Elana Dallas is in Makeni, Sierra Leone, as part of an Amnesty International team researching maternal mortality
Another bumpy drive, this time to Makeni, the regional centre. Again to the hospital – the main government referral hospital for the area. A hospital with no running water, no electricity unless the generator runs (so you have to pay for the fuel for the generator when you have an operation), no X-ray machine, no operating light in the operating theatre.
But there is some good news – UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, are paying for drugs and giving top-up fees to the staff here, so care for women giving birth is free. We meet some women whose lives have been saved – one who didn’t know she was having twins until she went into labour, despite five trips to the ante-natal clinic.
Continue reading ‘Lucky to be alive’
Elana Dallas is in Kambia, Sierra Leone, as part of an Amnesty International team researching maternal mortality
Saturday 31 January: We spent today following up the stories of women who died in childbirth. We found some of the cases in the hospital records, some by just asking around. Everyone knows someone who’s died – in a taxi on the way to hospital, at home, in the hospital.
People are unbelievably helpful – they get in the car to take us to meet the families we’re looking for, they help us with translations, they give up their time to us, willingly. And, unfailingly, when we arrive at someone’s house, they bring out benches and chairs for us to sit on in some shade and talk to us as dozens of village children and adults gather round watching this event.
Continue reading ‘Everyone knows someone who’s died’
1 February 2009: A 13-year-old girl who was asleep in her bed; three primary school-age boys who were carrying sugar canes; two young women on their way to a shelter in search of safety; a 13-year-old boy on his bicycle; eight secondary school students who were waiting for the school bus to take them home; an entire family sitting outside their home – these are among the many victims of missiles fired from Israeli UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), commonly known as drones.
Here in Gaza people call the drones “zannana”, an onomatopoeic description reflecting the buzzing sound that they emit as they fly overhead. Their main function is surveillance, but, in recent years, Israeli forces have also used them to fire missiles, often to assassinate “wanted” Palestinians.
Continue reading ‘Faulty intelligence, wanton recklessness, or a combination of the two’
We have come to the end of the World Social Forum. It has been a very interesting journey for all members of the Amnesty delegation. We have gained a lot of inspiration from the sheer amount of people present in the Forum and the true diversity of its participants.
We have met with individuals and organisations and identified points of convergence in our thinking as well as discussed possibilities of future collaboration. Through our stand, we have amplified Amnesty International’s voice; we reached out to hundreds of people.
Above all, we have worked together, eighteen Amnesty International delegates and friends, as one Amnesty.
Elana Dallas is in Sierra Leone as part of an Amnesty International team researching maternal mortality
Friday 30 January: The road from Freetown to Kambia is red, dusty, potholed and lined with palm trees. We’re told it’s much improved, and that the weather is really cold right now… as the car lurches and the sweat pours down, that’s hard to believe.
We’re here to find out about maternal mortality, so we came straight to Kambia hospital. It’s the only government hospital in the district, with one permanent doctor, who’s off on training right now. There’s no running water, and electricity only when they run the generator.
Continue reading ‘Finding out why women in Sierra Leone die in childbirth’
