Since the inauguration in mid-December of the new maternity hospital in Katafa, a village located in the province of Ouaddaï in eastern Chad, Fatimé Akouna, the main midwife of the village has had no respite.
Every day, it welcomes around twenty patients who come from neighboring villages for the usual prenatal consultations or to monitor their pregnancy.
This was not the case a few months ago.
Long before the construction of the health structure, very few women came to consult.
They gave birth at home without medical follow-up with only the assistance of a traditional matron at the risk of their life or that of the baby when there were complications.
The healthcare professional testifies to the change in behavior:
Women no longer stay at home.
They come on their own to consult.
Most of the time, they are even accompanied by the traditional birth attendant.
Today at midday, I have even received a dozen women in consultation.
The whole village is happy with the construction of the maternity ward.
We have already registered about fifty births.
Women are more comfortable and confident.
Little by little, things will change.
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Third maternal mortality rate in the world
In Chad, more than one in 100 women die each year from complications related to pregnancy or during childbirth.
According to a report by the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, it is the third highest maternal mortality rate in the world, which is most often due to the lack of adequate health infrastructure.
In Katafa, the only health center available to the village was in an advanced state of decay and did not have the basic equipment necessary to accommodate the sick, let alone pregnant women.
The Health and Environment Support Office (BASE), an NGO created in 1996 and based in N'djamena, the Chadian capital, therefore undertook with the support of the Swiss organization Women's Hope International to finance a maternity hospital with a participatory approach. by involving the villagers.
“About fifteen men and women took turns in the village every day”
Dahab Manoufi is the director of the NGO.
We started the project in March 2020. The construction of the maternity hospital took three months.
But it was disrupted because of the Covid-19 pandemic and also the inter-ethnic conflicts that took place in the area.
It was finally inaugurated on December 19.
In Chad, health coverage is quite low.
In this sense, the province of Ouaddai is not that different from the other provinces of the country.
But in Katafa district, maternal and child health indicators are particularly low.
As Katafa did not have a functional maternity unit, in the event of complications, one had to go to the provincial hospital in Abéché, the capital located nearly 100 km away and where there are all amenities.
The villages here are very far from each other.
It might be too late and it was difficult for people.
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We have therefore undertaken a dialogue with the populations to assess their needs.
and they themselves have decided to build up a workforce to build their maternity hospital.
About fifteen men and women took turns every day to ensure that the project was completed.
The maternity ward is made up of four compartments which allow movement from the labor room, to the childbirth room and finally to rest.
A fourth box serves as a consultation room.
They will allow women to have a safe delivery.
We also delivered the minimum amount of equipment needed: a delivery table, a consultation table, delivery kits containing various tools for midwifery use and a solar panel.
A technique from the United States
To reduce financing costs, the huts were constructed in the shape of a dome with jute bags filled with fine sand and rubble by the villagers, materials found on the spot.
The technique is inspired by the model of ecological architecture called “Super Adobe” and developed by the Calearth Institute based in the United States in California.
The "Super Adobe" model is more resistant to fire and offers better thermal and acoustic insulation.
According to Dahab Manoufi, thanks to this model, the project only cost a third of the usual financing of a maternity hospital in Chad, or about 17 million CFA francs (about 27,000 euros), of which 10% is paid for by the populations.
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What can Abdeldjelil Tahir, the head of the canton of Marfa on which Katafa depends:
We have been asking for a maternity hospital for a long time, it is a blessing.
In the Ouara department on which we depend, women regularly have gynecological or obstetrical problems, such as fistulas for example.
We have nearly seven health centers in the canton.
But it is the only maternity hospital we have for more than 42,000 inhabitants.
Two weeks after the inauguration, nearly 300 women had gone for consultation.
We would like two or three maternity hospitals of this type in our canton.
The NGO Base and its Swiss partner Women's Hope International hope to replicate six other maternity hospitals in other villages in the province.
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