KAMWENGE DISTRICT, Uganda — Alice Furaha, 22 years old, was five months pregnant when she fled her home in Eastern Congo last May. When she arrived at the border with Uganda, Alice was taken to the transit centre in Kisoro and eventually transferred to Rwamwanja settlement camp in Kamwenge district.
Having experienced a still birth just last year, she was now worried about the prospects of risks of delivering in a refugee camp.
In the past eight months, fighting with the M23 rebel group in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has intensified. The rebellion has forced over 60,000 Congolese to flee to neighbouring countries and has displaced nearly 600,000 people within the country. The sudden influx of refugees has strained existing services in the Kamwenge district in the South West region of Uganda, and addressing the needs of some 300 pregnant women was a particular challenge.
Women were seen delivering in their tents, and only one ambulance was available for 10 to 12 women each month who experienced complications and needed emergency obstetric care. Medical equipment and supplies as well as human resources for health are not sufficient to provide quality lifesaving pregnancy and delivery care, according to a report to the UN from Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which has provided more than $200,000 to the emergency.
On 26 August Alice delivered a healthy baby boy at Fort Portal regional referral Hospital, about 80 kilometres from the settlement camp. "When labour pains started, I went to the Ramwanja Health Centre expecting that everything would be ok, " Alice recalls, "I was shocked to be told by the midwife that I was going to be referred to Fort Portal Referral Hospital because my baby was in distress." Luckily, an ambulance of the Uganda Red Cross Society was mobilized with support from UNFPA so that Alice could be transferred and receive the care she needed.
She was lucky, because ambulances are in short supply. In a period of one month, four babies perished because women could not get emergency care quickly enough. In those cases, fortunately, the mothers survived. However, as only ambulance was available to take women to the regional referral hospital, another emergency case had to wait for more than six hours to receive emergency care.
CERF funding enabled the Uganda Red Cross to get one of its ambulances re-deployed for mothers in the refugee settlement who need emergency obstetric care. This simple service has significantly increased the ability to get emergency cases to the hospital. It helped save the life of Alice and her baby.
Compiled by Penninah Kyoyagala Tomusange and Veronica Njikho, UNFPA - Uganda