We came across Jakia when we visited the Kroo Bay slum in Sierra Leone Freetown. Jakia came running to us because she had heard that a midwife from the Aberdeen Women’s Centre was visiting.
Jakia was five months pregnant, having lost her first two precious children. Kroo is often described as the worst place in the world to live, with life expectancy at around 32. Kroo Bay sits on the beach, at the foo of the hills of Freetown. Every year devastating floods rage through Kroo Bay taking many lives, including one of Jakia’s children. Yet people return to the area each year and start over.
Her second pregnancy ended when inexperienced nurses tried to push her baby out by pressing vigorously. She wept as she told us about delivering a dead baby.
This experience, and a fear of Ebola, keeps Jakia away from the health system. She was overjoyed to hear form other mothers in Kroo Bay that Aberdeen Women’s Centre will delivery her baby safely and care for her and the baby before and after delivery for no cost at all.
In a post-script, it gives us so much joy to say Jakia delivered a health girl at the Aberdeen Women’s Centre March 2017.
Jakia, is also featured on our SBS Dateline documentary ‘Daughter of Sierra Leone’.
