The 3rd World Muslim Health Communities Congress and Fair, which started on Saturday with the participation of participants from more than 100 countries and continued with various seminar and panel sessions, was held in Istanbul in order to ensure cooperation and solidarity between Islamic countries in the field of health.

Delivering a speech in the program, Head of African Region Green Crescent, Dr. Zahra Ali drew attention to the need of Africa in health fields and the need for investments in this sense.

"I would like to point out why this meeting is important to us," said Zahra Ali. "In the past, Africa was known as a dark continent. Africa was known for its floods and diseases. But now Africa has changed and is viewed with a different eye."

Saying that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Somalia in 2011 when he was Prime Minister of Turkiye during the drought in Somalia, Zahra Ali continued: "He broke taboos being the first head of a state by visiting Somalia. In this way, Muslims in Africa began to hope that the world could now see and remember them. Then Turkiye officially opened its embassy in Somalia in 2015."

Zahra Ali Underlined that NGOs like IHH and others all over the world started to go to the region where everyone was reluctant to go. "Then WIHU occurred. We have seen that hospitals in Somalia are not only built to help and come back, but they built to serve permanently. Turkiye played the key point for all these, and then the Muslim Africans started to wake up."

"Even though Africa is very rich, we are experiencing economic crises. For this reason, we could not do import-export activities in Africa. Work has been done in different countries such as Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. We are currently working in Africa," said Dr. Zahra Ali.

”Unfortunately Africa is being used as a dump"

Stating that women and children are being employed in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zahra Ali stressed that no one cares when health problems arose. "That is why people die," she added.

"There is a lot to do in Africa, especially in the field of health. This area is in the hands of Christians now. We need help with that. Muslim health institutions are not financially strong. We have limited mobility."

Dr. Zahra Ali added that they have first health and secondly drug addiction problem in Africa. "Unfortunately Africa is being used as a dump."

ILKHA