Wasaidizi health workers

Congolese child

Fourteen of the Wasaidizi health workers turned out in force to greet us.  We met with the hospital doctors one afternoon and it was obvious there was a heated conversation being nominated, seconded and unanimously supported by the health workers.  It seems most of the health workers have been given a post or clinic where they volunteer and deliver hundreds of babies.  A few, however, have not been given an assignment and desperately want one.  Of all of the things they could have asked for, this was the one they most wanted -- to be able to volunteer and use their skills.  When I asked the hospital doctors how many women had died in childbirth last year, they had a short puzzled conversation in French and then shook their heads and said they knew of none.  The Wasaidizi have told us the same thing.  If that's true it is nothing short of a miracle.  The maternal death rate in Congo is among the highest in the world.  Go Wasaidizi!! 

We left them with a small budget so they can meet together a couple of times a year and support one another.  It will be interesting to follow their progress and stories.