A place for sick children to act like kids

Even sick children need a place to play and be silly.

Children suffering from serious illness at al-Sabeen Hospital now have one room they can go to for respite, and perhaps to forget for a moment their troubles.  The hospital opened the Yemen Child’s Home club at the al-Sabeen Hospital for maternity and children, in the pediatric department, on Thursday, June 14.  The club was opened in order to give sick children in the hospital a place to play. The club includes some simple games, coloring utensils, papers, and other toys.  “We opened this club to give happiness to sick children in the al-Sabeen hospital.

In the future, we will also open a club for mothers in this hospital, so that they can normally keep giving milk to their babies because, unfortunately, a lot of them stop giving the babies the milk they need, so we will open this room when we find a suitable place in the hospital,” said Nagatt Abdou al-Zuheiri, the Chairperson of the Link Association. The Link Association is a charity organization based in Dunkirk, France. It was set up in September 2001, on the initiative of Nagatt Abdou, of Yemeni origin, who works in France. The objective of the association is humanitarian aid for underprivileged populations, and more precisely of Yemeni children.

Hanadi al-Shahba, 13, is one of many children in Yemen suffering from diabetes and looking for something to give her some happiness. She is very happy to visit and enjoys the club when she comes for some examinations or other regular visits to her doctors.  The club is a result of a partnership between the al-Sabeen Hospital in Yemen and the Lille Hospital in France, set up by Link.    “We can make cooperation between Lille hospital, specialized for mothers and children in France, and the al-Sabeen hospital in Yemen, and we have an important project based on three topics,” al-Zuheiri said. 

According to al-Zuheiri, the objective of the new cooperative project is first to set up rigorous hygiene measures in the neonatal department. Such a thing requires installing places for hand washing, which are missing at the moment, and training the nursing staff at the Lille hospital in France, in cooperation with the French Embassy. The project also seeks to create a neonatal, mother-child, unit. This will encourage mothers to avoid giving up breast- feeding.  “This is the second time I’ve visited Yemen. Every time I come to this country, I feel comfortable,” said Prof. Pierre Lequien, a doctor from the Lille Hospital in France.

“It is difficult for me that I am not from this country, because the people here are kind and generous. For the Link Association, it is a small and simple one. We completely realize that we do not come to Yemen carrying the equipment and devices, but we realize that we can work together with this hospital. We should have some specific goals, such as this club. “What I can do for this hospital as a professor is to contribute to qualifying the nurses and I will come to Yemen when it needs me,” he said. 

Here, illness can be forgotten for a few hours.

Link is involved in supporting al-Sabeen hospital by collecting medicines. For example, in November 2002 and in April and October 2003, Link sent more than 1,500 kilograms of medicines in cooperation with Cyclamed, a French nonprofit organization that works with pharmaceuticals, the Yemeni airline company Yemenia, and various donations for the benefit of hospital departments.   According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, Yemen needs help. The Gross National Product per capita is $800; The GNP is $7,230 in Saudi Arabia, northern neighbor of Yemen, and $7,700 in the Sultanate of Oman, its eastern neighbor.  Yemen’s development index ranks the country as 133rd out of 162.

The annual growth rate in Yemen is 6 percent. The population growth is exponential: it increased from 5 million inhabitants in 1960 to 18 million in 2001.  According to economic mission and the French Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen is one of the least advanced countries in the world. In 2004, the Gross Domestic Product per capita was $653. Household spending on health on average was less than 6 percent of income. Yemen’s health system is one of the least efficient in the world. The few efforts on development that have been made during the last 10 years have not been sufficient to compensate the weak performances.

The strong population growth in Yemen makes the situation more difficult. Access to medical care remains very limited, especially in rural areas (25 percent), compared to urban areas (80 percent) and the country as a whole (48 percent). According to official statistics, there was only one doctor per 6,372 inhabitants in 2003. There are 2,099 health centers in Yemen, including 112 hospitals in rural areas and 68 hospitals in urban areas.  There is just one hospital bed per 1,164 people. There is no health insurance system in Yemen, and the majority of the population cannot pay medical costs.  The infant death rate at birth is high (84 per 1,000), the rate goes up to 114 for children under 5. Only 14 percent of women give birth assisted by skilled and qualified staff.

Besides, Yemen has high epidemic risks, such as malaria, poliomyelitis, and tuberculosis. Rabies, measles, hepatitis B and C, typhoid, and bilharziasis are also widespread. This proliferation of endemic diseases is explained by poverty and by a weak protective inoculation, in particular among children. For example, only 9.3 percent of the population is vaccinated against lockjaw.  Living and hygiene conditions are pretty mediocre, and the limited access to drinking water makes the situation worst. Yemen produces only a small part of its medicines, particularly generic medicines.

Smuggled pharmaceuticals are rampant in the country, which explains the scores of bad and out-of-date medicines. Yemen has to imports all of its needed medical equipment.      Health improvement remains a big challenge in Yemen, especially due to its high birth rate. In 2002, health expenses were 3.7 percent of the GDP. In reality, the health sector in Yemen depends mainly on international financial aid and on the local management of this. Al-Sabeen hospital was built between 1988 and 1989. This is the only public hospital specialized in mother and child care. It is run by the Sana’a city council and managed by a woman, Dr. Amat al-Kareem al-Huri. 

It is a 337-bed hospital, divided in 19 departments. Eight of them can accommodate babies and children. In 2004, the hospital accommodated 21,735 patients, including 9,697 childbirths, that is to say an average of 60 patients, were admitted to the hospital per day, and there were 26 childbirths per day. The number of people receiving out-patient care is 54,016, that is to say an average of 150 patients per day.  Al-Sabeen hospital employs 589 people, including 126 doctors, 170 nurses (mostly from India), 128 members in annex departments, such as laboratory or radiology departments, 78 members of the cleaning and upkeep department, and 87 administrative employees.

Related Content

•  Drug use in East and South-East Asia a growing problem
•  Recap of Yemen's environmental issues in 2008
•  World Aids Day celebrations call for urgent steps to deal with disease
•  Screw Worm Fly: new threat to livestock in Yemen
•  Yemen: Gateway for early humans in their journey out of Africa
•  Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise
•  Another three-toed dinosaur walked in Arhab
•  World Toilet Day
•  Fighting AIDS and misinformation remains an international concern
•  Poverty and water discussed in recent analysis