Two new maternity waiting homes has been established in the IDP camps in
 Somalias South Central Zone. Pregnant woman's in the camp are encouraged to 
seek the new services in order to ensure safe delivery.

United Nations Population Fund is supporting a program to reduce the number 
of maternal deaths in Somalia, which has one of the highest mortality rates 
in the world. 
Together with the local organization Somali Birth Attendants Cooperative 
Organization (SBACO), the UNFPA launched a pilot project in the IDP
 settlements in Mudug in Somalias South Central Zone, where there have been 
no central government in almost two decades.

In total, the project is consisting of establishment of nine maternity
 waiting homes (MWH) in nine different IDP settlements, with an estimated
 number of beneficiaries of 1,400 pregnant womans. The first two MWHs´ where
 opend in the last weeks of September in the Tawakal and Halabokhad IDP
 settelments, located outside the city of Galkayo. The selection of these two
 settlements was based on the distance from the town, and the lack of
 reproductive health services in place.

Each facility is equipped with three beds, a generator and the necessary 
medical drugs related to child birth, provided by UNFPA. The maternity
 waiting homes are also linked with a doctor trained by UNFPA on 
comprehensive emergency obstetric care and a skilled midwife to follow up on 
the pregnancy stage and help in normal deliveries at the vicinity. There is 
also a community mobilizer attached to the facility, in order to encourage
 the pregnant woman to seek the services at MWH and arrange transportation to 
the nearest hospital.