The Dutch midwife “Mina” is a witness to the birth of successive generations of children of the Union

While the founding fathers were laying the first building blocks for the Union State, the Dutch woman “Mina” was carrying her medical bag and roaming the rugged villages in Fujairah to help pregnant women give birth, at a time when health services were still very simple.

Between the union document that laid the foundations of the state, and the humanitarian efforts that accompanied that stage, the Dutch midwife Wilhelmina van de Weg, known to the people of Fujairah as “Mina” or “Amina,” wrote a chapter from the founding memory, after she devoted long decades of her life to serving mothers, and contributed to the birth of generations that witnessed the establishment of the union and the renaissance of the Emirates.

The biography of the Dutch midwife indicates that she arrived in the Emirates in 1964, and initially worked in Ras Al Khaimah, then moved about three years later to Fujairah, which at that time lacked health services, especially in the mountainous areas, to begin a humanitarian journey that she devoted to caring for pregnant women, at a time when childbirth was taking place in extremely difficult conditions.

Her first years in Fujairah were full of challenges, as she lived with an English colleague, called “John,” in a tent, with very limited medical capabilities, and they only had simple tools to perform natural births and provide first aid.

In addition to the lack of capabilities, they also faced difficulty in convincing families to accept women receiving health care.

Mina had to treat a number of patients and help a large number of women during childbirth, in order to gain the trust of the community, which she actually achieved, becoming over time a destination for the women of Fujairah and neighboring villages.

Mina received the support of the leadership at that stage, as she obtained two homes, one allocated for her and the other to be the first clinic to receive pregnant women. She also used to travel in a Range Rover, which was among a very limited number of vehicles in the emirate at that time, to reach remote mountain villages.

In the absence of specialized hospitals, cases requiring surgical intervention were transported by land to Dubai on a trip that took about five hours, or by military aircraft that were operating from the Al-Bathna and Khor Fakkan regions, while one of the midwives would remain by the pregnant woman’s side, and the other would go to seek help, in a race against time to save the lives of the mother and the fetus.

In addition to her role in obstetrics, she devoted a large part of her efforts to spreading health culture among women, as she was keen to educate them about the importance of personal hygiene, newborn care, adherence to vaccination programs, and abandoning some popular practices that negatively affected the health of the mother and child.

With the expansion of the renaissance witnessed by the country, the services of the small clinic expanded, and “MENA” attracted a number of midwives from different countries, before it was transformed in 2000 into an integrated maternity hospital that included operating rooms, delivery rooms and specialized clinics, while maintaining the provision of services at nominal prices to remain accessible to various segments of society.

Her contributions were not limited to medical work, but she was also passionate about documenting life in Fujairah. She kept more than 1,700 photos that chronicled social life, nature, popular events, and the emirate’s journey from the beginnings to the renaissance. She published her book “Focus on Fujairah.”

As the years passed, she became part of the local community, mastering the Emirati dialect, adopting many customs and traditions, and adopting “al-Makhoor” as her official dress, as an expression of her deep connection to Fujairah and its people.

Although she did not marry, she considered the people of Fujairah her large family, as she followed the birth of successive generations of the same family, until she contributed to the birth of the fourth generation of some families that she had known since the beginning of her work in the emirate.

Mina passed away in 2026, after a humanitarian career that spanned more than six decades in the Emirates, leaving a humanitarian legacy that is still present in the memories of thousands of families, remaining one of the figures whose name was associated with the founding phase, and who contributed to building health services alongside the process of building the union.

• 1,700 photos taken by Mina that chronicled social life, nature, and popular events.