Midwives are heroes. They save lives, they care and listen. Grace is one of them. This Ugandan 37 year old mother of four left her family’s urban home in Kampala to serve refugees in Rhino refugee settlement seven years ago. Now, she mainly supports South Sudanese women and girls who fled from their war-torn home country.
In front of Ocea health center in Rhino camp, one of the largest refugee settlements of Uganda 122 kilometers away from the border of South Sudan, the sun is burning. Hundreds of refugee women with children in their arms are patiently waiting for treatment. Suddenly, the door of one of the very few concrete buildings opens. A middle aged woman with curly hair and a big smile steps outside to call for the next patient. This is Grace. She is one of six midwifes working at the maternity unit of Ocea health center in Rhino refugee settlement.
Since conflict broke out in South Sudan three years ago, over 80,000 people sought refuge in Uganda’s Rhino camp. The latest bout of violence which started in July 2016 is still forcing up to 300 South Sudanese to flee to Rhino refugee settlement on a daily basis, stretching capacities beyond limits. Most of the new arrivals are women and girls who need both physical and psychological support. Grace is the one who cares. She can’t even remember how many babies she helped to deliver or mothers’ lives she has saved throughout her seven years at Rhino maternity ward, but there are some cases she will never forget:
“A few years ago, a mother went into labour at her hut some 25 kilometers away from the center. She had problems with her pregnancy and was about to lose the baby, but her family had no money for treatment,” tells Grace. “Out of desperation the mother went into the bush, preparing herself to die. Miraculously, a family’s friend found her, took her to our health center and we managed to transfer her to Arua hospital just in time. Sadly, her baby passed away but at least the mother survived.”
Today, Grace and her colleagues are able to treat most of the difficult pregnancies on their own. “Since we participated in a CARE training for midwifes, there are less cases that we need to transfer to the regional hospital,” explains Grace. “We also got new equipment like vacuum aspiration sets which help to treat miscarriages or molar pregnancies.” But despite these lifesaving improvements, there are still all sorts of daily struggles – long travels before women reach the center, not enough space to treat patients, and most importantly challenges to convince South Sudanese women to get treatment after gender based violence and to report their cases to the local police.
Each month, one or two cases of violence are reported to the health care center, but Grace is convinced that there are many more women and young girls who survived rape, sexual harassment or domestic violence and suffer in silence. “Sometimes we receive women with heavy bleeding and trauma,” says Grace. “Many of them try to deny what happened but we investigate, we provide medical as well as psychological support.” CARE also continues to train health care staff and community leaders to provide information about gender based violence ensuring that women and girls know that being violated is a human rights’ abuse and giving them strength and confidence to report this crime to the police.
With support from other health workers, midwives also visit refugees at their temporary homes to inform them about available treatments at the health facility, like sexual reproductive health services, family planning methods and psychological support. In the last months, CARE also distributed more than 300 dignity kits including baby clothes, wipes, soap and cloths to women who recently gave birth.
“Over the last years I have seen a lot of progress in health care for women and girls which encourages me to carry on”, mentions Grace. “I left my family back in town to serve people in Rhino refugee camp seven years ago and there is not a minute I regret this decision. Women here need my help and through supporting them I found well-being not only for myself but also for my kids who are able to go to school and make the best of their life’s that they possibly can.”
Media Contact: Ninja Taprogge, CARE Emergency Communications Officer, [email protected], +4915170167497.
Find out more about our work in Uganda here.