TALENT Groups Spotlight: Developing Leaders of the Future

Leadership is a process of influencing a group in a particular situation and in a specific set of circumstances, stimulating them to strive willingly to attain organizational objectives, while achieving satisfaction with the type of leadership provided.

I desired to become a midwife when I finished high school. The reason I chose to become a midwife was to help mothers who are having problems during pregnancy or childbirth. I was inspired by my mother who faced many challenges during her pregnancies. During my study, I loved listening to the course on obstetrics and gynaecology, it really inspired me to continue on my path.

The main challenges Somaliland nurses/midwives are facing is a lack of supportive supervision, shortage of resources such as equipment, overload of work, lack of skilled healthcare workers, lack of motivation, and inadequate staffing.

In my view, health care partnerships are an effective model for building workforce capacity to improve the quality of maternity care and contributing to the achievement of universal health coverage.

The benefits I gained from taking part in the TALENT group project include: soft skills like critical thinking, emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication skills, understanding, problem-solving, collaboration, and enhanced self-confidence.

I also participated in a qualitative research project focused on the experience of midwives and traditional birth attendants with FGM/C and how this affects their professional role and menstrual health. This was conducted in all regions of Somaliland and it was a very happy time as I went through many regions that I had never seen before and also gained experience from it. It was the first time I saw how to conduct interview questions, and also I learned to transcribe the interview exactly as my teachers had shown me. I would like to take part in other research projects to gain more confidence, additional knowledge and experience.