NGO helping mothers

By LULU MARK
SIX women and their new-born babies are in Goroka waiting to travel back to their villages in remote Andakobi, Obura-Wonenara district, Eastern Highlands.
The women were referred to the Eastern Highlands Provincial Hospital from the Andakombi Health Centre in June because of pregnancy complications.
After giving birth, they had no relatives or friends to stay with in Goroka, so were taken in by the Waniati Maternal Waiting Hut.
They have been living there since the second week of June.
The hut, also called the Bel Mama Haus located in Okiufa village, provides accommodation to women awaiting transport to their villages after giving birth.
Village health volunteer Ketina Joseph who accompanied one of the pregnant women to Goroka said pregnant women had to walk for four hours to reach the health center.
Some died along the way.
Ketina said many women died from pregnancy and birth complications while on their way to the health center.
She had experienced walking back to her village with a dead woman on a stretcher, a few kilometres from the health centre at Andakobi village.
There is also an airstrip there but no roads.
“We were on our way to get help which is always a little too far for a woman in pain,” she said.
“When I take them to the hospital but die on the road, I (take their bodies) back.
“Men with us make a stretcher to carry the dead woman back to the village where we mourn and bury her.”
She said pregnant women sometimes died in the village, or on the way to the health center, or at the health center.
When the pregnant woman told her she was not feeling well, Ketina left with her immediately for the health center. But when they arrived there, the woman was diagnosed with anemia which needed hospital care.
The only way to get treatment is to travel to hospital in Goroka.
It costs around K400 to fly from the Andakoda airstrip to Goroka, and be treated at the provincial hospital.
There is an arrangement with the Eastern Highland Provincial Health Authority to cover the referral cost for life-threatening cases.
“After the delivery of the baby at the hospital, we were discharged and advised to go and live with our wantok (relatives or friends).
“Unfortunately, there is no one we know around Goroka.
“So we thank God for the Waniati Maternal Waiting Hut.”
Ketina believes that no woman should die while giving birth or from pregnancy complication.
“I am a volunteer. I am not paid for my work. The families of the women I help appreciate the work I do and give me food.”
The director and founder of the Waniati Development Association which looks after the hut Victor Timothy said village birth attendants such as Ketina played an important role in remote communities.
“They are the first point of help for women,” he said.
“More training is needed for them and there should be more of them as well. A lot of women and babies are dying because of unsupervised births.
“At the hut we want more supervised births.
“The hut is like an extension of the maternity wing of the provincial hospital. When the wards in the hospital are full, the women are brought here.
“We look after them before birth and even after birth, like Ketina and her friends.
“We do not have much but with what God has blessed us with, we take care of the mothers who come to us.”
They provide accommodation and two meals a day, plus sanitary pads, tissues and toiletries needed.
They were also provided transport from Okiufa village to the hospital. At the end of the day, a life or two is saved with what we have,” Timothy said.