Sulaiman Bin Ahmad Al Houqani
UAE Awards
Hamdan Award for Honouring Individuals Working in the Field of Medicine & Health
2001-2002
Born in Al-Ain in 1938, Sulaiman Ahmad Al-Houqani learned and recited the Quoran at the age of nine. The quest for knowledge and learning took him to Kenya where he gained in 1954 a certificate qualifying him as an assistant physician and drug composer. He later worked in Saudi Arabia, and then in Qatar.
Returning to Al-Ain in 1959, he became the first assistant physician to practice there. The health care situation at that time was too critical, and the area received part of its health care needs at British Army camps.
Sulaiman soon started to offer health care and medical treatment to citizens of the area, especially children who were exposed to serious and sometimes fatal diseases. He had also introduced vaccination for the first time in the area (especially against smallpox and polio).
He prepared vaccines and solutions from material available at British Army camps. Living conditions were then so difficult to the extent that pack animals and carts were the only means of transport.
Moving from house to house amid sand dunes, and under a scorching sun, he had worked for almost twenty hours a day.
Sulaiman has contributed to the reduction of the obstetric mortality rate (which had then reached 1:3); deaths often attributed to lack of proper health care. He also helped reduce child mortality rate.
Early in 1961, a Canadian doctor established Al - Waha Hospital in the city of Al Ain, which soon began to offer health care and medical services to people of the area. Sulaiman was appointed assistant physician, and has contributed to the conduct of surgical operations while assisting at the Maternity Department.
In 1964 he opened a private clinic in addition to his official work at the hospital.
His practice was heavily attended by thousands of citizens from the area. Some elderly people from various parts of the United Arab Emirates still visit him for medical treatment and advice.
For all these considerations, Sulaiman Ahmad Al-Houqani deserves the Hamdan Award for honouring individuals working in the field of medicine and health.