‘I will never forget their faces’
Timothy Sowula joins four British teenagers as they discover the plight of Nigeria’s mothers-to-be

11 December 2009

Sister Bridget, Katie Dearden and Isabella Ricordo speak to a mother about her fears of pregnancy at the Akpakpa Primary Health Clinic, Nigeria

At the beginning of September, in the remote village of Akpakpa in central Nigeria, four British teenagers sat with me listening to a circle of women. They were talking about their desperate fear of pregnancy due to the lack of available healthcare. Of the 24 Nigerian women present, already eight had lost one baby. How many might die themselves the next time? Statistics show that every minute across the world a woman dies in pregnancy and childbirth, diminishing the chances of any of their older children to survive.

In the middle of a lush green field next to their church the rhythmic beat of drums and cries of children playing contrasted starkly with the shocking revelations made by the mothers. Faith, aged 20, had contracted malaria three times during the first few months of her pregnancy and described the agony of lying in her hut, alternately sweating and shivering, fearing for her life and that of her unborn baby. She had to seek treatment from the nearest hospital, a long distance away, and has no idea how she will be able to pay back the cost of her treatment.

“We only have native herbs but they often make us feel sick and are not good for you: we need real medicine,” explains Blessing, just two years older than Faith, pregnant and scared, so upset that at one point she just put her head in her hands. In the dry season there is no water at all in Akpakpa, not even dirty water. Horrified at what they were hearing, the 15-year-old girls found it almost impossible to believe the conditions that mums in such rural areas are subjected to. The four had travelled with me to visit Cafod’s partners working in maternal healthcare in Nigeria – one of the countries worst hit by maternal and infant mortality – because they were passionate about trying to save the lives of mums and babies overseas.

“It was awful to watch,” said Kimi. “We all felt really emotional but I think we needed to see that unhappiness to fully understand what the poor mothers are going through. TV and school books don’t show the whole picture”.

The girls’ story starts 18 months ago when Kimi Omolokon, Katie Dearden, Megan Crowley and Isabella Rocordo, students at St Joseph’s Catholic College in Bradford, Yorkshire, won their school competition. Their imaginative entry, arrived at after a lot of research, was a virtual “pack for mums and babies” – essentially a package of crucial support such as the training of traditional birth attendants, a water filtration system, immunisations and a mosquito net, which could be delivered to mothers by the appropriate agencies on the ground. The cost of each pack, they reckoned, would be £30. As Katie put it: “Young mums in England get help from the Government, so why shouldn’t girls in Africa?”

After winning the national competition the teenagers approached Cafod to see if the organisation could bring their dream to life. So Cafod agreed to open a special account to channel any funds raised into maternal health programmes.

With the help of their deeply committed assistant school head, Elaine Barker, they embarked on a tour of schools, parishes and youth groups across the Leeds diocese and managed to raise £17,000. It was then that Cafod decided to adopt their “Pack for Mums and Babies” for this year’s Christmas ethical World Gifts catalogue to enable it to reach an even greater number of women. The dangers of childbirth for women in the developing world was noted by the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown, on the eve of the London G20 conference last April. She said: “I am told that in many parts of the world it is traditional for an expectant mother to say goodbye to her husband and other children when she goes in to labour, understanding that she may not see them again.”

As well as the family tragedy and effect on local communities, maternal and infant mortality has a major effect on the economies of some countries. A US Aid report has concluded that $15.5 billion (£7.8 billion) is lost in potential productivity through mothers and their infants dying.

So here we were in Nigeria, where Cafod has a large programme supported by the European Commission focusing on rural primary healthcare. On our way to Akpakpa that morning we had passed women walking barefoot along dusty red earth roads, babies strapped on their backs. Some had travelled miles to visit the twice-monthly clinic and receive essential medicines and attention from the nurses. The mobile clinic-in-a church is run by the Sisters of the Holy Rosary in Idah diocese. It is managed by the formidable Sister Bridget Okeke.

Megan says: “It was awful, the room was a tiny, simple, cold space with just a hard bench for them to lie on.” “Smaller than a toilet at school,” recalls Isabella, “all stone and damp. It made me realise how much in England is taken for granted.”

The women we had spoken to earlier were waiting to be seen, patiently queueing for hours outside. The visit to this outreach clinic was the most difficult day for the girls but they handled the experience with great sensitivity and maturity. What touched them particularly was the warmth they were welcomed with by all the communities they visited.

“The highlight of the whole trip for me,” says Megan, “was seeing how grateful the mothers were for our help and for them to know that young people in England do care about them. There are no words in the world to sum up the whole experience of everything we did there. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip and I have gained so much from it.”

Funds raised from the World Gifts “pack for mums and babies” will go directly to help maternal health programmes such as that run by Sister Bridget. At the end of our trip she told the Bradford girls: “You have seen the women we are able to help. What about other women who we cannot reach? That is why your pack is so important.”

The girls are now even more determined to continue to raise money through their own efforts back in England. “First,” says Kimi, “we want to help the outreach clinics and then to build a hospital which won’t be so far for the women near Akpakpa to travel to as the one they have to go.”

“We have loads of ideas,” chips in Isabella. “We can probably raise at least £1,000 at school by having a non-uniform day – that’s just one.”

“I shall never take water and electricity for granted again,” says Katie, “and I shall never, ever, forget the faces of those mums with their tiny sick babies.”

For more information about the girls and to read more about their progress in saving lives overseas, go to www.cafod.org.uk/ mumsandbabies. You can buy a wide range of world charity gifts online from Cafod at http://worldgifts. cafod.org.uk