I REMEMBER the first child I sat with, holding his hand as he died of absolute hunger. I remember how hard the nurses worked; never complaining and fighting to save every life as if it they were their own family members. Nobody gave up trying! I remember the dying, many were naked and so thin that it looked like they had no skin but had brown coloured bones. I remember hiring donkeys to take the white- clothed dead bodies to the collection points several times a day. In the first 16 days of September 3,500 bodies were collected.
It was September 1992 when I started working with Concern in Somalia for six months. We had a large team of international staff and over 1,000 national staff. I was part of the health and nutrition team, the majority of whom were Irish nurses and doctors. An estimated 250,000 adults and children died in that famine. I worked in Baidoa, which was the epicentre of the famine and was described as “a living hell on earth”.
I recall that none of the agencies knew what to do with the dying adults. In October Concern opened a therapeutic centre for adults. It was the first of its kind. Initially it was a hospice, we washed and clothed all who were there and we ensured that those who died never died alone and died with dignity. Steve Collins, an English doctor, worked with a wonderful team of nurses to research what food and therapy could work to save the lives of malnourished adults. The adults started to recover and the work in that feeding centre in Somalia helped to redefine the care of severely malnourished adults around the world. I remember the dignity with which the Somali people dealt with every cruel blow.
I remember the gunmen who travelled everywhere with us. I remember being pushed to the floor of the car, or shoved into makeshift bunkers in the ground while these men risked their lives to save ours several times a day. I remember the moments when the children started to react to their carers and those first smiles meant they were beginning to recover. Those were the moments we treasured and gave us the strength to keep going.
And I can reflect on the evenings in our houses after very long days, making each other laugh, telling stories, playing Scrabble and supporting each other to face the next long day. I remember the late Fr Aengus Finucane ringing us daily for 10 days during one of the most dangerous periods in early December and contacting all of our families afterwards to let them know we were safe. I remember how proud and inspired we were when we heard that the Irish people gave almost £15 million alone to Concern for the people of Somalia.
JUST LAST MONTH, Mary Robinson and a group of CEOs from Irish aid agencies returned to Somalia, some of us for the first time in 19 years. Mrs Robinson was visibly moved as she spoke to Jim Fahy of RTÉ about the unfolding tragedy around her. And I was quickly brought back to the day she visited Baidoa 19 years earlier and I remember some time later all of us watching that moment in the press conference in Nairobi when she broke down and then we knew she truly understood the plight of the people in Somalia and like all of us there that day she would never forget the haunting scenes in Baidoa at that time.
When I continued on with Concern chief executive officer Tom Arnold to Mogadishu towards the end of our trip back in July, some of the staff who worked with me in 1992 were there to meet me. It was a day of happiness for me mixed with great sadness. Yet again another human tragedy is unfolding. We saw it all: emaciated and “swollen” children (a term used for a type of acute severe malnutrition called Kwashiokar), children unable to smile, one-year-olds weighing the same as a month-old baby in Ireland, three-year-olds unable to walk with weakness and unfortunately those all those white-clothed bodies being prepared for burial.
There were makeshift camps everywhere, people living in tents made from cardboard boxes and torn plastic bags, And the adults, young and old, with that look of exhaustion, hunger and fearful for their future. Now, so many years after the 1992 visit, and as a public health nurse in Dublin, this reality has added resonance.
But despite all, Concern’s staff thanked us. They have never forgotten Mary Robinson and how she highlighted their plight 19 years’ ago and now they are more hopeful as the Irish are taking the lead again. They have never forgotten the generosity of the Irish people in 1992 and even with the recession they know people are still giving whatever they can and they asked us to thank them and ask people to remember the people of Somalia in their prayers.
We ended our first day talking about the young beautiful brave nurse and friend Valerie Place who gave her life for the people of Somalia. Her picture has pride of place in the office and she will never be forgotten by the people of Somalia. She is their heroine and her bravery is an inspiration to all of our staff never to give up the fight against hunger. We all know that this bond will never be broken.
Frances O’Keeffe was part of Concern’s team of nurses and doctors in Somalia during the 1992 famine, She is now a public health nurse in Dublin’s north inner city and is chairperson of Concern Worldwide.