Doctors with Africa CUAMM celebrates the 8th of March with women everywhere: those who provide care with a smile and those who seek support for their children and themselves. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, let’s listen to the story of Susan, a young Ugandan mother at the Otwal Health Centre.

“My name is Susan. I’m 26 years old and I live in Odyek Mwoda, a small village in Uganda’s Oyam District. I just became a mother for the third time. After two miscarriages, I gave birth to my third child in the Otwal Health Centre, where I’d already gone for one of four prenatal visits they’d urged me to have. Some village women had told me about the motorbike ambulance service CUAMM’s doctors have made available, so when I went into labour I asked someone to get one for me and a short time later a driver brought me here. He gave me advice during the trip and made me feel safe and comfortable. This service saves a lot of time and effort for mothers like me; you get a ride instead of having to walk all the way to the centre, and the drivers I’ve met are kind and helpful. I’m going to tell other women in my village about it so they too can feel more relaxed about going for their medical visits and deliveries”.

Providing assisted deliveries to Susan and all the other mothers in Uganda’s Oyam District is our mission. To achieve it, every month we provide motorbike ambulance transport to more than 200 women from the area of Abela and Otwal, the most remote in the District, to the nearest health centres. In addition, more than 700 women a year are brought by ambulance from Otwal for emergency obstetric care in the Aber Hospital, the only one in the area for 388,000 people.

We work out all the practical details to ensure that the service will continue to work as planned, providing the 23 peripheral health centres with phone credit for the most risky cases when staff have to contact the hospital. We also distribute transport vouchers worth three euros to 6 peripheral health centres, to enable women to have access to assisted deliveries.