Photo: Midwife Anne with Claire* and her daughter Aimé* at a medical facility run by Save the Children in Mahama Refugee Camp, Rwanda

Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda hosts close to 60,000 refugees and asylum seekers. Previously, mothers experiencing complications in birth had to be driven to the district hospital in a town about 35 kms away along extremely bumpy, dirt roads, with the journey taking about 2 hours. Many women would arrive at the hospital in advanced stages of labour or having given birth during the journey, putting their own and their baby’s life at risk. Now, Save the Children provides caesarean sections and blood transfusions at the camp’s health centre, significantly reducing infant and mother mortality as well as post-partum complications.

*Names have been changed to protect identities