A father’s last hope to save his children
Kalimow Mohamed Nur had no choice but to take a desperate gamble. With his twin sons weak from hunger, their tiny bodies frail from repeated bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea, he borrowed enough money for a single day’s journey—an amount he would take months to earn—and set out on a gruelling trip to Baidoa. The road was long, the heat relentless, but the promise of free medical care at Bay Regional Hospital was his last hope.
“I had to take a loan of about $130 and travel 300 kilometres to Baidoa to find free medical care,” says Kalimow, whose twin sons received treatment for severe acute malnutrition at the MSF-supported Bay Regional Hospital. “They were so small, and we could barely afford enough food. They kept falling ill.”
Kalimow’s story—marked by poverty, distance, and the absence of local services—echoes the harsh realities that prevent countless families from accessing care. In Somalia, life-saving treatment has turned into a privilege accessible to only a few.
Malnutrition, a year-round crisis in parts of Somalia
In Baidoa and Mudug, malnutrition has become a persistent, year-round crisis, not a seasonal challenge. “We’re seeing high malnutrition rates, not just during the usual lean seasons,” says Jarmilla Kliescikova, MSF medical coordinator in Somalia. “This is a chronic crisis that demands sustained intervention.”