A salve amid Darfur woes: better midwives
International relief groups are training Darfuri women to ameliorate Sudan's maternal mortality rates – the fifth highest in the world.
from the July 10, 2007 edition
Page 4 of 4
General MacArthur of midwifery
If Suleiman and her classmates are the hope of a new generation of mothers, then Zainab Juma Nimeir is their Gen. Douglas MacArthur, tough, reliable, and unwilling to just fade away.
Trained as a midwife in 1952, after her father died, leaving her in charge of her younger brothers and sisters, she became one of the first midwives in Darfur.
"I convinced myself that I could help all my Sudanese sisters, I was doing something humanitarian," says the septuagenarian, who performed her duties until retiring two years ago.
War has brought the biggest changes to the region, she says, and the same insecurity that forces families to come to relief camps – where they can at least receive some modicum of healthcare – also keeps more remote families from even venturing out of their houses at night.
"Since the war, people are afraid; even if they call you to their houses, you are afraid to go unless they come pick you up," she says.
But that doesn't keep them from showing their appreciation for her. When Mrs. Nimeir goes out into the countryside, she says, "People come up to me and say, 'You are my mother.' When I go to the village, people give me a sheep or a goat as a gift."
And this gives her an influence in villages that usually only village chiefs and tribal elders can expect. "We build on a relationship of sisterhood with our patients," says Nimeir. "They listen to us. It's a matter of trust."
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