Ana Luisa Silva is Transaid’s Project Manager in Madagascar. Here she describes the story of a woman she met when conducting research into the problems rural communities have when trying to access transport.
“During one of my previous visits to Menabe our project team visited a rural health centre, where we found a pregnant woman waiting for the doctor. The centre was closed and the woman had arrived the day before, after an arduous two hours of travelling, heavily pregnant, on foot.
She wanted to deliver at the health centre, but as the doctor was not there, she was searching to find transport to take her to the district capital where the main hospital is located.
There was no transport available, not even the ox carts that are normally used in these situations. Her family didn’t own an ox cart and they could not convince anybody with an ox cart to carry the woman to the hospital. She had been waiting for almost a day, with no prospects of solving her problem.”
Transaid is focusing on the problem of emergency transport for pregnant women and will be addressing what local community based solutions can be implemented in these remote areas so women can access adequate healthcare.
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