of Cultures of Resistance that has art, culture and creativity for addressing the desire for change in different communities. Using her enquiry ‘Does each gesture really make a difference? Can music and dance be weapons of peace?’  In 2003, on the eve of the Iraq war, director Iara Lee embarked on a journey to better understand a world increasingly embroiled in conflict and, as she saw it, heading for self-destruction.  Hence she recorded stories from IRAN, where graffiti and rap became tools in fighting government repression, to BURMA, where monks acting in the tradition of Gandhi take on a dictatorship, moving on to BRAZIL, where musicians reach out to slum kids and transform guns into guitars, and ending in PALESTINIAN refugee camps in LEBANON, where photography, music, and film have given a voice to those rarely heard, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE explores how art and creativity can be ammunition in the battle for peace and justice”. In addition to this, we were the first to screen Burkinabè Rising, the new documentary from Cultures of Resistance Films that showcases creative nonviolent resistance in Burkina Faso, a small, landlocked country in West Africa, which is home to a vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens, who provide an example of the type of political change that can be achieved when people come together. It is an inspiration, not only to the rest of Africa but also to the rest of the world.

Through music, film, ecology, visual art, and architecture, the people featured in this film are carrying on the revolutionary spirit of Thomas Sankara. In addition to profiling individual artists, Burkinabè Rising documents a festival of recycled art and interviews groups of farmers who are standing up to the encroachment of corporate agriculture. Displaying a panorama of creative resistance, the film shows how the resurgent Burkinabè pursuit of peace and justice manifests itself through cultural expression, permeating every aspect of daily life.

The biography of Malcom x with a very different perspective from what has always been talked about him; civic right advocate but the one that has shown how he has played in the history of Islam is another key documentary screened where by attendants expressed their amusement and surprise long with the relevance.

On 21 February 1965, Malcolm X was shot dead minutes before he was about to address a rally in Harlem, New York. As with the firebombing of his home a week earlier, the finger was automatically pointed at the Nation of Islam with whom Malcolm had split the previous year.

The assassination of Malcolm X spawned the Black Panther Party, and organization that represented the highest point in the civil rights movement that engulfed the US for over two decades. They took Malcolm’s message of self-defense for blacks and translated it into action. During the 1970s they became a focal point for young blacks wanting to fight back against the racist police and state in America. They inspired youth and blacks internationally with their preparedness to fight racism and police brutality. In cycle of autobiography documentary films, the ADIH team is suggestion a reflection on the life and the legacy of Malcom X, and ask –mainly young people in Somaliland- what we can learn today from the legacy of such a great leader.

Upholding its relevance and popularity the next documentary screened by Hargeysa Cultural Centre was The Corporation which is a 2003 Canadian documentary film​ ​written by University of British Columbia law professor Joel Bakan,​ ​and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, that examines the​​ modern-day corporation. The documentary was screened considering the move by China and other major Asian business corporations are compet​​ing​ ​to grab the land and to secure exclusive businesses ownership in​ ​Africa, and the African governments have no economic power, and​ ​sometimes necessary expertize, to negotiate properly. The question was ​how this “Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power” can be contained​ ​whi​​le making the necessary progress in Africa? The documentary tries to give this answer to what happened in the Western countries, in​ ​particularly in the USA. What Africa can learn from this experience?  Was the main talk point of the discussion that dwelt on how the multimillion companies deceive, deprive and manipulate system only to serve their interest by setting aside the Social responsibility they are expected is the longest but the most interesting documentary we have screened too.

The last for the time but the least for much more documentaries to come is ‘Stealing A Nation’ which is an extraordinary film about the plight of the Chagos Islands, whose indigenous population was secretly and brutally expelled by British Governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s to make way for an American military base.

The tragedy, which falls within the remit of the International Criminal Court as “a crime against humanity”, is told by Islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and by British officials who left behind a damning trail of Foreign Office documents.

Before the Americans came, more than 2,000 people lived on the islands in the Indian Ocean, many with roots back to the late 18th century. There were thriving villages, a school, a hospital, a church, a railway and an undisturbed way of life. The islands were, and still are, a British crown colony. In the 1960s, the government of Harold Wilson struck a secret deal with the United States to hand over the main island of Diego Garcia. The Americans demanded that the surrounding islands be “swept” and “sanitized”. Unknown to Parliament and to the US Congress and in breach of the United Nations Charter, the British Government plotted with Washington to expel the entire population.

‘Stealing A Nation’ was a Granada production for ITV. It was first broadcast on ITV1, 6 October 2004. Directors: John Pilger and Chris Martin. Producer: Chris Martin. the Stealing a nation documentary of the uppermost ignorant and abusive arrangement ever made that has wiped out a whole community from their own land just to serve the interest of the USA military base desire is a knocking thought that most significantly considering the situation we are experiencing in Africa most importantly in the horn of Africa. Djibouti being a battle field for military base desire of the super powers from each corner and the emergence of Somaliland in the port and military base sharing space is what triggered the desire to screen the documentary which clearly served the interest. The participants’ reflection on all the documentaries screened is magnificent as it has opened a heated debate every time we have it. the bilingual language use system we employ on this open conversation day (Somali and English) also has served the purpose of including everyone that attended the screening and be able to express their understanding and questions to be discussed together without language limitation.

This way the academic discussion with a different platform has managed to attain its objective of creating a platform where academic discussion with a well-founded data is developed here in Somaliland.