18-year-old Umu Ngamanga and her brother-in-law, Albert Ngamanga, been driven by a private moto-taxi to Hinistas Community Health Centre in Mile 91, Tonkolili District, in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone; following a referral by the medical staff of the Foindu Peripheral Health Unit (PHU) due to the medical complications of her newborn.

MSF supports 12 Ministry of Health and Sanitation’s (MoHS) Peripheral Health Units (PHUs) in the surrounding of Mile 91 town, in Yoni Mabanta, Yoni Mamaila, and Malal Chiefdoms, including one Community Health Center, Hinistas, in Mile 91 town itself, where patients with severe symptoms can be referred. When ambulances are not available, MSF covers the cost of the moto-taxi transport, to ensure cost or distance to the adequate level of healthcare facility is not preventing pregnant women and their children from accessing lifesaving emergency healthcare.

For those in need of hospital admission, further ambulance referral to the MSF-supported Magburaka Government Hospital is available, the main secondary healthcare facility in the district for more advanced care.

“I started experiencing labor pains at night, but it takes me two hours of walking and crossing a river to get to the nearest PHU, which is in Foindu, 10 kilometers from my home. My baby could not eat and had fever, so I took him to the PHU the next day after I gave birth. He was immediately taken by motorbike to Hinistas Clinic in Mile 91. After close monitoring, he was later taken to the Magburaka Government Hospital by the MSF ambulance and after receiving care he got well and was discharged”.