​CRC Case Manager Victor Kanu recently visited the home of former residential student Abdulai Dakowa, who is now enrolled in the Family Care Program.  His mother Saffiatu is so grateful to be reunited with her son.  

Saffiatu enrolled in the CRC's first microfinance class, and started an African soap business with the small loan she received upon graduation from the class.  She joined the local "osusu" (lending group) and has been able to turn a profit and save money to support her little family.

Victor found that Abdulai is doing well at home with his mother, brother and sister.  He helps with cooking and some domestic work, and participates in morning devotions with his family.  His mother says that Abdulai is practicing his Christian life at home. 

"I wish to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to you for the valuable assistance your organization has rendered to me in the upbringing and education of my son Abdulai  at this very difficult time," Saffiatu told Victor.  "This offer to us has contributed so immensely to the future of Abdulai," she says with gratitude.

Mohamed Khadar and Ismael Vandy, members of Mercy Hospital's outreach team, were on a community mapping exercise to understand the needs in some of the villages reached by Mercy when they intervened to save the life of a woman who had just given birth to a stillborn baby.  

The woman had given birth in her village and was walking the four miles to Kassama to seek medical treatment at the Maternal Child Health Post (MCHP).  As she was walking, the woman began hemorrhaging and sought shelter in a hut by the side of the road.  When Mohamed and Ismael encountered her, she was lying in a pool of blood and quickly losing consciousness. Mohamed immediately began treatment to stop the uterine bleeding and sent for help, which certainly saved the woman's life.  

This story is far from typical for women giving birth in villages without MCHPs.  The Sierra Leone government mandates that each village should be within four miles of a MCHP where women can seek treatment for themselves and their babies; but four miles is nearly an impossible distance to walk for a woman who has just given birth, let alone a woman who has had a complicated birth.  

Thanks to Mohamed and Ismael's intervention, this woman survived.  Clearly, there is a desperate need for more MCHPs in the villages served by Mercy's outreach teams.