UMOJA: A village where no men are allowed

These Kenyan women have faced violence and oppression in their community for many years. They say violence and male dominance are part of their culture—a part that they do not like. Following a fierce leader, Rebecca, the women of Umoja started their own village. A village where no men are allowed. A village that is safe for women to live well, eat healthy, and support each other. Watch this moving documentary to see how the Umoja women created a safe space, and sustained living. 

Photo: Sam Perkins, MSF midwife, in the Masisi conflict zone in Democratic Republic of Congo. DRC 2011 © Yasuyoshi Chiba

Caring for Women Trapped by Violence

Refugees in South Sudan: “We Walked for Six Days … With Nothing But Our Clothes”

“We were on the road for two months. Many villages we went through kept being bombed, so we had to keep fleeing. We had food for two weeks, then we ran out. We ate the lalop fruit and leaves from trees. We gave food for the children mostly, and some days we had nothing to eat. Some people got very sick and we had to leave some by the road—we could not carry them and they were too weak to continue.”

—28-year-old mother of six children

Photo: Refugees fleeing conflict and food insecurity in the Nuba Mountains face insufficient levels of assistance in Yida camp.

South Sudan 2012 © Sally McMillan

The Avoidable Crisis of Maternal Death

MSF makes it a priority to provide lifesaving, emergency obstetric care in both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. MSF teams strive to address the five main causes of maternal death: hemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders, and obstructed labour.

In a conflict or crisis, pregnant women are even more vulnerable because health services have collapsed, are inadequate, or are totally non-existent. But these women need access to quality emergency obstetric care whether they live in a conflict zone, in a refugee camp, or under plastic sheeting after a devastating earthquake.

In fact, they need the same help that all pregnant women facing a complication need: access to appropriate medical assistance—skilled medical staff, drugs, and equipment—to save their life and the life of their baby.

Conflict, epidemics, natural disasters, or the complete breakdown of a country’s health system are crises faced by MSF’s millions of patients around the world every day. But a maternal death: that’s the avoidable crisis.

Infographic by Will Owen

Urgent Delivery—Maternal Death: The Avoidable Crisis

Every day, approximately 1,000 women die in childbirth or from a pregnancy-related complication. Maternal death can occur at any time in pregnancy, but delivery is by far the most dangerous time for both the mother and the baby. The vast majority of these deaths can be prevented if access to emergency obstetric care is ensured.

Doctors Without Borders makes it a priority to provide lifesaving, emergency obstetric care in both acute and chronic humanitarian crises. In the organization’s emergency activities, teams strive to address the five main causes of maternal death: hemorrhage, sepsis, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders, and obstructed labour.

South Sudan 2011 © Avril Benoit/MSF A mother and child at MSF’s supplementary feeding distribution in Abathok.

Afghanistan: MSF Opens Maternity Hospital in Khost

The international medical humanitarian organization MSF has opened a new maternity hospital in eastern Khost Province in Afghanistan, which will provide pregnant women in the region with desperately needed high-quality health care.

Decades of conflict have left Afghanistan with maternal and child mortality rates among the highest in the world. Most women, especially in rural areas, must resort to giving birth without skilled assistance and in unhealthy conditions, which puts their own lives and those of their children at significant risk.

Khost is one of Afghanistan’s most volatile provinces, where national and international military forces have engaged in intense fighting with armed opposition groups in recent years. The conflict has affected the ability of women to access adequate maternal health care.

Photo: Afghanistan 2011 © Peter Casaer
A child with diarrhea in the pediatric department at Boost Hospital in Helmand Province, where MSF has been working since 2009.

Rape was not made a criminal offence in Haiti until 2005. Violence against women was a problem in Haiti long before the earthquake, but the dangers for women have only been heightened in the earthquake’s aftermath. Most rape victims seen by MSF live in the insecure areas around Martissant in the south of Port-au-Prince, including Fontamara and Bolosse, where rape at gunpoint is a common occurrence.

In 2010, 150 rapes were reported in Martissant’s emergency health centre. However this figure does not show the full picture, as victims of sexual and domestic violence are often reluctant to seek treatment or report the crime for fear of reprisals. MSF organises awareness campaigns in slum areas of the city, emphasising confidentially and the need to seek treatment for sexual violence within 72 hours. In October 2010, MSF increased its capacity to treat victims of sexual violence in Haiti’s capital, offering comprehensive psychological and medical treatment.

Urban Survivors is a multimedia project by Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in collaboration with the NOOR photo agency and Darjeeling Productions, highlighting the critical humanitarian and medical needs that exist in slums the world over.

Photo: © Jon Lowenstein/NOOR

May 23, 2011: Elderly women took to the roads in Abyei region, Sudan, after violence displaced thousands from their homes. Most of them are now living outside and are especially vulnerable to medical problems, including malnutrition.
Sudan 2011 © Dana Krause/MSF