At the age of 85, in 2023,  Dr Edna Adan Ismail was awarded the Templeton Prize in recognition of her decades-long work in humanitarian work and in health care. A nurse and midwife by profession, she has been a tireless healthcare advocate for women in her region, campaigning especially against FGM. She was the First Lady of Somalia, as the wife of Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal, Prime Minister of a united Somalia in the late 1960s and also served as the Director of the Ministry of Health. In 1991 Somaliland separated from Somalia, reclaimed its sovereignty and the independence it had gained from Britain in 1960, prior to merging with former Italian Somalia. Since 1991, the Republic of Somaliland is peaceful and stable and has a functioning democratically elected government which is where Dr Edna Adan Ismail served as Somaliland’s Foreign Minister between 2002 and 2006, and, at the same time, has founded the Edna Adan University and hospital in 2002 in the capital city of Hargeisa, Somaliland. The hospital has become a major referral hospital as well as a teaching hospital which has significantly improved maternity care, thus reducing maternal morbidity and mortality in one of the poorest countries in the world.