Af Helene Christensen
Artikel bragt i en avis under Times Group i Malawi
Grace Gama arrives at the maternity ward at Bwaila Hospital in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.
She is assisted by her sister she can barely walk with the pain ravaging her body. Gama is in pain and ready to give birth.
Twice, Gamas sister calls for the nurse on duty for help who out of overbur-den or lack of care refuses to attend to the woman in la-bour, even when the head of the baby starts coming out.
Gama ends up resorting to getting assistance from her sister in delivering the baby, and the nurse only arrives to take the baby to the incubator after noticing some birth defects – the baby dies the following day.
This is the reality in Malawi even today as the world commemorates the International Human Rights Day (10. December 2009).
During the course of this day, 16 women will die of pregnant-related causes Malawi. And over the next ten years there will be 2,5 million maternal deaths and 49 million maternal disabilities in Africa alone.
At the global scale one woman will die every minute due to complications in childbirth or during pregnancy.
An undignified and unjust reality which disturbingly alarms us, who have been privileged to experiencing the joyful and prosperous day of a successful childbirth, to neither accept nor allow this day or tomorrow, to be passing in silence on behalf of these women.
A gynaecologist at Bwaila Hospital, Tarek Meguid describes a bad day at work as “a never ending nightmare of human suffering and criminal human rights violations”.
Læs videre på http://www.bnltimes.com//content/view/1168/30
Artiklen er stillet til rådighed for u-landsnyt.dk af forfatteren. Den stod i malawiansk presse 10. december 2009.
Helene Christensen arbejder for Folkekirkens Nødhjælp i Malawi som Liaison and Partnership Consultant. Hun er tillige tilknyttet en lokal NGO, som virker for at forbedre mødresundheden, på frivillig basis.
Helene Christensen træffes på e-mail: [email protected] og mobil: (265) 58 48 952
