Addis Ababa (dpa) - Roos Ament took her vacation days and traveled
to Ethiopia, but studiously avoided spending her time lazily enjoying
the country's natural beauty and instead headed for Dollo Ado, a
sprawling refugee camp on the Somali border.
The 51-year-old Dutch midwife says she felt the need to help other
women, as they struggled to receive health care following arduous
journeys from war-torn and drought-plagued Somalia to the camps.
"My heart is with women all over the world. Every woman has the
basic right to a healthy childbirth," Ament told the German Press
Agency dpa, after spending a month in the camp.
She went as a volunteer with the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres
(Doctors without Borders) to Dollo Ado with its more than 120,000
refugees.
"I thought it would be a great experience for my own life, as
well. And it was," the midwife noted.
Now that Ament has returned to the Netherlands, she misses the
colleagues who worked with her in Dollo Ado but also remembers the
many hardships.
The climate was harsh and the days were long, often working 18 or
20 hours straight. She repeatedly mentions the lack of privacy in the
camp, and there was always a queue for food, showers and the toilet.
"But I have no complaints, it was so worth it," Ament says, adding
that there were "no tensions amongst the group, which is so amazing
under these circumstances."
Ament says she certainly has mental scars from the experience and
it will take some time to truly deal with all she saw during August.
After all, she was dealing with people who fled 20 years of civil war
and the worst drought and famine the region has seen in decades.
Having spent years working as a volunteer in Uganda and Ethiopia
in the 1980s and 1990s, Ament is certain she will recover and plans
to go back again at some point.
She now has time, though, for her regular job as a freelance
midwife in the Netherlands and her three children aged 20, 18 and 14.
She also runs a charity at home, called Adopt a Midwife, which
raises funds for maternal health issues.
But even with her experience, the camp was a trying place and as a
medic she was on the front lines of both sorrow and joy.
On just her first day, she was called to assist a labour and found
a woman lying in the sand, in pain. With the midwife's timely help,
the birth lasted just a few minutes and the baby was healthy.
After catching her breath and seeing her newborn, the mother
admitted she had felt close to death during the experience, while the
father kissed Ament's hands in gratitude.
"I tried to smile but I felt like crying," the midwife recalled.
There were panicked births at 3 am, weakened patients of all ages
who could barely carry their own weight. Mothers who lost children
and fathers too frail to be of any assistance to their young.
Many patients had such pained looks in their eyes, says Ament,
that she would often stare at them and ask silently "What have you
been through, my dear?"
Watching a woman, ill and on the verge of death, slowly make a
recovery and return to full health is an exhilarating experience, the
midwife says.
One mother was experiencing her 11th childbirth, but only three of
her children are alive. The woman barely survived the labour and
needed intensive care for several days to prevent her from dying.
But she recovered and returned to her refugee tent and Ament
visited some days later to find her happy and healthy. Thinking they
would not meet again, they parted.
"One day when going through the camp, I see her standing in front
of the tent. She is very tall. She wears her only dress, red and
blue. The wind makes it dance. She sees me and waves at me. And I
want to scream: 'I love you,'" says Ament.
Further information:
Ament's website: http://www.adopteereenvroedvrouw.org/
Copyright 2011 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH