Turkish sponsored medical training centre opens in Mogadishu

 

Turkish ambassador to Somalia Olgan Bekar today commissioned a medical institute in Mogadishu which will offer middle level career training for medical students in Somalia.

The medical institute situated at the Tayyip Erdogan Hospital and Research Centre in Mogadishu will offer two year programmes in Midwifery, Anesthesiology, Nursing, Lab technology and radiology.

Bekar said the facility will play a significant role in promoting medical training in the country by ensuring students get quality training both in theory and practice.

The medical institute is an affiliate Centre of Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi which was established in 1903 and operates eight faculties of medical courses in Turkey.

The Turkish envoy said the Mogadishu institute will be the first such training centre outside Turkey to be affiliated to a university in Turkey.

Turkish President Erdogan joined the ceremony via video link from Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi in Turkey.

Currently there are 220 students, with 90% of them being female.

Bekar said the training will be conducted in Turkish in order to further strengthen relations between the two countries. He added a fully fledged university will be opened in the same place in the future.

The hospital which was opened in 2015 by Turkey’s president Reccep Tayyip Erdogan draws its workforce both from Turkey and Somalia.

The institute will be one of the first medical training schools in Somalia to have the benefit of a major hospital. A number of those working in the hospital were trained in Turkey.

The training institute adds to a list of development projects spearheaded by Turkey in Somalia which include the mother and child hospital, re-carpeting of roads and building of new airport terminal among other projects.

Turkey is also building military and police training academies in Mogadishu.