WATCH: Introducing Dr. Edna Adan Ismail

Edna Adan Ismail, a nurse-midwife and healthcare advocate from Somaliland, is the recipient of the 2023 Templeton Prize.

She receives this year’s award in recognition of her extraordinary efforts to harness the power of the sciences to affirm the dignity of women and help them to flourish physically and spiritually. Her many achievements include the founding of the Edna Adan University and Hospital, which has significantly reduced maternal mortality in Somaliland, and her tireless campaign to end female genital mutilation (FGM) around the world.

In a video for the Templeton Prize that chronicles her extraordinary life, Edna reflects:

I feel so grateful that I have been given the opportunities and the life and the education that I’ve had, to be able to make that much of a change for our people, and particularly for girls in my country Somaliland.
Edna Adan Ismail

Watch the short videos below to learn more about Edna’s upbringing, her bold campaign against FGM, and the founding of her hospital in Somaliland. You can also watch the playlist on YouTube.